Sleep, or lack thereof.

[Adora]

So, sleep and stuff. That thing that seems to be evading me currently.

Whenever I don't get enough sleep I'm like a 2 year old kid who needs a nice long naptime. I get ridiculously emotional, narky, I find it hard to make coherent sentences or interesting conversation, and the stupid thing is it's happening more and more often these days. Which is due to a number of factors that aren't going to change soon so I just have to put up with it.

Generally I'm a pretty light sleeper anyway, and I tend to prefer being a nightowl and sleeping in late than going to bed early and getting up early.

But no. I will not start chewing valerian root to solve all my nasty sleep problems. Me and "Natural Remedies" don't have a very good history and aren't about to anytime soon.

[livius drusus]

If you can't get a certain number of hours I don't think it matters what you chew. Are you not able to fall asleep early and/or get up later? Do you wake up in the middle of the night? Is it just a schedule thing or do you think it might be a physiological thing as well?

[Adora]

First things first- I'm not a morning person. I can sleep for 12 hours and still be shitty in the morning. Just a thing. So "getting up" isn't really an issue. If I *have* to get up at 5 am, I will, whether I get 10 or 2 hours sleep. Doesn't matter. I won't like it, and I'll be a shit for the rest of the day, but I just will. Same thing goes if I have to get up at 11:30 in the morning. There are exceptions to this occasionally, but morning person I aint.

Falling asleep is less of an issue these days as well. Though sometimes what I eat or if I'm stressed can effect it. It doesn't happen as often as it used to though, because I'm watching what I eat at night more, even if I'm not doing as well with lunch.

It's the whole "sleeping" thing that seems to be the problem. Like I said, I'm an incredibly light sleeper. Probably one of the reasons I remember 99% of my dreams. House noises, cats creeping around the house, dripping taps etc wake me up. I'm a natural burgler alarm. I toss around a lot as well. Probably something to do with not being able to shut down as easily as others or something.

Recently it's been really bad cases of waking up and not being able to get back to sleep. Usually I have a girls version of morning wood around 2-4 am (or sometimes 6, depending on what time I go to sleep) but usually I drop off again. This hasn't been happening lately. I'll wake up, visit the loo, go back to bed and toss and turn for the next hour and a half. A few weeks ago it was amazingly bad because my digestive system was doing something fucking weird and I was spewing and feeling nauseous when I woke up around that time. Could have just been hormones though.

Honestly, now I think about it, it's probably just a physiological thing. I'm not excercising as much as I used to, and eating very strangely as well during the day because I'm trying to fit eating around uni classes again, so my body is probably trying to send me a message. I need to start back on the excercise bike again, I think.

[Nil Desperandum]

Part of this problem with sleep is that people who do not sleep for around the same amount of time every night.

I wake up every night at least 10 times. AT LEAST. I average, now, around 15 times every night where I am conscious about what is going on. Not just a simple tossing and turning, but for about 15-20 seconds, I am aware of my surroundings. I sleep this way my entire life. The more stressed out I am, the more interrupted my sleep is.

All it takes is excitement or something to keep me from sleeping for the night.

I just get over it. Something that has helped me along, though, is that I have to wake up @ 6 am every day. Ok, 0625. But, I try to get into bed by 10, or around there, so that I can at least get 7 hours by finally falling asleep @ 11...

The key is to get a consistent amount of HOURS of sleep. Everyone knows their body, and I work good with 6-8 hours, but I try to get 8 every single night. The more sporadic my sleep schedule, the less aware and worthy I am of doing anything.

Not being a morning person, however, isn't something I've had to deal with, but if it were up to me, I would never see the sun in my entire life. Except for the morning when it comes up and I go to sleep, and the evening when it rises just after I've woken up.

Chris