Who needs sleep? Tell me what's that for

[venta]

I mentioned in passing a couple of days ago that I had a very poor night's sleep one day last week. I was stopping at a friend's house, and I retired to bed in a sleeping bag on an air mattress.

It was a pretty comfy air mattress, and I settled down... and didn't go to sleep. I continued to not-go-to-sleep more or less until it was time to get up again.

This happens to me very occasionally, and usually only for a section of the night. I've never described it as insomnia; from what other people tell me, insomnia is unpleasant. I always think of it as asomnia - an absence of, or indifference to, sleep[*]. I don't toss and turn, I don't worry about things, I'm not unhappy about my lack of sleep. I'm warm, comfortable, relaxed and quite happy. I'm just... not asleep. I'd liken it more to the relaxing feeling of waking up at a weekend and knowing you don't have to get up yet.

The day after I was a little tired - and very ready for my bed by the time I got there at about 11pm - but otherwise fine. If I actually get very little sleep of a night, I feel absolutely rubbish the next day. When organising a rapper bash a year or two ago I was up doing things until half past four, slept badly, and got up at half six to help with breakfast. I spent the whole of the following day feeling very queasy, and very grumpy. I think I had to have a little lie-down mid-afternoon.

And so, I'm curious... does having been in bed, resting, mean I'm fit to tackle the next day? Or is it that, in between lying awake, I fitted in some decent chunks of sleep I didn't notice? Or even that when I believed I was awake, I was in fact asleep... Wikipedia has quite an interesting page on Sleep state misperception.

How do insomniacs feel about being awake in the night? I've always understood it to be an unpleasant state, but is that "just" because of the worry that you need to be asleep in order to tackle the next day?

I assume that if - say - someone was unable to sleep because of pain, that wouldn't be classed as insomnia. So do people who regularly fail to sleep "just" fail to sleep, or do they feel that there is something keeping them awake? I know some people talk about racing thoughts when trying to sleep, but I'm unsure whether they count that as a cause or an effect.

And, of course... does anyone else ever experience what I call asomnia?

[*] I tried to ask Wikipedia what the exact definition of the "a-" prefix was. It didn't go well.

Comments

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I can see how that would be pretty frustrating :(

If you are tired, but need to get something done/finished/whatever, are you good at staying awake (on purpose) to do so? I was essaying a theory a while ago that most people are either good at sleeping (fall asleep easily, stay asleep, poor at staying awake when required) or good at waking (can stay awake for long periods, and can snap into wakefulness quickly, but also end up awake when they wish to be asleep). Do you think there's any mileage in that?

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

That's certainly true for me, yes. And for my dad, who doesn't have insomnia (and takes a lot of afternoon naps!) but can be awake at any hour he wants to be and be just as alert on a few hours sleep as he can on 8+. My mum is a sleeping person who, if she has to stay awake at an unusual time (e.g. catching an early flight), will doze off frequently and needs to be woken again. If it's dark outside, Mum needs to be asleep. She used to leave work at 3pm in winter, before she retired.

smallclanger is currently a sleeping person - once asleep he can be "woken" for coherent conversations but he doesn't remember them at all, and he could and would fall asleep in the middle of dinner or activities when smaller. Most small children do the "sleep anywhere anytime" thing, of course, but at his age I was definitely an awake person so I suspect he's taking after my mum.

[shermarama]

I'm not sure I fit in your theory. I've been reading with interest but not commenting on the rest of this thread because it's vanishingly uncommon for me to have trouble sleeping; I lie down, I go to sleep, I wake up however many hours it is later. But if I need to stay awake to do something in the middle of the night, I can do that, although I may need to have to make sure I get enough sleep the next night.