Insomniacs, the Phantoms of the Internet

theodp writes "Ever since she was a toddler, freelance writer Lily Burana has been a Stay Up Late kind of girl. When her kindergarten teacher asked students 'What time do you go to bed?,' young Lily felt compelled to lie rather than rat out her own mother by saying, 'Oh, between midnight and 1 a.m.' She still suffers from insomnia, but has discovered that Facebook is the Promised Land for the awake and alone. She finds comfort in the company of others who, like her, live counter to the conventional rhythm of a sunny-day world."

Comments

Not all night-owls are insomniacs

[nido]

But the difference is that I enjoy the quiet and alone time during night and hence would stay away from sites like Facebook.

I think the author of the fine article is an insomniac who would like to fall asleep but can't. This was the case for me, when I was a kid.

Sometimes I wonder if I became a night owl because of insomnia. I'm still a night-owl, even though I've figured out how to fall asleep quickly & easily, and I agree that this time of day can be a very productive period.

As a child, I tossed and turned in bed until I finally passed out. I was 5 when we moved from the house with the swimming pool, and I remember being an insomniac then.

When I was seventeen I learned that normal people are able to "relax" their bodies, while keeping their mind awake. This is something like when you sit awkwardly and pinch a nerve, so that a leg falls asleep. When you stand up again, you know your leg is supporting you, but you can't feel any of the normal sensations. Relaxation was said to be something like that (before the pins and needles start).

Thenceforth, I tried to relax every night in bed while trying to go to sleep. I was never successful because I usually passed out first. I didn't complain - 'tis better to pass out quickly than toss and turn for hours.

Sometimes people can't relax because their body doesn't have enough of the "relaxation mineral", Magnesium. Being magnesium deficient (61% of the population, according to the link) makes it difficult to relax, no matter what you do. Magnesium didn't help me fall asleep, but it was worth trying.

Sometimes people have trouble sleeping because the sympathetic nervous system (fight-or-flight response) is over stimulated. Many different conditions can trigger the fight-or-flight response, and for some people, this state of "red alert" becomes a habit.

I build a stress-relieving device that can potentially help balance the two aspects of the autonomic nervous system (fight-or-flight and rest-and-digest). This was mentioned in a comment to the recent slashdot story on Dr. Nakamats, who has his own way of balancing the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

I have a client who was an insomniac, and is definitely NOT a night owl. On a bad day, he passed out in his recliner around 7:30pm. He stumbled off to bed at 9pm, and woke every morning at 1am or 3am. He was tired, but incapable of going back to sleep.

He went to the doctor, who gave him a sleeping pill. The side effects were not acceptable for someone of his profession (doctor/surgeon). He went to a sleep specialist, who ordered a sleep study. The study showed that my client stopped breathing frequently, and he was diagnosed with sleep apnea. The CPAP machine helped a little, but did not provide a satisfactory sleep experience.

First I helped the client deal with some old emotional traumas. A few weeks later I supplied the Radial Appliance. He uses it every night - if he wakes up at 1am (sometimes the dog wakes him up), he'll move, re-attach the wires, and go right back to sleep.

I talked to his wife recently, and she said the most amazing thing happened last week: she woke up at 6:30am, and her husband (my client) was still asleep. It was the first time that she'd woken first in the 7+ years that they've shared a bed.

but as long as you don't need to go anywhere in the morning it doesn't really matter anymore.

Agreed - I ditched my 8am-5pm job recently, and am much happier sleeping on my own schedule.

Re:Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome is the right word

[hitmark]

i say its the corps that have put this into place, as they need us to be robots, not persons.