About once a month I go all night without any sleep at all!
This happened last night. I’d had a busy day - been Christmas shopping, cooked an evening meal, stood ironing for an hour. I thought I’d really sleep well last night but it was the opposite.
After lying awake listening to soft music through the headphones, I’d had enough at 3.00am so I decided to get up.
It happens without any rhyme or reason, about once a month no sleep at all - not even half an hour!
being awake all through the night is a horrible lonely time.
I know I could sleep with sleep aids etc but is it wrong to want a natural sleep?
Hi @carol . My sleep is pretty erratic nowadays and decreasing in length. Haven’t had full nights of awakeness, but sometimes it gets to around 5am before I drop off. I tend to wake up at 8.45-9.30 with rare deviation.
Similar here Carol, I usually get no more than four hours sleep a night and quite often there are at least two nights without sleep a week.
I usually get up after a couple of hours, do some ironing if there is any, do a puzzle like Sudoku or a crossword, or I may read a book. After a couple of hours I go back to bed and just hope I can get an hour’s sleep.
Sleep can be very elusive it’s a fact. In between frequent trips to the loo (typical old man’s complaint ) I don’t usually manage more than four or five hours and yes, the nights seem very long and lonely, that’s perhaps why it’s never been a chore to me to get up at the crack of dawn and get the day underway…
I suffer from insomnia fairly frequently, but haven’t gone through an entire night without sleep, to be honest. When it happens, I wake up around 2am or 3…and I stay up for a few hours before falling back into a doze again. It feels normal to me now and I don’t feel tired from it.
I wouldn’t worry too much Carol, I think its better to listen to your body, rather than take medication - but obviously if its causing a problem and you are tired all the time, then yes, try and fix it. It sounds like your busy day might have had something to do with it…over-stimulation maybe?
Carol try keeping a diary over a few weeks and stating how much sleep you have had each night. You could also put notes about whether you were worried about anything & if it had been a busy , or quiet day.
I think we all get less sleep that we used to , and maybe we don’t need as much, but it could be caused by other things in your life & maybe the diary would help if you have to find what may be causing it so often.
I know you don’t want sleeping pills, and neither would I, but if it keeps happening for 2or 3 days there must be a cause or you body would just make you fall asleep.
I am a bit like Pixie, wake up around 2 or 3am but can usually get another couple of hours if I settle down and get comfortable.
Sometimes pain, that isn’t too strong can wake you, and If I have been awake the night before I find that 2 paracetamol before sleep help me sleep the second night quite well.
I feel for you Carol.
I also don’t sleep well. I usually get to sleep OK but then wake between 3 a. m to 5 a m needing the loo, then have trouble getting back to sleep, but do eventually, only to have weird dreams. I then wake around 7 another loo trip & go back to bed & then don’t wake until 9 or 10.
If I set my alarm like I did for this morning I’m awake when it goes off at 8. I probably only get 5 or 6 hours sleep a night, can’t count some of it because it isn’t proper sleep & I hate getting up.
It’s a vicious circle because if I got up earlier I’d hope to sleep better, but, it doesn’t always work that way & some times even if I have got up early & gone to bed at an earlier time, I haven’t been able to get straight to sleep & I haven’t actually slept better when I finally drop off.
@carol …sleep? What’s sleep?! I feel for you Carol, I really do, but I also know what you mean by there are times when it eludes you, coz I’m the same. At a guesstimate, the most I ‘enjoy’ now is between 3-4hrs in erratic naps nightly in between taking a leak due to ancient male plumbing and listening to World Service through my tiny earphones tuned into Radio 4, 01:00 hrs to 05:20hrs. Sometimes, I will doze off in front of the TV for up to 20mins at a time while Mrs LD watches summat dead boring, so over a week I’m not too exhausted.
I find World Service runs some interesting articles and it adds to my general education, so I can recommend it to you and something to hold your interest when sleep eludes you
I’m so grateful I don’t have sleep problems, I just lay down and go to sleep!
My granny used to say a good nights sleep was your reward for a good days work so perhaps I’m the worker here and you’re all slackers!
Sorry, only teasing, it must be horrible.
I did wonder though if your mind was overactive and your body not physically tired enough and that makes an imbalance. Perhaps taking a break from all the busy stuff and going for a good walk in the day might help wear you out but calm your head
When I had an operation last year I was a bit uncomfortable and couldn’t go out for a walk and I found it hard to relax and drift off and my son sent me the link to this song which is supposed to be the world’s most relaxing sound to fall asleep to
If something is on my mind and worrying me then I can’t sleep. I have a solution which works for me, I go onto the computer for half an hour and read messages on here or do the jigsaw puzzle. This takes my mind off what I was worrying about and then I go back to bed
same type of thing, I find is that when asleep I see people in colour in different situation and have a chat to them and often know them. When I wake up I have no idea who they are. how weird is that ?
Well @realspeed, I suspect that you probably have seen the people at some stage, even though they might have been a passing glimpse.
Am sure that there’ll be far more knowledgeable people on her who can explain about the purpose of dreams, developing schemata etc etc.
I was once told that we dream in black, white, grey etc since we only have a short retention span to recall colours. Must admit, I haven’t put this to the test lately. Any thoughts anyone?
I just wish I had half the problems you insomniacs have. My problem is exactly the opposite to those you all describe – too much sleep!
This I believe is due to working far too many decades on permanent night shifts. Now retired my ‘body clock’ or circadian rhythm will not return to how most of us are born – sleep at night and awake during the day.
It’s sort of OK providing I don’t try to get completely back to usual patterns of sleep. Turning in very late at 02.00 or 03.00 hrs works but then eight hours’ sleep means half the day has gone by the time I wake. Not easy when the rest of the population is, it seems, up and about earlier and earlier.
Not sure which is worse really, insomnia or hypersomnia?
Some checking out both of these conditions out revealed some interesting information, see links below. The first one relates to insomnia and the second to hypersomnia:
For those who prefer advice on this from UK sources the NHS has the following advice on recognised NHS links:
I too found it interesting, especially seeing as how complicated our minds are. Sleep really is a mystery to most of us, me included. Not surprising really when there are many chemicals being produced in our brains, all of which have some purpose, usually complicated. I read somewhere a while back that our waking habits are started by daylight entering our eyes and affecting part of our brain called the hypothalamus, that partly controls among other functions, wakefulness and sleeping. Amazing isn’t it!
@carol sometimes I can’t get to sleep because I keep thinking about things that I will do the next day. It’s right about not having enough daylight so perhaps that might help. But it’s not a problem for me, I’m always out either walking the boys or gardening. I find watching a gardening programme makes me fall asleep, but I try not to sleep during the day because it gives me a headache and I can’t get rid of it.
It might be because you get yourself over tired and then you can’t relax.
Try to relax your body starting with your head, do one part at a time when that part is relaxed go on to the next, I find that helps and think that your somewhere that you feel relaxed. I found imagining that I’m by a stream or floating on a stream.
I never sleep well I wish I could .
Probably getting too much blue light from my iPad .
If I can’t sleep I go into the spare room and watch Netflix or YouTube .
) I don’t usually manage more than four or five hours and yes, the nights seem very long and lonely, that’s perhaps why it’s never been a chore to me to get up at the crack of dawn and get the day underway… 
You are welcome Dextrous.
