Posted by
ryuzaki0
on from the because-ms.-right-pursues-me dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Slate has a story about the guy who registered tired.com in 1997 and put up on the home page "Are you tired? Tell us why." He's collected 32,000 emails from tired people, including an one from a Navy ship at sea that's too good to be fake."
Cause to rejoice
by
xxSOUL_EATERxx
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
If you ask me, this is cause to rejoice. As much for what this website is not as for what it is. This site is not some multimillion-dollar-making scheme, nor is it one person's springboard to "international fame". It is a simple site asking a simple question, and offering a simple, almost insignificant service. A tiny chance to vent, just for a moment. Yet 32,000 souls have bitched, ranted, whined, moaned, and otherwise unburdened themselves.
So what, one might ask. Why is this reason to make merry? Because of the connection. The site makes its plea, and people give what they have, leaving their hearts just a tiny bit lighter. People reaching out to each other across the void, to total strangers, in a trusting bond of shared service.
We live in dark times. Madmen think nothing of murdering thousands to advance their creeds, wars rage across the globe, slaughtering the children of nations from the richest to the poorest. Human greed and shortsightedness have afflicted the globe with pollution and plagues. Still, the shadows have not stifled all hope; there is light, creeping in around the edges of the dark, showing the way out: somewhere there is a mail server that has received 32,000 (and counting) emails. 32,000 instances of basic unselfish sharing. Power of the human spirit, my friends.
I have a sleep disorder
by
MichaelCrawford
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I sleep more than anyone else I know, and have done so all my life, even when I was very young. (My mother told me that when I was a newborn, still in the hospital, I didn't like to be awakened for my feedings.)
However, I often stay up all night, and have gone as long as five days without sleeping. The longest I've slept in one shot is 29 hours.
I have a hell of a time getting out of bed each day. It is endlessly frustrating to my wife, who would like me to share her much more regular hours. I always feel like I've been hit by a truck, when I wake up. My wife never used to understand why I would protest that I was tired, after waking up from fourteen hours of sleep.
I went to a sleep specialist, and had two sleep studies done, and was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. The continuous positive air pressure machine that the doctor prescribed helped, but did not solve the problem.
Apnea is often caused by being overweight, and at the time I weighed 250 lbs, but I managed to lose 50 lbs and I don't think I have the apnea anymore. I still sleep very irregularly though.
It's a primary reason I am self-employed as a consultant. I don't think I could hold a job anymore, where I had to show up at any particular time.
It's 7 am where I am, and I've been working since midnight, and feeling great, but after getting out of bed yesterday afternoon I felt like hell and just wanted to take a nap until I came alive late into the night.
I don't think I have a circadian rhythm, at least not like other people.
Re:I have a sleep disorder
by
Xiver
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I used to have obstructive sleep apnea. No matter how much sleep I had I still woke up tired. I was pretty overweight and sleeping next to me was like sleeping next to a chainsaw. In 2000 my oldest daughter was born and since I was already suffering from severe sleep apnea the first two weeks with her at home almost drove me over the edge. I was falling asleep at work, while driving, and even while talking a few times. I started to develop narcolepsy and even had a couple of hallucinations. When I finally went to the doctor and had a sleep study done they said that I was waking up 72 times an hour! I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. The doctor tried a few different pressures and types of breathing machines and determined that I would be best suited with a bypap(sp?) machine. The bypap is has a different pressure for inhalation than it does for exhalation.
At first the bypap(sp?) machine seemed like a huge pain in the butt. I had to wear that stupid mask at night and listen to the machine, but my snoring had stopped, which my wife assured me was reason enough to use the machine. For the first two weeks I really didn't feel any different I was tired all of the time and missing out on my young daughters early antics. Then one morning I woke up and realized that I wasn't tired anymore. It was unbelievable. I used the bypap machine for 6 months before the inside of my nose became so raw that sleeping with it became almost impossible. I often had nightmares that someone was going to take the bypap away and my life would go back to what it was before.
In the 6 months that I was on the bypap I lost 30 lbs and was enjoying life in a way I had not been able to since I was a teenager. Since sleeping with the bypap machine was beginning to become unbearable I decided to see a doctor about having some kind of surgery, so I would not have to sleep with a machine for the rest of my life. They scheduled me for surgery and a short time later I had widened sinus passages, no adenoids, no tonsils, and much less of a palette in the back of my throat. The two weeks after the surgery really sucked, I couldn't even drink water for 4 days. I was constantly coughing up blood and required an IV and home health to administer the much desired pain medication. After two weeks I was feeling much better and had lost another 20 pounds. It didn't take long to lose 10 more and become a bit more active. I've bounced around a bit since then, but I've never gained more than 20 pounds of the weight back and since I've started exercising it looks like I might drop another 10 - 15 pounds.
My life has never been better, I'm not tired, I don't fall asleep, and my wife doesn't have to elbow me at night as much anymore. If the cpap didn't help you sleep you should give it another shot. I say it will be at least two weeks before your body and mind recover from sleep depravation. I'm sure you also know the consequences of ignoring sleep apnea, which include increased risk of heart attack, increased risk of stroke, and narcolepsy.
I thought pretty much as you did that the sleep cycles that I had were just normal for me, but believe me you don't know what you are missing with a regular sleeping pattern. I was an all night gamer and worker. The only time I could stay awake was when I was really focused on something like programming or video games. Now I can still game all night and sleep late if my wife lets me...err I mean if I want too, but I also have the benefit of being able to live an alter, happy, and somewhat normal life.
-- 10: PRINT "Everything old is new again."
20: GOTO 10
Re:Agreed, insomnia is not a joke
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
I've suffered with insomnia for the longest time, and it's killing me. I've found that the only way I can get to sleep at a decent hour, if at all, is to tear myself apart with exercise. Last week, I couldn't sleep a wink, so I left the house at dawn and walked ten miles around this relatively tiny county, just so I could get some sleep. If I don't go to the gym, I don't sleep. It's an exercise program for the sleepless.
On my death march earlier this week, I was having mild hallucinations, the nature of which was such that I was hearing things, specifically, music. At one point, a plane flew overhead, and the sound sort of morphed into a saxophone; this could have been a genuine auditory coincidence, but then I started hearing piano chords, specifically, a diminished seventh if my ear training serves me correctly.
My affliction is unique in that I can't so easily cope with the sleeplessness with caffiene, because the diuretic effect of it triggers a long-standing mild case of enuresis, which first, makes it even more difficult to sleep, and second, is obviously extremely embarassing (hence the AC).
I, too, am bound to Tylenol PM, a drug that at least sates my affliction such that I can usually sleep within an hour of taking it, and then I have a half hour window in which I can sleep, because the effect passes all too quickly. If I don't capitalize on it quickly enough, I have to wait another hour.
Since this is summer, and I'm 16, I'm presented with an unusual opportunity to avoid sleeping altogether. I've taken to staying up 24 hours at a time to work on my pet project, a fully equipped arcade cabinet, faithful down even to the coin mech. It's a lovely way to pass the time, though I'm reluctant to saw anything at odd hours, because I wouldn't want to wake my parents, who suffer from their own sleep-related ailments; my mom is an extremely light sleeper, and my dad is jetlagged with such frequency that he often finds himself sleeping in the rear storage of his Tahoe in the airport parking lot.
It's a hard knocks' life.
Why was I tired ? Dead-end job.
by
agslashdot
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
The #1 reason why most of us are tired is the nature of work. Corporate IT is the most soul-sucking stultifying chore I've encountered in my entire life. I just couldn't bring myself to wake up until 9am, and then I would rush to work, a tiring commute, be tired all day & then go back to sleep, tired again. It was just so boringly repititive & mindnumbing. And its not one company or one set of colleagues - I've switched jobs several times & inevitably it ends up the same.
Finally I had the courage to save up some cash, quit IT for good, and "find myself". Introspection is so hard less than 1% of the planet indulges in it. It can reveal so many unpleasant truths about you. Like the fact that no matter how skilled I was, I was never going to fit in as a corporate whore anywhere.
When I finally took the plunge & did what I really wanted to do all along, there was no going back. Since then I've been so upbeat, so frighteningly happy, its scary. I've never worked so hard as in the past few months. It is both physically & mentally gruelling, but I never felt tired.
All you got to do is grow some balls, figure out what you really want to do, & then go do it. And yes, the nest egg is important.
Re:Agreed, insomnia is not a joke
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Is it posible your just a night person in a day-walkers world?
I have come to belive that there is a small portion of the population that is geneticly predisposed to be the "night watchman". Perhaps its not as much now as when your tribe didn't want to get eaten in their sleep.
Re:Agreed, insomnia is not a joke
by
zootread
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
" Most important though, is that I can't do ANYTHING that requires significant thought after dinner (or at least 2 hours before sleeping)."
What do you find to do for two hours a day which doesn't involve significant thought?
Masturbating. Seriously. Spend 1 to 2 solid hours masturbating before bed (go slow, put on a porno or something). Make sure you have nothing to do after you orgasm, brush your teeth beforehand or whatever you need to do. After you have a good orgasm, go straight to sleep. Quickies won't work as well, and also if you stay awake enough after the orgasm, you might not be able to fall asleep.
Of course, you can replace "masturbating" with actual sex with another person, but hey, this is Slashdot...
Slashdot Mirror
If you ask me, this is cause to rejoice. As much for what this website is not as for what it is. This site is not some multimillion-dollar-making scheme, nor is it one person's springboard to "international fame". It is a simple site asking a simple question, and offering a simple, almost insignificant service. A tiny chance to vent, just for a moment. Yet 32,000 souls have bitched, ranted, whined, moaned, and otherwise unburdened themselves.
So what, one might ask. Why is this reason to make merry? Because of the connection. The site makes its plea, and people give what they have, leaving their hearts just a tiny bit lighter. People reaching out to each other across the void, to total strangers, in a trusting bond of shared service.
We live in dark times. Madmen think nothing of murdering thousands to advance their creeds, wars rage across the globe, slaughtering the children of nations from the richest to the poorest. Human greed and shortsightedness have afflicted the globe with pollution and plagues. Still, the shadows have not stifled all hope; there is light, creeping in around the edges of the dark, showing the way out: somewhere there is a mail server that has received 32,000 (and counting) emails. 32,000 instances of basic unselfish sharing. Power of the human spirit, my friends.
However, I often stay up all night, and have gone as long as five days without sleeping. The longest I've slept in one shot is 29 hours.
I have a hell of a time getting out of bed each day. It is endlessly frustrating to my wife, who would like me to share her much more regular hours. I always feel like I've been hit by a truck, when I wake up. My wife never used to understand why I would protest that I was tired, after waking up from fourteen hours of sleep.
I went to a sleep specialist, and had two sleep studies done, and was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. The continuous positive air pressure machine that the doctor prescribed helped, but did not solve the problem.
Apnea is often caused by being overweight, and at the time I weighed 250 lbs, but I managed to lose 50 lbs and I don't think I have the apnea anymore. I still sleep very irregularly though.
It's a primary reason I am self-employed as a consultant. I don't think I could hold a job anymore, where I had to show up at any particular time.
It's 7 am where I am, and I've been working since midnight, and feeling great, but after getting out of bed yesterday afternoon I felt like hell and just wanted to take a nap until I came alive late into the night.
I don't think I have a circadian rhythm, at least not like other people.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
I've suffered with insomnia for the longest time, and it's killing me. I've found that the only way I can get to sleep at a decent hour, if at all, is to tear myself apart with exercise. Last week, I couldn't sleep a wink, so I left the house at dawn and walked ten miles around this relatively tiny county, just so I could get some sleep. If I don't go to the gym, I don't sleep. It's an exercise program for the sleepless.
On my death march earlier this week, I was having mild hallucinations, the nature of which was such that I was hearing things, specifically, music. At one point, a plane flew overhead, and the sound sort of morphed into a saxophone; this could have been a genuine auditory coincidence, but then I started hearing piano chords, specifically, a diminished seventh if my ear training serves me correctly.
My affliction is unique in that I can't so easily cope with the sleeplessness with caffiene, because the diuretic effect of it triggers a long-standing mild case of enuresis, which first, makes it even more difficult to sleep, and second, is obviously extremely embarassing (hence the AC).
I, too, am bound to Tylenol PM, a drug that at least sates my affliction such that I can usually sleep within an hour of taking it, and then I have a half hour window in which I can sleep, because the effect passes all too quickly. If I don't capitalize on it quickly enough, I have to wait another hour.
Since this is summer, and I'm 16, I'm presented with an unusual opportunity to avoid sleeping altogether. I've taken to staying up 24 hours at a time to work on my pet project, a fully equipped arcade cabinet, faithful down even to the coin mech. It's a lovely way to pass the time, though I'm reluctant to saw anything at odd hours, because I wouldn't want to wake my parents, who suffer from their own sleep-related ailments; my mom is an extremely light sleeper, and my dad is jetlagged with such frequency that he often finds himself sleeping in the rear storage of his Tahoe in the airport parking lot.
It's a hard knocks' life.
The #1 reason why most of us are tired is the nature of work. Corporate IT is the most soul-sucking stultifying chore I've encountered in my entire life. I just couldn't bring myself to wake up until 9am, and then I would rush to work, a tiring commute, be tired all day & then go back to sleep, tired again. It was just so boringly repititive & mindnumbing. And its not one company or one set of colleagues - I've switched jobs several times & inevitably it ends up the same.
Finally I had the courage to save up some cash, quit IT for good, and "find myself". Introspection is so hard less than 1% of the planet indulges in it. It can reveal so many unpleasant truths about you. Like the fact that no matter how skilled I was, I was never going to fit in as a corporate whore anywhere.
When I finally took the plunge & did what I really wanted to do all along, there was no going back. Since then I've been so upbeat, so frighteningly happy, its scary. I've never worked so hard as in the past few months. It is both physically & mentally gruelling, but I never felt tired.
All you got to do is grow some balls, figure out what you really want to do, & then go do it. And yes, the nest egg is important.
Is it posible your just a night person in a day-walkers world?
I have come to belive that there is a small portion of the population that is geneticly predisposed to be the "night watchman". Perhaps its not as much now as when your tribe didn't want to get eaten in their sleep.
That'd be:
Based on most frequent use?
My personal favourite of this ilk is Not Proud
" Most important though, is that I can't do ANYTHING that requires significant thought after dinner (or at least 2 hours before sleeping)."
What do you find to do for two hours a day which doesn't involve significant thought?
Masturbating. Seriously. Spend 1 to 2 solid hours masturbating before bed (go slow, put on a porno or something). Make sure you have nothing to do after you orgasm, brush your teeth beforehand or whatever you need to do. After you have a good orgasm, go straight to sleep. Quickies won't work as well, and also if you stay awake enough after the orgasm, you might not be able to fall asleep.
Of course, you can replace "masturbating" with actual sex with another person, but hey, this is Slashdot...
Zoot!