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The Stages of Insomnia

mcsweeneys.net

11–20 of 82 posts

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#11
post #6

I had a particularly bad bout of insomnia this year. I recall one night just lying in bed and analyzing my entire life in my head, all my actions and mistakes. Oddly the only other time I've managed to stay so fixated on that topic was during a moderately negative trip.

Not trying to sound rude in the slightest - but if that's the only tangle you've had with it... I'd consider yourself a bit lucky haha. 2-4 hours nightly for now half my life (young 20's) now. Caused by other somewhat severe med issues, may hopefully be getting under control soon...

jesus. how are you still alive?

I've been sleeping 4-5 hours since the pandemic started and I feel like I'm about to die

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#13
post #4

45 made me smile. I remember being in Tel Aviv and running out of Melatonin. I went to a pharmacy and asked for it. The guy, having quite an attitude replied to me, "This is not the US, you need a prescription for Melatonin". By the way, at that point I hadn't even visited the US yet and my english accent makes it clear that I'm not from the US. Anyway, I really enjoyed the post. I'm lucky to not have to struggle wit…

"strangle with insomnia"

made me laugh; must have been an autocorrect for "struggle"

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#15
post #6

I had a particularly bad bout of insomnia this year. I recall one night just lying in bed and analyzing my entire life in my head, all my actions and mistakes. Oddly the only other time I've managed to stay so fixated on that topic was during a moderately negative trip.

Not trying to sound rude in the slightest - but if that's the only tangle you've had with it... I'd consider yourself a bit lucky haha. 2-4 hours nightly for now half my life (young 20's) now. Caused by other somewhat severe med issues, may hopefully be getting under control soon...

I can sympathize. I am finally (late 40s) able to sleep several hours in a row after decades of not being able to sleep continuously for more than an hour or so. Ironically, I need to get up at 4:45am for my job but can't go to bed until 11pm. Ha ha. I get to sleep in a bit on weekends so can't complain. My issues were related to chronic illness. I hope you get some relief.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#16
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought about it but I'm very bad at expressing things linearly and find myself having to jump around erratically even in my head. I've had the same problem the few times I've considered writing tech related material.

That’s totally fine. Just write what you’re thinking.

Rubber duck your brain. Take a drive, turn on voice recording and pretend you’re expressing your problem to someone else.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#17
post #4

45 made me smile. I remember being in Tel Aviv and running out of Melatonin. I went to a pharmacy and asked for it. The guy, having quite an attitude replied to me, "This is not the US, you need a prescription for Melatonin". By the way, at that point I hadn't even visited the US yet and my english accent makes it clear that I'm not from the US. Anyway, I really enjoyed the post. I'm lucky to not have to struggle wit…

"strangle with insomnia" made me laugh; must have been an autocorrect for "struggle"

haha thanks for the correction! I wish the pharmacist could see it, he probably wouldn't make the comment about the US. It wasn't an autocorrect mistake.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#19
post #15
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not trying to sound rude in the slightest - but if that's the only tangle you've had with it... I'd consider yourself a bit lucky haha. 2-4 hours nightly for now half my life (young 20's) now. Caused by other somewhat severe med issues, may hopefully be getting under control soon...

I can sympathize. I am finally (late 40s) able to sleep several hours in a row after decades of not being able to sleep continuously for more than an hour or so. Ironically, I need to get up at 4:45am for my job but can't go to bed until 11pm. Ha ha. I get to sleep in a bit on weekends so can't complain. My issues were related to chronic illness. I hope you get some relief.

How does your body cope with such little sleep for so long? Ive been having some trouble sleeping since the pandemic started, but I can still sleep 4 to 5 hours a day, and I feel like I aged 5 years in 5 months.

Re: The Stages of Insomnia

#20
This is a fun list, but insomnia, and poor sleep quality are a serious problem.

I've been an insomniac all my life, and when I got an Oura, started to understand that even when I do sleep, I'm not getting good quality sleep. I'd done sleep tests a few times as a kid, so knew about my central apnea, but didn't know about the lack of REM I was getting.

That's why we're creating https://soundmind.co, it's a headband that monitors your sleep state, and uses different audio tones to adjust your sleep state.

Falling asleep is only part of the problem. If you're keen to find out more, check out the website, and sign-up to get on the waitlist.

I've just completed 4 nights of sleeping with passive auditory signals adjusting my sleep, and it's amazing the difference in the sleep charts. I'll be writing up a blog-post shortly.

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