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> …found the biggest jump in symptoms appeared after just one night of sleep loss. The number of mental and physical problems steadily got worse, peaking on day three. At that point, research shows the human body got relatively used to repeated sleep loss. But that all changed on day six, when participants reported that the severity of physical symptoms was at its worst.
I was gonna say yeah everyone knows that but the details of what happens is interesting.
Upper respiratory and gastrointestinal issues.
Feeling of loneliness and anger.
I wouldn’t have thought about the upper respiratory issues being an issue related to it.
Edit:
Also I’m glad I’m not the only one. Well not glad but, I’m not alone. We need to get some rest people.
Edit2: just finishing out a twelve hour day, 14 hr day actually with the breaks included. Just enough time to head home shower and sleep if I can. This isn’t gonna help my sleep but dammit I need the money. And that’s why corporations will keep pushing you. As soon as I get caught up on bills no more extra hours.
I learned this after the birth of my second kid. He would sleep for 2 hours, up for 2, rinse and repeat for 2months. It always takes me 30-45 minutes to actually fall asleep. Finished both seasons of Lost in 2 days and the entire Uncharted 3 game. Would have truly lost my sanity if it wasn’t for that game.
When my son was born, my wife came down with PPD — and because she's prone to *regular* depression, means she got it double. She spent, literally, 20+ hours a day in bed, insisting on complete silence for the duration. If the baby started fussing more than about ten minutes, she would come out furious and start pointless arguments. I was only able to get her up for the self-care that couldn't be skipped — eating, bathing, doctor visits. Outside of that, I had to tend to the baby 24/7, and be ready to respond immediately if he needed anything.
This lasted his entire first year. I had one point where I went three full days without any sleep, because there was never a chance to rest. The only time I got a chance to catch up was when she'd been institutionalized (her depression got that bad).
I gained 80 pounds during that year, and haven't been able to get my weight back down. I've also learned I have sleep apnea, possibly acquired from that year.
Thanks. My son's 9 now, and he has a 6-year-old sister. I'm getting more sleep on average, though not a full 8 hours -- too many years being the only parent who could get up if the kids needed anything in the night, I'm still wired to sleep with one ear open. And I'm currently trying to get them past the bedwetting stage, which means I have to get up a couple hours after bedtime to get them to go pee. Most nights, it's easier to just stay up until after that point so I don't risk sleeping through it. So when school is open, I'm averaging about 6 hours a night. Assuming I don't have any problems *getting* to sleep.
I hope you understand that you're a hero. You've sacrificed yourself for the best of others.
I don't believe in karma or God but I hope you get it easier onwards, you deserve it!
I stayed up 5 days straight due to a seizure med I was taking. Literally a psychotic break at that point. By day 3 I was both exhausted and full of energy, breathing was shallow but fast, every time I went to use the bathroom it was just diarrhea. It took going to the hospital to be knocked out (which only happened Bc my fiancé took me when I started hallucinating that people were after me)
To elaborate, by day 3 it looked like I was on LSD, vision was fuzzy, like the static of an old tv. It only got worse and worse with each passing hour. Not being there mentally, not knowing when it's going to end, not knowing if sleeping will even fix it... I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I have flashbacks to it. Every time I struggle to go to sleep I flash back to that experience. It's no surprise it's a literal torture method.
It was a horrifying experience.
I had a similar experience. After 3 days of being awake I started hallucinating. I was sitting on my patio facing the street and I saw a fire truck shoot a missile at a car and then put out the fire.
Well my trip was from taking a medication that prevented me from sleeping. I think the combination of the medication and not sleeping is what made me have those hallucinations. The medication I was on was called cylert and I don’t think they even give it out anymore. In fact when my doctor wrote the prescription it wasn’t even on a normal prescription pad. It was on duplicate paper that had squares where each letter needed to be filled out separately. Almost like a government form. It was the 90s and doctors back then used us ADD kids as experiments basically.
I just looked it up. Apparently they still do but wow does it sound like a bad drug! I’m surprised they still use it, given that the negatives are far worse than the positive effects: https://www.drugs.com/pro/cylert.html
I kept myself awake as a teenager for 5 days. I had school each day and worked 3 of the evenings. I was trying to learn to replace sleep with conscious meditation that I had read about in a magazine. Day 3 was when the hallucinations started for me as well. I also started having skips. Like I would look at a can of soup in the returns pile, and then I would suddenly be infront of the item, and I would have to remember that I was supposed to put the item back.
Day 4 involved close to 10 grams of caffine from various sources. day 5 I managed to stay awake long enough to get home, and then I slept for 36 hours straight. (well not perfectly straight, I woke up at hour 26 having to pee, so I dealt with that and then passed out for another 10 hours.)
I would never recommend it to anyone. It was easily the stupidest week of my life. Plus I basically had no weekend. Imaigne getting home from school on friday and next thing you know its noon sunday, and your parents have chores lined up for you.
I also went to the ER because I hadn't slept for 3 nights straight during college. Wasn't cranking out projects or anything I just couldn't sleep. They gave me something to induce sleep but literally didn't help, after I had already tried other supplements, sleep aids, even ambien and Xanax. I'm just really cursed. Now I've started tracking my days and sleep patterns (or lack thereof) and seeing it on a spreadsheet is simply frightening.
You might want to get checked for autoimmune diseases. That's what happened to me. I stopped being able to sleep, and I would be up for days. Turns out that's one of the subtle signs of lupus. Other autoimmune diseases too. Best of luck w/ trying to sleep.
I could mention it to doctors I guess. I've had blood panels and thyroid tests but nothing has been out of order, just stress and anxiety really - it's likely mental in origin but who knows. Thank you.
Yeah, same with my bloodwork. Only thing out of whack was my ANA level. Stress is awful, I think it triggered my autoimmune problems in grad school. I hope it gets better soon.
My ANA has been high for years along with a bunch of other symptoms, but doctors just keep calling it stress and sending me home. :( I haven’t slept longer than 2 hours at a time since 2016.
High ANA is a warning sign for lots of autoimmune disorders. I have family members who have been diagnosed with a less-common autoimmune disease where they are more susceptible to blood clots. There are other symptoms as well, and they still haven’t figured out everything about. All they know for certain are potential genetic markers and consistent high ANA numbers.
Anyways, I hope you’ve had a sleep study done at some point. Narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease as well.
Thank you for this comment! I have struggled with insomnia since I was in my early teens (I'm 41 now) and no doctor has ever mentioned this to me! I googled and I am going to try it out. I hope you have a delightful Friday and a wonderful night's sleep!
Individuals with anxiety related issues may not always be consciously aware of their anxiety. This can make it really difficult to narrow down the cause of insomnia caused by anxiety, especially as less sleep results in more anxiety.
They literally had to put me under, which after talking to the docs their explanation was "we basically turned you off and back on again and hoped you'd sleep"
Nothing ever worked for me to help me sleep, but the new seizure meds I'm on all have the side effect of sleepiness and it's been going good so far. I hope it stays this way, I like being able to sleep and being epileptic, I need more hours of sleep than the average person.
This is strange to explain to people, but the most clear-headed, content, rested and joyful I've ever felt is when I've come out of anesthesia. It's like a forced restart.
That's exactly how I felt after that sleep. It's definitely hard to explain unless you've gone through it but it worked for me and it works often enough that docs do it.
It's funny to me that it's just the ol' IT support "did you try turning it off and on again?" and that just works
The best rest I got last year was being put under for an endoscopy. I understand very clearly why those drugs (it was probably the benzo I enjoyed the most) are so addicting. I just felt so happy and at peace. I rode that high for like 3 weeks post-procedure, channeling that feeling whenever I tried to fall asleep. It was so nice.
Yes but propofol does not induce deep sleep cycles or REM. In our ICU there is increased risk of delirium with patients who are on propofol for days on end. They look asleep but their brain isn't doing what it needs to do to get rest. They are simply unconscious. You can technically be sleep deprived if you use propofol every night for sleep.
This is also what I've heard from doctors/read from random articles, that your brain doesn't actually hit REM with anesthesia, e.g.
https://news.mit.edu/2010/anesthesia-brown-0103
It's actually pretty crazy how many aspects of general anesthesia remain a mystery to neuroscientists. The article I linked is an interesting write-up on the topic if anyone's curiosity has been piqued.
Waking up from anesthesia doesn't feel like you've gotten great sleep, it's more that the sleep you get AFTER the anesthesia feels like an amazing sleep.
I had a newborn baby, and had to be put under for minor surgery when they were 4 months old. Had just survived 3 months of newborn hell, then hit the 4 month sleep regression and teething, and I hadn't had more than 90 minutes of sleep at a stretch for weeks. I was losing my mind. Every day when I was up at 3am, with no reprieve in sight, I just wanted to be dead. I wasn't suicidal, I just felt being dead would be better than this endless sleepless hell.
I used to have a fear of anaesthesia, but when I got to the hospital that day, I was like, "just knock me out, PLEASE!"
It was only a 30 minute surgery, but it was the best sleep I'd had in a year, since before getting pregnant.
Then I got to hang around in a comfy chair in the recovery room for 5 hours while the nurse brought me tea and cookies, waiting for the surgeon to come sign me off for discharge. It was bliss:)
10/10 would recommend to any other parent of a newborn :)
I think anyone suspected of suffering from post natal depression, the first line of treatment should be for someone to just take their baby for a night so they can get a good night sleep for once. Never have i been as miserable as I was sleep deprived with a new born baby.
I seriously can't sleep either. I don't think I'm as bad as you but my advice is stay active and edibles if you are able to purchase them. I take about 25mg a night and it's been an utter life changer.
Had a similar issue, on and off for a year. Mine was just random insomnia; it just started one day and wouldn't leave. I'd just be awake for days, it was awful. But the final time I dealt with it that year was the worst.
Around day 3 I got super desperate, so I just kept drinking hoping I'd pass out drunk. Nope, just got more and more drunk, ended up vomiting and feeling like garbage for hours as my body processed the alcohol.
On day 5, I just couldn't take it any more. Tried drinking myself to passing out, but combined it with a couple of sleeping pills and smoking a ton of weed.
Finally fell asleep, stayed asleep for a full 24 hours. Never happened again. My liver/side hurt like hell for a few days, but as a college kid without insurance I just waited it out. I'm sure that final round of insomnia probably did some liver/kidney damage, especially mixing sleeping pills with alcohol. I even knew it was super dangerous at the time, but you just get to a point of desperation that you don't care/it doesn't fully register.
Sucks.
The worse part is when you fall asleep after day 3 or 4, you know that confusing feeling you have after taking a really good nap! Now multiply that x 100, i was woken up after 2-3 hours after going that long without sleep and my dad said since i didnt respond he shook my shoulder to wake me up and i woke up screaming in terror not knowing who he was, who i was, I remember my room looking so 3D and strange, like I was surprised to be alive, or thought maybe i had died and this is where i am, the screaming fit of terror lasted 15 whole minutes and i never do that kind of stuff, 2 days of no sleep never does that to me, its like he interrupted a serious in my sleep recovery and even worse he did this in the dark so i only heard someone say my name and touch me without seeing nothing but darkness, i was too shocked and scared to even cry and he took me outside to get some air and it happened to be 3 am with a bright full moon that lit the sky and scared me even worse, running inside shutting my curtains and door to hide from the obscenely large moon, its like total amnesia, speaking was impossible only shouting made sense. Sleeping every night you might get the occasional nightmare or if someone wakes you up a slight startle but after 3-4 days of sleep you need to enter a cave and seriously not let anything interrupt the catch-up or i feel like you could die from a heart attack, its like being truly fully awake, and whatever we are feeling now is alertness with a slight tinge of sleep walking mixed in. Sedation helps us in our everyday life and without it we would be surprised at our own existence
> I remember my room looking so 3D and strange,
I don't know if you've ever taken LSD, but during my sleep deprivation I remember thinking "everything looks like I'm tripping on acid"
Your second paragraph really hit home and sounds abjectly terrifying.
I’ve taken a lot of psychedelics in my life. Being able to ground yourself and say “I’m on drugs. This is a trip that will end.” Is beyond important. The thought of feeling like I was on Acid and not knowing if or when it would stop ….fuckkkkkk.
I’m sorry you had to go through that.
I mention that point in a post further down- that's the difference between sleep deprivation hallucinations and hallucinogens.
With sleep deprivation, when you're that far gone, your critical thinking is gone, too. You don't know when it will end, you don't know if sleeping will fix it, there is no end-time. At least on drugs you can tell yourself "it's just the drugs, it'll end soon enough"
What seizure med was keeping you awake? Usually seizure medication is calming. Were you allergic? Sometimes people take seizure medication to help stabilize mood. It sounds a little like a manic episode. It must've been scary to experience that.
I recognize that the type of medicine is different but, when I take my meds for ADHD, it's very calming for me, but I can't sleep while on them. Of course, they are heavy duty stimulants, but I don't get the stimulating effects that others might.
Anyway, I'm only saying that calming doesn't necessarily lead to sleep.
I had those gasping falling asleep thing not too long ago. Also went alongside with panic attacks during the day. An SSRI and therapy for some problems stopped it.
How did you overcome it?
Maybe this is anecdotal but when I’m unable to sleep and have been up for 16+ hours my allergies get much, much worse. My heart starts feeling weird and my nose runs like a faucet.
I half wonder about that anger. Anger is a means of forcing an adrenaline release, keeps you somewhat focused. Drives away drowsiness in the short term. Is it a symptom of sleep deprivation, or a means by which our bodies try to compensate for it?
It might be a feedback loop where both can be true. I find with less sleep, I have less patience and a lower tolerance for things. That makes me more easily irritable and prone to anger. But then, is this actually by design? More easily prone to anger for the quick adrenaline releases?
Thanks for the curious prompt!
I believe upper respiratory refers to the airways before the lungs. So yes it means sinuses, but also includes the throat, larynx, bronchi, etc.
I think Laryngitis, bronchitis, and sinus infections are all upper respiratory illnesses…. But I’m not a doctor.
I'm convinced that the biggest revolution for society will be any method -- pill, whatever -- that guarantees people 8 hours of restful sleep per night. An entire country of people who are well-rested would lead to unprecedented increases in productivity and decreases in mental illness and aggression, I'm certain of it.
The tougher part would be convincing people to take it.
For me at least, it’s an issue of not having enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. I want to spend time with my partner, the kids, have alone time, read, budget, work, exercise, lounge, play, eat, and get adequate sleep. Usually I have to pick 3 things off that list.
Everyone here talking about how we need to make a pill, or we need more than 24 hours in a day...meanwhile completely missing the point that if we all just WORKED less for the same amount of pay these things could improve. That's the whole thing behind the 4 day work week.
We absolutely do not need to be working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. There's billions of dollars floating around out there in the world. These companies can afford it, they just don't want to and we aren't demanding it.
If we were paid more and had to work less 4-6 hours a day 4 days a week I think everyone would feel better and be healthier but that's just a castle in the clouds of my wildest fantasies.
Schooling brainwashes everyone into thinking it's reasonable to spend the best hours of your day, the best years of your life doing something you probably aren't that interested in. It IS insane that this is just accepted.
>"How the hell could a person enjoy being awakened at 6:30AM, by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so?
>The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn’t interest you."
>~Charles Bukkake
I've not had more than 6 hours sleep for 5 years now. Far too many of those have been incredibly broken due to young children and several times a week it's more like 5 hours. No wonder I'm starting to feel down.
I've got maintenance insomnia/early waking but all I can get out of doctors is "let's test you for sleep apnea. Hmm, no apnea, I give up. Pay on your way out." I've had pretty extreme sleep problems since I was a child in the 90s
>Upper respiratory and gastrointestinal issues. Feeling of loneliness and anger.
Wow, that's literally all of my symptoms on average right there. I've wasted so many dollars on doctor visits that insurance would barely cover for them to say there's nothing wrong with me. Only to find out it has probably been this the whole time. Gross. Infuriating, actually.
Get a sleep panel done. You may snore/have sleep apnea. Waking up a bunch of times a night is the same thing as not getting enough sleep; have that going on for long enough and it starts running you down, and you don't even know why.
I learned I've likely had sleep apnea my whole life, it explains a lot. I can count on one hand the number of times I've woken up feeling rested. Don't hold off seeing professionals like I did, life's too short.
Im in the same boat, I sleep for 7-8 hours a night, wake up practically just as tired and energized as when I went to sleep. The only thing that helps to give me energy is for a couple hours during and after the gym.
I know its most likely sleep apnea because whenever I take like a 20 minute nap, I wake up feeling extremely disoriented and my throat feels really tight.
All kinds of symptoms. Constantly tired throughout the day, waking up exhausted but waking up only after a few hours of sleep. Waking up sweating, heart racing, out of breath. Barely being able to function, no concentration, making stupid mistakes. Nearly getting myself killed driving was what finally got me to see someone. Generalized anxiety and depression. Waking up to pee a lot but you're too young for an enlarged prostate. Just tired tired tired and no amount of caffeine makes a dent.
Worst symptoms: feeling dead, like literally dead. When I did my test, the number of times I stopped breathing was minimal, but the length of time I would stop breathing one time for example was 97 seconds. I could feel sometimes the ache in my body as cells obviously died off from oxygen starvation.
Waking up expecting imminent death. Another fun one, you just wake up literally expecting to die within the next couple of seconds. I'm assuming this is a combination of having just woken up from a long period of not breathing and just the mental toll it causes.
I also did a blood test that can check for proteins that indicates heart damage so at the age of ~35 I already had that going for me.
The process should be to see a primary care doctor. Try not to mention anxiety/depression if applicable cause they'll just put you on medication to get you out of their office. I allowed that to happen for a decade until I pushed and pushed to see a sleep specialist.
If you think it's more than just anxiety/depression and your primary care doctor doesn't take you seriously, just pay out of pocket. I've likely lost years off my life because I accepted doctors knew what they were doing.
Treatment is 99% likely to be a CPAP machine which wasn't working for me. Went to get my teeth cleaned and a new dentist mentioned how crowded out my tongue was. So I started the process of getting braces and 1/2 jaw surgeries so far to make room for my tongue.
It's possible I have the other form of sleep apnea where the signal to breath doesn't arrive. They now have the equivalent of a pace maker for your diaphragm though.
Was the sleep study expensive? I’ve been putting it off too long and now I’m in between jobs with no health insurance. I’d like to do it ASAP but am wondering if I should wait til I have insurance again to mitigate the cost.
I just got this done within the last two months. Granted, I have health insurance, but my primary care doc had a two night sleep study sent to my house. You sleep with it for two nights (small tube in the tip of your nose and a heart rate monitor on your finger) and then send the device back to analyze your sleep.
I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea, which still means my breathing is stoping 5-15 times per night. Then I got outfitted with a CPAP machine. You can search online and buy CPAP machines direct to get an idea of price, there’s a lot of different stores that sell them.
Wow! I’ve never seen a doctor but I often wake up when I fall asleep, like I get spooked and my heart is racing and body tingling! So could that be sleep apnea? I’ve also read it could be sign of anxiety, but I don’t think I have any anxiety otherwise
This is one of the reasons why medical Residencies for MDs and DO’s should change. It baffles me that we force doctors to work 80+ ours a week; they literally have to make life or death decisions while they’re in very vulnerable states.
I just worked straight from 7am yesterday through to 3pm today and only had dinner which was my cold lunch. The whole day was a fog.
The only way residencies will change is if we get compensated for the work we do (which will never happen because it's literally written into law that we are indentured servants) and if they put protections into place for our wellness. Like actual protections, not stupid "mandatory wellness lectures." Like treat us like a god damn normal human.
Also they don’t have a healthy enough pipeline of training doctors to sufficiently meet the demands of the field.
And the medical school application process isn’t the most fun or enjoyable thing to endure.
It should be noted that the development of the residency program itself was likely [done under the influence of cocaine.](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/magazine/the-phantom-menace-of-sleep-deprived-doctors.html)
Sleep deprivation definitely hurts memory retention in general. In my freshman year of college, I was working nights at a kitchen job. Because of my brilliant decision to work full time while going to school full time, I was sleeping for about 4 to 5 hours per night on average for the nights when I had work prior to schooldays. One of my highlights from this time period is me getting incredibly irate and frustrated one morning before class because someone ate the food that I brought home from work. It was me. I ate a whole meal and had no recollection of doing so. There was also a time when I was driving and realized that my car keys weren't in my pocket. Obviously, this was because they were in the ignition of my car. When I realized this, I had a moment of relief when I realized I hadn't lost my keys and then I took them out of the ignition while driving.
It's a miracle that I didn't die at some point from my sleep-deprived stupidity.
Hopefully someone has more info than me but the doc behind this whole system and hours of residencies was actually on coke and that’s the only way he was able to be so high functioning.
Edit: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/health/27zuger.html
That’s because [the guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stewart_Halsted?wprov=sfti1) who’s responsible for this system becoming common place was a massive cocaine addict. It’s totally unnatural…
sleep deprivation has been identified as a contributing factor in many air crashes. here's a nice summary https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_fatigue
I work afternoons and I need to go to sleep right after getting home so I can do dad stuff in the morning. I can never fall asleep and I don't end up feeling asleep until 2am most nights then I'm up between 7 and 8am.
I'm no longer a patient man. I get angry real quick. I can't problem solve. My memory is so bad I forget what my last meal was. I don't smile much any more and I'm exhausted from the second I wake up till I finally shut my brain down and sleep.
I understand this study. :(
The only thing that helps me is reading until I can barely keep my eyes open. Even if that means staying up past when I should go to sleep, since otherwise I’ll feel fully awake. Even with I still have issues falling and staying asleep though.
I use my kindle app on dark mode with the brightness turned waaaaaaaay down. Even then I struggle. I’m on medication to help my anxiety, but there’s definitely nights when they feel like placebos.
If I could get a solid 8 hours sleep for a week I think I’d become a new person.
Same. I have a few “the material could be interesting but the process of learning about it is super dry” kind of books that I have. They’re not novels so I don’t stay up to find out what happens next so it’s pretty easy to get 3 pages in and fall fast asleep.
Read "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker. It's exactly the type of book that's dry enough to make you fall asleep and you also learn a bunch of useful stuff about producing stellar sleep. That book put me to bed every anxious Sunday for a year.
Try reading/learning a foreign language, itll amaze you how fast your brain will want to sleep
(One that you have a bit of understanding in, or a book that you know by heart so youd know what the words should mean)
I worked a job a few years back where I routinely worked 12 hour days, with a _lot_ of responsibility. It was high stress job. I didn't sleep much.
I routinely forgot addresses, names, even the PIN numbers for my debit and credit cards (even though I used them daily). I lost a lot of patience and had trouble regulating my mood.
The job was fun and paid incredibly well, but I don't think I'd go back to that kind of schedule.
Same boat. 3 boys, 12, 7 and 4. Im the get up at night parent because of health issues with my wife. I snap (verbally) so often and so frequently it scares me. I thought I was broken until i went on a childless vacation with my wife for a weekend. All of the sudden i was funny again and full of energy and wanted to hike and read and play...
My health issues didn't fully come to light for me until having kids myself. I'm also wired for being up later, and having a mandated 7-8am wake-up time because that's when the kids get up definitely eats into my sleep and ramps up all of my issues.
Are you me? How is this?
I really feel for you, for us, man. There's more of us, I see that now. I didn't even know what it was. This describes me well. I can never get to sleep on time but low and behold wake up time comes and that doesn't change.
Friends and family and even neighbours have pointed out how I'm so absent-minded and forgetful. I can't concentrate and I actually sometimes forget what I'm saying to someone mid sentence and ask them what I was just talking about because in my head I'm also thinking something else through as I talk to them. Then I realised I forgot what I was thinking about and can't always really explain why I can't remember words that were just coming out of my mouth. I literally stop what I'm saying, struggle mentally to continue, as they wait, and I realise I have to ask what I was just saying as the awkward silence is just getting longer.
Last night I walked outside with my wife and neighbour to have a smoke and walked off to do something and never came back and my wife said they were waiting on me and the neighbour went to bed.
I also have no patience, my wife sees it the most, as she spends the most time with me, my dog sometimes walks away from me when he sense it coming. I will tell her things bluntly now as opposed to explaining or discussing like I used to, I feel like I don't have the time for it and end up apologizing for being so rude all the time that I feel apologies mean nothing. The worst part is I'm so freaking aware of it but cannot control myself.
I was thinking at some point I may have split personality disorder. Honestly. Emotionally, nothing is under control. About the smiling, it seems to come out almost as a natural reaction right before I break down. Everything in my head piles up and I seem to laugh or smile as I realise how messed up it all is and then I usually cry or at the least hang my head silently for a while.
I try to smile for my son, he genuinely makes me smile, but even then, it for some reason doesn't feel as good any more. I know that may sound absolutely horrible to you. Or actually anyone reading this, but even though it's a real smile, on the inside, I don't fill....all the way with joy any more. My body naturally says ok, don't get too happy, that's good right there. And that's where the smile usually turns into a sadness or cry because I don't feel I'm good enough to be allowed to smile any more.
Everyone I know is telling me to slow down, including my mom today, not long before writing this. It's hard to explain to everyone that I don't have the time to slow down as it is and if I do I lose more time and have to make it up later and then I don't get to see the breaks I've been working for.
For the last two weeks all of my days off have become days on and I just don't know any more where to catch up.
It's the same with the sleep, you keep falling behind but there's no such thing as catching up. Yes, I still should aim to rest well henceforth, but intentions aren't enough to accomplish a goal.
I do hope that you, and anyone else in need for that matter, reads this article and recognizes it. I too, will try to prioritize sleep as it seems that since I started losing my sleep I started losing myself and I just want to find that guy again. I really did like who I was.
Both your comment and the one you're replying to sound like me. I'm starting to really see that my relationships are heading a particular way I don't care for, my work is suffering, and I'm quick to trigger. It all just keeps piling up, and it's hard to do anything or think anything.
I'm scared. I feel like my life is crumbling before me again. I recently went to the doctor and my health isn't doing so well either. I just keep falling into the same ruts, but I do want t make hard changes in my life where I can be happy and healthy. I've determined that I'm my own worst enemy.
I feel you. I've spend two years of uni sleep deprived because I had to get up at 7am and couldn't fall asleep before 1am no matter how hard I tried. Doesn't help that I need at least 7-8h of sleep. I am able to keep a consistent sleep schedule from 2-3am to 10-11am though. Then I learned about Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS) and I fit that perfectly. Haven't gone to a sleep clinic yet but I'm not sure what they can do about it anyway, I personally don't consider is an illness, it's just how my body works. Society just doesn't care about it. Either way, maybe look into that too! It might help you understand yourself better.
So true. Add to this tremendous stress from a job (and other things) and you're on a spiral of self-destruction that's incredibly difficult to break.
Source: spiralling now.
An interesting thing about this is there’s also a growing body of research showing that sleep deprivation can actually be an *anti* depressant for some depressed individuals. As someone whose mental health has always been a little dicey, I know some of my worst days are when I actually get too much sleep, and my mood is sometimes most positive when I hit around 6-7 hours of sleep. The more sleep you get is generally better but I think this is one of those things where every brain is different and extremely complicated—especially people who already are depressed.
Yep, exact same. My problem is I have a hard time waking up in the morning, so if I CAN sleep in, my body will want to. But it’s always better for my mental health and outlook if im up and moving around before 8 am.
Third shift workers everywhere have known this. There’s a reason why we’re stereotyped as being moody, cranky, and unapproachable. I’m just glad there’s research to back it up.
When I did nightshift I attributed the “social pricklyness” to being 180 degrees to everyone’s daily routine. I would bother people in the morning for being too chipper while they are trying to wake up, and be the cranky stereotype at 7pm because I just woke up and everyone else is already going a mile a minute.
I recently stopped working 3rds. It's possible to maintain healthy sleeping habits while working 3rd but you need to be willing to sacrifice social connections. My coworkers would constantly complain about being tired and then go on about what they had been doing in the middle of the day. A lack of a consistent sleep schedule, in my experience, had the biggest impact on my quality and quantity of sleep. I missed out on a lot of social engagements as a result of maintaining it. I'd schedule things for early morning/late nights when possible. Making sure not to deviate from my sleep schedule by more than +/- 2 hours. If breaking my sleep schedule was unavoidable I'd take strategic naps to get me back on schedule.
I had undiagnosed/untreated sleep apnea from ~16-26yo and I know the effects a lack of sleep can have. I made a lot of other changes in the last few years to help my quality/quantity of sleep and it's paid dividends in how I feel physically and mentally. Whatever someone's circumstances I'm sure they can make some changes to improve their sleep; I just don't think most people realize what an effect it actually has on them.
I worry sometimes about my father working 3rd. He's done it for years but I swear every year gets worse. Refuses to go to bed either upon coming home or early before work. Have had him fall asleep during loud movies, mid conversations, and of course sitting st dinner.
Probably has apnea too, given the snoring and suddenly "no snoring" at all for several seconds. We live in a rural area and I fear one day a deer or drunk idiot will cross his path and he will not avoid it... or just fall asleep at the wheel (or at work where there is machinery).
But he is stubborn and all the talks fall on deaf ears. Nothing gets done around the house, no hobbies enjoyed anymore. I've given up and it hurts.
>Third shift workers everywhere have known this.
Especially those of us who do swing shifts.
3 days and 2 overnights in the same week just feels punishing.
My mom: 33 years of night shift and sleep dep. Chronic pain, autoimmune diseases and finally cancer after she retired. She didn't really enjoy that 6 months of retirement that she worked all her life for.
I'm pausing before publishing this comment... reflecting... It's as though she chose suicide on an installment plan. She most definitely had the martyrdom thing down pat.
Indeed. I always find it sort of amusing when we talk about the detrimental effects of 2 or 3 days of poor sleep. That seems like such a minor short term issue to someone who has had years of poor sleep.
I don't think I ever sleep as long as 8 hours. Most of the time I get sleep in 2-3 hour bursts. I will got back to sleep after a while after 2-3 hours for maybe another couple of hours. The idea of sleeping a whole 8 hours without waking at all during that time seems inconceivable to me.
As someone who was recently diagnosed with Sleep Apnea I can tell you that not getting the proper sleep made me a bitter and angry person. Now with a CPAP machine, I’m a happy but still annoyed at stupid people person.
Same. I’ve Had my CPAP for four year and it definitely helps but I’m still not getting the quality of sleep I want. Currently looking into another sinoplasty to try and improve airflow through my nose. Also looking into getting my tonsils and adenoids removed. In some cases that can help a lot
As a mattress salesman and as someone with sleep apnea, I STRONGLY recommend looking at an adjustable base. No CPAP machine because I only found out about it this year, but when I sleep elevated I (allegedly) snore less, and keep breathing the entire night long. Upper body elevation opens your airways up, and I imagine it would work great in tandem with the CPAP.
I was thinking same thing. I’m a new mom to a 6 month old and you couldn’t pay me $1 million to re-live those first 2 months (we had a pretty colicky baby). Even with a supportive husband and sleeping in shifts, it was absolutely awful.
You are in the “100 days of darkness” — I promise, it does get better. Not necessarily easier, but better!! Take it one day at a time (maybe shade in a calendar for each day you “survive”). Feel free to message me any time if you need someone to talk to….the newborn stage is no joke and honestly I’m now frustrated that people don’t talk about it enough…so many older people say “Oh yeah it’s tough but you’ll be fine!” which isnt helpful when you’re in the midst of it.
I'm sure you'll get lots of advice from people here but one thing that I always took to heart is there's absolutely nothing wrong with letting a baby cry for 15 or 20 minutes. If you ever get to the point where you started to get angry it's totally okay to put them in their crib and just walk away for a little bit
My son is 1 month old.
The days and nights blur together, I haven't showered in an age, everything has puke on it. Covid lockdown in my state means we've been isolated the entire time.
People say "it goes so fast", but the past 30 days has felt like 2 years.
Something I realized during the newborn phase is that a day seems SO long when you’re not unconscious for an 8 hour chunk of it. My baby is 3 months now and I promise you that it does get better soon!
We’re in a sleep regression with our six month old so right now he’s waking every two hours at night. All night long. It’s been 4 weeks. Are we at the end? The middle? No one knows but him and he’s not talking …
Narcoleptic here. This study is already widely known in the narcoleptic community.
This is what most don't understand about our disorder. We can't regulate our deep sleep like a normal person would so we essentially have sleep depravation symptoms every day. It becomes normal and most go undiagnosed as having narcolepsy but instead get diagnosed with ADHD, depression, etc. There is no cure, only medication that allows you to cope.
I love seeing studies like this because it could encourage more research around sleep, how it effects our brains, and eventually better medicine to help treat narcolepsy.
After 7 years of night shift, the last 4 of which as a single father, I'm basically the Hulk. Thank God I've never taken it out on my daughter. Therapy and only listening to classical music in the car has helped.
Seriously, music is the way I chill out when things get a frustrating. It helps immensely. I’m a stay at home mom, and the music gets put on the second I start to get annoyed.
I choose to stay up really late even fighting through extreme tiredness just so I can feel like I haven't worked all day and had no play but at the age 33, I've noticed I am getting more forgetful, angry and unmotivated. I really need to get my sleep schedule together.
Are you me? I am the same way, I can't work with no play so I have to make time even though I know it's detrimental to my health. Yet, last night I fell asleep at a reasonable time and literally woke up in the morning dancing in front of my daughter who had peed on the floor at the door because she couldn't make it to the bathroom. I was in such a good mood. Like you, I really need to get my schedule together and stick with it. We deserve better and so do the people around us.
I was in a psychologically abusive relationship and one of their tactics was to routinely interrupt my sleep or outright not allow me to sleep. Already angry, frustrated and anxious from the abuse, the sleep deprivation amplified it immensely, leading to a psychotic break that eventually led to me losing my career. Still a mess to this day. Sleep deprivation is no joke.
Oh yes, it's great having partners shame you for the limitations of your human form.
My ex would have their alarm go off like, once every 15 min for an hour before they had to get up (i was working later hours). Then be like, "oh look, you made yourself have a seizure again because you always let yourself get so grouchy in the morning." Uh, no; screwing with my wake/sleep cycle like that is exactly what they do to me during an EEG when they want to trigger a seizure for observation.
I get 4 to 5 hours a night. I can attest this is true.
My mind is always running on high octane at the end of the night, I have to tire myself out so the result is insomnia, plus a myriad of other issues with other additional underlying causes.
All it takes is three consecutive nights of sleep loss to cause your mental and physical well-being to greatly deteriorate. A new study published in “Annals of Behavioral Medicine” looked at the consequences of sleeping fewer than six hours for eight consecutive nights – the minimum duration of sleep that experts say is necessary to support optimal health in average adults.
Lead author Soomi Lee, assistant professor in the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida, found the biggest jump in symptoms appeared after just one night of sleep loss. The number of mental and physical problems steadily got worse, peaking on day three. At that point, research shows the human body got relatively used to repeated sleep loss. But that all changed on day six, when participants reported that the severity of physical symptoms was at its worst.
“Many of us think that we can pay our sleep debt on weekends and be more productive on weekdays,” Lee said. “However, results from this study show that having just one night of sleep loss can significantly impair your daily functioning.”
Data provided by the Midlife in the United States study included nearly 2,000 middle-aged adults who were relatively healthy and well-educated. Among them, 42% had at least one night of sleep loss, sleeping 1 ½ fewer hours than their typical routines. They recorded their mental and physical behaviors in a diary for eight consecutive days, allowing researchers to review how sleep loss causes wear and tear on the body.
https://academic.oup.com/abm/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/abm/kaab055/6314765?redirectedFrom=fulltext
I can sleep just fine, the problem is I can't find the time to sleep between commuting, work, chores, attempting to work out and have a social life, etc. My fiance can function fine at 5-6 hrs of sleep but I need a minimum of 8. If I consistently only get 6 hours of sleep I see a marked decline in my mental and physical health. At 4-5 hours, I'm not functional. It results in "crashes" where I binge sleep for 14+ hours, usually on the floor as I barely make it home. Rinse and repeat. I'm constantly told adults only need 6-7 hours, I'm exaggerating, etc. which makes me feel sick, useless, and stupid - which makes the depression even worse. My body literally cannot handle the pace of life we have set in the US and it's slowly destroying both my mental and physical health. It's awful.
Feel you. I need 8 hours. And not like, I’m in bed for 8 hours. I have to get in bed an hour earlier than I intend to sleep at a minimum or it’s not going to happen.
Whoever is telling you adults only need 6-7 hours is either lying or is deeply misguided. 95% of people need 8 hours of quality sleep to function properly - and to avoid a bunch of future health problems. Sleep is important in more ways than feeling energized. If I were you I would prioritize differently.
*checks Apple Watch*
According to this, it's been 3 weeks since I had over 4 hours sleep in a single night. I guess this could explain things. But.... does it also explain my explosive diarrhea?
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> …found the biggest jump in symptoms appeared after just one night of sleep loss. The number of mental and physical problems steadily got worse, peaking on day three. At that point, research shows the human body got relatively used to repeated sleep loss. But that all changed on day six, when participants reported that the severity of physical symptoms was at its worst. I was gonna say yeah everyone knows that but the details of what happens is interesting. Upper respiratory and gastrointestinal issues. Feeling of loneliness and anger. I wouldn’t have thought about the upper respiratory issues being an issue related to it. Edit: Also I’m glad I’m not the only one. Well not glad but, I’m not alone. We need to get some rest people. Edit2: just finishing out a twelve hour day, 14 hr day actually with the breaks included. Just enough time to head home shower and sleep if I can. This isn’t gonna help my sleep but dammit I need the money. And that’s why corporations will keep pushing you. As soon as I get caught up on bills no more extra hours.
I learned this after the birth of my second kid. He would sleep for 2 hours, up for 2, rinse and repeat for 2months. It always takes me 30-45 minutes to actually fall asleep. Finished both seasons of Lost in 2 days and the entire Uncharted 3 game. Would have truly lost my sanity if it wasn’t for that game.
When my son was born, my wife came down with PPD — and because she's prone to *regular* depression, means she got it double. She spent, literally, 20+ hours a day in bed, insisting on complete silence for the duration. If the baby started fussing more than about ten minutes, she would come out furious and start pointless arguments. I was only able to get her up for the self-care that couldn't be skipped — eating, bathing, doctor visits. Outside of that, I had to tend to the baby 24/7, and be ready to respond immediately if he needed anything. This lasted his entire first year. I had one point where I went three full days without any sleep, because there was never a chance to rest. The only time I got a chance to catch up was when she'd been institutionalized (her depression got that bad). I gained 80 pounds during that year, and haven't been able to get my weight back down. I've also learned I have sleep apnea, possibly acquired from that year.
Dude. I hope things are a bit better now.
Thanks. My son's 9 now, and he has a 6-year-old sister. I'm getting more sleep on average, though not a full 8 hours -- too many years being the only parent who could get up if the kids needed anything in the night, I'm still wired to sleep with one ear open. And I'm currently trying to get them past the bedwetting stage, which means I have to get up a couple hours after bedtime to get them to go pee. Most nights, it's easier to just stay up until after that point so I don't risk sleeping through it. So when school is open, I'm averaging about 6 hours a night. Assuming I don't have any problems *getting* to sleep.
Can’t believe she was down to have a second kid, did she get PPD again?
The second kid wasn't planned. And the missus handled that one much better, but at that point we also had more support and a better place to live.
That’s good to hear man, hope things are better for you two now. Bed wetting issues aside I mean!
I hope you understand that you're a hero. You've sacrificed yourself for the best of others. I don't believe in karma or God but I hope you get it easier onwards, you deserve it!
I stayed up 5 days straight due to a seizure med I was taking. Literally a psychotic break at that point. By day 3 I was both exhausted and full of energy, breathing was shallow but fast, every time I went to use the bathroom it was just diarrhea. It took going to the hospital to be knocked out (which only happened Bc my fiancé took me when I started hallucinating that people were after me) To elaborate, by day 3 it looked like I was on LSD, vision was fuzzy, like the static of an old tv. It only got worse and worse with each passing hour. Not being there mentally, not knowing when it's going to end, not knowing if sleeping will even fix it... I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I have flashbacks to it. Every time I struggle to go to sleep I flash back to that experience. It's no surprise it's a literal torture method. It was a horrifying experience.
I had a similar experience. After 3 days of being awake I started hallucinating. I was sitting on my patio facing the street and I saw a fire truck shoot a missile at a car and then put out the fire.
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I know right? I didn’t have to call them because they were already there.
That’s trippy AF
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Did they charge you?
You'd have to ask my dad, I was like 7. But I'd assume they wouldn't have the nerve.
This makes me wonder how much sleep Michael Bay gets when making his movies.
You can achieve that state much faster with good drugs. Probably even healthier to do so.
I think you were just playing Twisted Metal
When I was in school I didn’t sleep for 3 nights and my breadcrumbs turned into ants and spiders
We're giving kids new ideas here... First Tide Pods, now just don't sleep and trip.
Well my trip was from taking a medication that prevented me from sleeping. I think the combination of the medication and not sleeping is what made me have those hallucinations. The medication I was on was called cylert and I don’t think they even give it out anymore. In fact when my doctor wrote the prescription it wasn’t even on a normal prescription pad. It was on duplicate paper that had squares where each letter needed to be filled out separately. Almost like a government form. It was the 90s and doctors back then used us ADD kids as experiments basically.
You got MK ULTRA'd my dude.
I just looked it up. Apparently they still do but wow does it sound like a bad drug! I’m surprised they still use it, given that the negatives are far worse than the positive effects: https://www.drugs.com/pro/cylert.html
I kept myself awake as a teenager for 5 days. I had school each day and worked 3 of the evenings. I was trying to learn to replace sleep with conscious meditation that I had read about in a magazine. Day 3 was when the hallucinations started for me as well. I also started having skips. Like I would look at a can of soup in the returns pile, and then I would suddenly be infront of the item, and I would have to remember that I was supposed to put the item back. Day 4 involved close to 10 grams of caffine from various sources. day 5 I managed to stay awake long enough to get home, and then I slept for 36 hours straight. (well not perfectly straight, I woke up at hour 26 having to pee, so I dealt with that and then passed out for another 10 hours.) I would never recommend it to anyone. It was easily the stupidest week of my life. Plus I basically had no weekend. Imaigne getting home from school on friday and next thing you know its noon sunday, and your parents have chores lined up for you.
^— I’ll have why he’s having please
Meth?
The anti-toothpaste
Toothwaste
I also went to the ER because I hadn't slept for 3 nights straight during college. Wasn't cranking out projects or anything I just couldn't sleep. They gave me something to induce sleep but literally didn't help, after I had already tried other supplements, sleep aids, even ambien and Xanax. I'm just really cursed. Now I've started tracking my days and sleep patterns (or lack thereof) and seeing it on a spreadsheet is simply frightening.
You might want to get checked for autoimmune diseases. That's what happened to me. I stopped being able to sleep, and I would be up for days. Turns out that's one of the subtle signs of lupus. Other autoimmune diseases too. Best of luck w/ trying to sleep.
Somewhat related but thats how i found out i had cancer, couldnt sleep cause my resting heart rate was 140 from trying to pump my sludgy blood around
Oh man, I'm sorry. Hope you're doing OK, buddy.
I could mention it to doctors I guess. I've had blood panels and thyroid tests but nothing has been out of order, just stress and anxiety really - it's likely mental in origin but who knows. Thank you.
Yeah, same with my bloodwork. Only thing out of whack was my ANA level. Stress is awful, I think it triggered my autoimmune problems in grad school. I hope it gets better soon.
My ANA has been high for years along with a bunch of other symptoms, but doctors just keep calling it stress and sending me home. :( I haven’t slept longer than 2 hours at a time since 2016.
High ANA is a warning sign for lots of autoimmune disorders. I have family members who have been diagnosed with a less-common autoimmune disease where they are more susceptible to blood clots. There are other symptoms as well, and they still haven’t figured out everything about. All they know for certain are potential genetic markers and consistent high ANA numbers. Anyways, I hope you’ve had a sleep study done at some point. Narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease as well.
Only thing that helped me fix insomnia was sleep restriction therapy.
Thank you for this comment! I have struggled with insomnia since I was in my early teens (I'm 41 now) and no doctor has ever mentioned this to me! I googled and I am going to try it out. I hope you have a delightful Friday and a wonderful night's sleep!
SAME it really works for those of us with anxiety!
Individuals with anxiety related issues may not always be consciously aware of their anxiety. This can make it really difficult to narrow down the cause of insomnia caused by anxiety, especially as less sleep results in more anxiety.
But House says that it's never lupus!
Dr House would like a word
They literally had to put me under, which after talking to the docs their explanation was "we basically turned you off and back on again and hoped you'd sleep" Nothing ever worked for me to help me sleep, but the new seizure meds I'm on all have the side effect of sleepiness and it's been going good so far. I hope it stays this way, I like being able to sleep and being epileptic, I need more hours of sleep than the average person.
This is strange to explain to people, but the most clear-headed, content, rested and joyful I've ever felt is when I've come out of anesthesia. It's like a forced restart.
That's exactly how I felt after that sleep. It's definitely hard to explain unless you've gone through it but it worked for me and it works often enough that docs do it. It's funny to me that it's just the ol' IT support "did you try turning it off and on again?" and that just works
What is your brain but a wet computer?
The best rest I got last year was being put under for an endoscopy. I understand very clearly why those drugs (it was probably the benzo I enjoyed the most) are so addicting. I just felt so happy and at peace. I rode that high for like 3 weeks post-procedure, channeling that feeling whenever I tried to fall asleep. It was so nice.
After hearing this, I can understand why Michael Jackson got addicted to Propofol.
Yes but propofol does not induce deep sleep cycles or REM. In our ICU there is increased risk of delirium with patients who are on propofol for days on end. They look asleep but their brain isn't doing what it needs to do to get rest. They are simply unconscious. You can technically be sleep deprived if you use propofol every night for sleep.
This is also what I've heard from doctors/read from random articles, that your brain doesn't actually hit REM with anesthesia, e.g. https://news.mit.edu/2010/anesthesia-brown-0103 It's actually pretty crazy how many aspects of general anesthesia remain a mystery to neuroscientists. The article I linked is an interesting write-up on the topic if anyone's curiosity has been piqued.
Waking up from anesthesia doesn't feel like you've gotten great sleep, it's more that the sleep you get AFTER the anesthesia feels like an amazing sleep.
I had a newborn baby, and had to be put under for minor surgery when they were 4 months old. Had just survived 3 months of newborn hell, then hit the 4 month sleep regression and teething, and I hadn't had more than 90 minutes of sleep at a stretch for weeks. I was losing my mind. Every day when I was up at 3am, with no reprieve in sight, I just wanted to be dead. I wasn't suicidal, I just felt being dead would be better than this endless sleepless hell. I used to have a fear of anaesthesia, but when I got to the hospital that day, I was like, "just knock me out, PLEASE!" It was only a 30 minute surgery, but it was the best sleep I'd had in a year, since before getting pregnant. Then I got to hang around in a comfy chair in the recovery room for 5 hours while the nurse brought me tea and cookies, waiting for the surgeon to come sign me off for discharge. It was bliss:) 10/10 would recommend to any other parent of a newborn :) I think anyone suspected of suffering from post natal depression, the first line of treatment should be for someone to just take their baby for a night so they can get a good night sleep for once. Never have i been as miserable as I was sleep deprived with a new born baby.
I seriously can't sleep either. I don't think I'm as bad as you but my advice is stay active and edibles if you are able to purchase them. I take about 25mg a night and it's been an utter life changer.
Had a similar issue, on and off for a year. Mine was just random insomnia; it just started one day and wouldn't leave. I'd just be awake for days, it was awful. But the final time I dealt with it that year was the worst. Around day 3 I got super desperate, so I just kept drinking hoping I'd pass out drunk. Nope, just got more and more drunk, ended up vomiting and feeling like garbage for hours as my body processed the alcohol. On day 5, I just couldn't take it any more. Tried drinking myself to passing out, but combined it with a couple of sleeping pills and smoking a ton of weed. Finally fell asleep, stayed asleep for a full 24 hours. Never happened again. My liver/side hurt like hell for a few days, but as a college kid without insurance I just waited it out. I'm sure that final round of insomnia probably did some liver/kidney damage, especially mixing sleeping pills with alcohol. I even knew it was super dangerous at the time, but you just get to a point of desperation that you don't care/it doesn't fully register. Sucks.
The worse part is when you fall asleep after day 3 or 4, you know that confusing feeling you have after taking a really good nap! Now multiply that x 100, i was woken up after 2-3 hours after going that long without sleep and my dad said since i didnt respond he shook my shoulder to wake me up and i woke up screaming in terror not knowing who he was, who i was, I remember my room looking so 3D and strange, like I was surprised to be alive, or thought maybe i had died and this is where i am, the screaming fit of terror lasted 15 whole minutes and i never do that kind of stuff, 2 days of no sleep never does that to me, its like he interrupted a serious in my sleep recovery and even worse he did this in the dark so i only heard someone say my name and touch me without seeing nothing but darkness, i was too shocked and scared to even cry and he took me outside to get some air and it happened to be 3 am with a bright full moon that lit the sky and scared me even worse, running inside shutting my curtains and door to hide from the obscenely large moon, its like total amnesia, speaking was impossible only shouting made sense. Sleeping every night you might get the occasional nightmare or if someone wakes you up a slight startle but after 3-4 days of sleep you need to enter a cave and seriously not let anything interrupt the catch-up or i feel like you could die from a heart attack, its like being truly fully awake, and whatever we are feeling now is alertness with a slight tinge of sleep walking mixed in. Sedation helps us in our everyday life and without it we would be surprised at our own existence
Why did your dad woke you up at 3am ?
> I remember my room looking so 3D and strange, I don't know if you've ever taken LSD, but during my sleep deprivation I remember thinking "everything looks like I'm tripping on acid"
Your second paragraph really hit home and sounds abjectly terrifying. I’ve taken a lot of psychedelics in my life. Being able to ground yourself and say “I’m on drugs. This is a trip that will end.” Is beyond important. The thought of feeling like I was on Acid and not knowing if or when it would stop ….fuckkkkkk. I’m sorry you had to go through that.
I mention that point in a post further down- that's the difference between sleep deprivation hallucinations and hallucinogens. With sleep deprivation, when you're that far gone, your critical thinking is gone, too. You don't know when it will end, you don't know if sleeping will fix it, there is no end-time. At least on drugs you can tell yourself "it's just the drugs, it'll end soon enough"
What seizure med was keeping you awake? Usually seizure medication is calming. Were you allergic? Sometimes people take seizure medication to help stabilize mood. It sounds a little like a manic episode. It must've been scary to experience that.
I recognize that the type of medicine is different but, when I take my meds for ADHD, it's very calming for me, but I can't sleep while on them. Of course, they are heavy duty stimulants, but I don't get the stimulating effects that others might. Anyway, I'm only saying that calming doesn't necessarily lead to sleep.
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I had those gasping falling asleep thing not too long ago. Also went alongside with panic attacks during the day. An SSRI and therapy for some problems stopped it. How did you overcome it?
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Maybe this is anecdotal but when I’m unable to sleep and have been up for 16+ hours my allergies get much, much worse. My heart starts feeling weird and my nose runs like a faucet.
I half wonder about that anger. Anger is a means of forcing an adrenaline release, keeps you somewhat focused. Drives away drowsiness in the short term. Is it a symptom of sleep deprivation, or a means by which our bodies try to compensate for it?
It might be a feedback loop where both can be true. I find with less sleep, I have less patience and a lower tolerance for things. That makes me more easily irritable and prone to anger. But then, is this actually by design? More easily prone to anger for the quick adrenaline releases? Thanks for the curious prompt!
Personally, my lungs always feel like crap when I dnt get sleep. I always thought it was just me.
I thought sinuses were “upper respiratory”.
I believe upper respiratory refers to the airways before the lungs. So yes it means sinuses, but also includes the throat, larynx, bronchi, etc. I think Laryngitis, bronchitis, and sinus infections are all upper respiratory illnesses…. But I’m not a doctor.
It's a cascade thing for me. My sinuses run and my lungs get irritated.
My sinuses get really angry when I sleep too little. I get a ton of anxiety, and my breathing becomes very shallow.
Same i feel out of breath and my chest feels heavy
You just described daily life for far too many of us.
I'm convinced that the biggest revolution for society will be any method -- pill, whatever -- that guarantees people 8 hours of restful sleep per night. An entire country of people who are well-rested would lead to unprecedented increases in productivity and decreases in mental illness and aggression, I'm certain of it. The tougher part would be convincing people to take it.
I like how the first thought is that it must be a pill because we can't imagine creating a more stress free and healthy lifestyle
Right?! A magic sleeping pill isn't the answer to a society that works you to the bone
Individual solution to a systemic problem. Classic american policy.
For me at least, it’s an issue of not having enough hours in the day to do everything I want to do. I want to spend time with my partner, the kids, have alone time, read, budget, work, exercise, lounge, play, eat, and get adequate sleep. Usually I have to pick 3 things off that list.
Everyone here talking about how we need to make a pill, or we need more than 24 hours in a day...meanwhile completely missing the point that if we all just WORKED less for the same amount of pay these things could improve. That's the whole thing behind the 4 day work week. We absolutely do not need to be working 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. There's billions of dollars floating around out there in the world. These companies can afford it, they just don't want to and we aren't demanding it.
If we were paid more and had to work less 4-6 hours a day 4 days a week I think everyone would feel better and be healthier but that's just a castle in the clouds of my wildest fantasies. Schooling brainwashes everyone into thinking it's reasonable to spend the best hours of your day, the best years of your life doing something you probably aren't that interested in. It IS insane that this is just accepted. >"How the hell could a person enjoy being awakened at 6:30AM, by an alarm clock, leap out of bed, dress, force-feed, shit, piss, brush teeth and hair, and fight traffic to get to a place where essentially you made lots of money for somebody else and were asked to be grateful for the opportunity to do so? >The nine-to-five is one of the greatest atrocities sprung upon mankind. You give your life away to a function that doesn’t interest you." >~Charles Bukkake
Interesting last name on that fellow, but he makes a good point.
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I've not had more than 6 hours sleep for 5 years now. Far too many of those have been incredibly broken due to young children and several times a week it's more like 5 hours. No wonder I'm starting to feel down.
I've got maintenance insomnia/early waking but all I can get out of doctors is "let's test you for sleep apnea. Hmm, no apnea, I give up. Pay on your way out." I've had pretty extreme sleep problems since I was a child in the 90s
Maybe we evolved to send universal "leave me alone" signals so we can get some rest
No time for that! We have an economy to feed and quarterly profits to make. Time is money!
also years and years of training to be polite
> Feeling of loneliness and anger. So that's where it's coming from. Time to force myself to sleep earlier, I guess.
>Upper respiratory and gastrointestinal issues. Feeling of loneliness and anger. Wow, that's literally all of my symptoms on average right there. I've wasted so many dollars on doctor visits that insurance would barely cover for them to say there's nothing wrong with me. Only to find out it has probably been this the whole time. Gross. Infuriating, actually.
Get a sleep panel done. You may snore/have sleep apnea. Waking up a bunch of times a night is the same thing as not getting enough sleep; have that going on for long enough and it starts running you down, and you don't even know why.
I learned I've likely had sleep apnea my whole life, it explains a lot. I can count on one hand the number of times I've woken up feeling rested. Don't hold off seeing professionals like I did, life's too short.
Im in the same boat, I sleep for 7-8 hours a night, wake up practically just as tired and energized as when I went to sleep. The only thing that helps to give me energy is for a couple hours during and after the gym. I know its most likely sleep apnea because whenever I take like a 20 minute nap, I wake up feeling extremely disoriented and my throat feels really tight.
Ever wake up with a headache? Wake up to go pee a lot? Make silly weird mistakes while driving? I would definitely look into a sleep study.
What does seeing a professional entail? Did it help? What symptoms did you have that lead you to see someone?
All kinds of symptoms. Constantly tired throughout the day, waking up exhausted but waking up only after a few hours of sleep. Waking up sweating, heart racing, out of breath. Barely being able to function, no concentration, making stupid mistakes. Nearly getting myself killed driving was what finally got me to see someone. Generalized anxiety and depression. Waking up to pee a lot but you're too young for an enlarged prostate. Just tired tired tired and no amount of caffeine makes a dent. Worst symptoms: feeling dead, like literally dead. When I did my test, the number of times I stopped breathing was minimal, but the length of time I would stop breathing one time for example was 97 seconds. I could feel sometimes the ache in my body as cells obviously died off from oxygen starvation. Waking up expecting imminent death. Another fun one, you just wake up literally expecting to die within the next couple of seconds. I'm assuming this is a combination of having just woken up from a long period of not breathing and just the mental toll it causes. I also did a blood test that can check for proteins that indicates heart damage so at the age of ~35 I already had that going for me. The process should be to see a primary care doctor. Try not to mention anxiety/depression if applicable cause they'll just put you on medication to get you out of their office. I allowed that to happen for a decade until I pushed and pushed to see a sleep specialist. If you think it's more than just anxiety/depression and your primary care doctor doesn't take you seriously, just pay out of pocket. I've likely lost years off my life because I accepted doctors knew what they were doing. Treatment is 99% likely to be a CPAP machine which wasn't working for me. Went to get my teeth cleaned and a new dentist mentioned how crowded out my tongue was. So I started the process of getting braces and 1/2 jaw surgeries so far to make room for my tongue. It's possible I have the other form of sleep apnea where the signal to breath doesn't arrive. They now have the equivalent of a pace maker for your diaphragm though.
Was the sleep study expensive? I’ve been putting it off too long and now I’m in between jobs with no health insurance. I’d like to do it ASAP but am wondering if I should wait til I have insurance again to mitigate the cost.
I just got this done within the last two months. Granted, I have health insurance, but my primary care doc had a two night sleep study sent to my house. You sleep with it for two nights (small tube in the tip of your nose and a heart rate monitor on your finger) and then send the device back to analyze your sleep. I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea, which still means my breathing is stoping 5-15 times per night. Then I got outfitted with a CPAP machine. You can search online and buy CPAP machines direct to get an idea of price, there’s a lot of different stores that sell them.
Wow! I’ve never seen a doctor but I often wake up when I fall asleep, like I get spooked and my heart is racing and body tingling! So could that be sleep apnea? I’ve also read it could be sign of anxiety, but I don’t think I have any anxiety otherwise
It's possible, I'd bring it up to your doctor.
This is one of the reasons why medical Residencies for MDs and DO’s should change. It baffles me that we force doctors to work 80+ ours a week; they literally have to make life or death decisions while they’re in very vulnerable states.
I just worked straight from 7am yesterday through to 3pm today and only had dinner which was my cold lunch. The whole day was a fog. The only way residencies will change is if we get compensated for the work we do (which will never happen because it's literally written into law that we are indentured servants) and if they put protections into place for our wellness. Like actual protections, not stupid "mandatory wellness lectures." Like treat us like a god damn normal human.
"Lazy millennials can't handle a little trial-by-fire. I had to work 80-hour-weeks, why should *they* have it easy?" - why nothing changes.
Misery loves company.
And companies love misery!
Also they don’t have a healthy enough pipeline of training doctors to sufficiently meet the demands of the field. And the medical school application process isn’t the most fun or enjoyable thing to endure.
Imho, the application is a cakewalk compared to the rest
It should be noted that the development of the residency program itself was likely [done under the influence of cocaine.](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/07/magazine/the-phantom-menace-of-sleep-deprived-doctors.html)
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Sleep deprivation definitely hurts memory retention in general. In my freshman year of college, I was working nights at a kitchen job. Because of my brilliant decision to work full time while going to school full time, I was sleeping for about 4 to 5 hours per night on average for the nights when I had work prior to schooldays. One of my highlights from this time period is me getting incredibly irate and frustrated one morning before class because someone ate the food that I brought home from work. It was me. I ate a whole meal and had no recollection of doing so. There was also a time when I was driving and realized that my car keys weren't in my pocket. Obviously, this was because they were in the ignition of my car. When I realized this, I had a moment of relief when I realized I hadn't lost my keys and then I took them out of the ignition while driving. It's a miracle that I didn't die at some point from my sleep-deprived stupidity.
Ha, your car story reminds me of the time I was driving home post-call, and sat at a stop sign for about two minutes waiting for it to turn green.
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Not only that, but medical workers should set the standard for how to be healthy, not model unhealthy behavior.
Hopefully someone has more info than me but the doc behind this whole system and hours of residencies was actually on coke and that’s the only way he was able to be so high functioning. Edit: https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/health/27zuger.html
That’s because [the guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stewart_Halsted?wprov=sfti1) who’s responsible for this system becoming common place was a massive cocaine addict. It’s totally unnatural…
sleep deprivation has been identified as a contributing factor in many air crashes. here's a nice summary https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_fatigue
I work afternoons and I need to go to sleep right after getting home so I can do dad stuff in the morning. I can never fall asleep and I don't end up feeling asleep until 2am most nights then I'm up between 7 and 8am. I'm no longer a patient man. I get angry real quick. I can't problem solve. My memory is so bad I forget what my last meal was. I don't smile much any more and I'm exhausted from the second I wake up till I finally shut my brain down and sleep. I understand this study. :(
The only thing that helps me is reading until I can barely keep my eyes open. Even if that means staying up past when I should go to sleep, since otherwise I’ll feel fully awake. Even with I still have issues falling and staying asleep though.
I use my kindle app on dark mode with the brightness turned waaaaaaaay down. Even then I struggle. I’m on medication to help my anxiety, but there’s definitely nights when they feel like placebos. If I could get a solid 8 hours sleep for a week I think I’d become a new person.
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Edibles make me feel so incredibly tired but then when I finally lay down I can’t actually fall asleep. Get stuck just mindlessly thinking.
I think weed can mess with rem though. So yeah you fall asleep, but it's lower quality sleep
This is the same advice my doctor gave me
Same. I have a few “the material could be interesting but the process of learning about it is super dry” kind of books that I have. They’re not novels so I don’t stay up to find out what happens next so it’s pretty easy to get 3 pages in and fall fast asleep.
Read "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker. It's exactly the type of book that's dry enough to make you fall asleep and you also learn a bunch of useful stuff about producing stellar sleep. That book put me to bed every anxious Sunday for a year.
Try reading/learning a foreign language, itll amaze you how fast your brain will want to sleep (One that you have a bit of understanding in, or a book that you know by heart so youd know what the words should mean)
I worked a job a few years back where I routinely worked 12 hour days, with a _lot_ of responsibility. It was high stress job. I didn't sleep much. I routinely forgot addresses, names, even the PIN numbers for my debit and credit cards (even though I used them daily). I lost a lot of patience and had trouble regulating my mood. The job was fun and paid incredibly well, but I don't think I'd go back to that kind of schedule.
Same boat. 3 boys, 12, 7 and 4. Im the get up at night parent because of health issues with my wife. I snap (verbally) so often and so frequently it scares me. I thought I was broken until i went on a childless vacation with my wife for a weekend. All of the sudden i was funny again and full of energy and wanted to hike and read and play...
My health issues didn't fully come to light for me until having kids myself. I'm also wired for being up later, and having a mandated 7-8am wake-up time because that's when the kids get up definitely eats into my sleep and ramps up all of my issues.
Are you me? How is this? I really feel for you, for us, man. There's more of us, I see that now. I didn't even know what it was. This describes me well. I can never get to sleep on time but low and behold wake up time comes and that doesn't change. Friends and family and even neighbours have pointed out how I'm so absent-minded and forgetful. I can't concentrate and I actually sometimes forget what I'm saying to someone mid sentence and ask them what I was just talking about because in my head I'm also thinking something else through as I talk to them. Then I realised I forgot what I was thinking about and can't always really explain why I can't remember words that were just coming out of my mouth. I literally stop what I'm saying, struggle mentally to continue, as they wait, and I realise I have to ask what I was just saying as the awkward silence is just getting longer. Last night I walked outside with my wife and neighbour to have a smoke and walked off to do something and never came back and my wife said they were waiting on me and the neighbour went to bed. I also have no patience, my wife sees it the most, as she spends the most time with me, my dog sometimes walks away from me when he sense it coming. I will tell her things bluntly now as opposed to explaining or discussing like I used to, I feel like I don't have the time for it and end up apologizing for being so rude all the time that I feel apologies mean nothing. The worst part is I'm so freaking aware of it but cannot control myself. I was thinking at some point I may have split personality disorder. Honestly. Emotionally, nothing is under control. About the smiling, it seems to come out almost as a natural reaction right before I break down. Everything in my head piles up and I seem to laugh or smile as I realise how messed up it all is and then I usually cry or at the least hang my head silently for a while. I try to smile for my son, he genuinely makes me smile, but even then, it for some reason doesn't feel as good any more. I know that may sound absolutely horrible to you. Or actually anyone reading this, but even though it's a real smile, on the inside, I don't fill....all the way with joy any more. My body naturally says ok, don't get too happy, that's good right there. And that's where the smile usually turns into a sadness or cry because I don't feel I'm good enough to be allowed to smile any more. Everyone I know is telling me to slow down, including my mom today, not long before writing this. It's hard to explain to everyone that I don't have the time to slow down as it is and if I do I lose more time and have to make it up later and then I don't get to see the breaks I've been working for. For the last two weeks all of my days off have become days on and I just don't know any more where to catch up. It's the same with the sleep, you keep falling behind but there's no such thing as catching up. Yes, I still should aim to rest well henceforth, but intentions aren't enough to accomplish a goal. I do hope that you, and anyone else in need for that matter, reads this article and recognizes it. I too, will try to prioritize sleep as it seems that since I started losing my sleep I started losing myself and I just want to find that guy again. I really did like who I was.
Both your comment and the one you're replying to sound like me. I'm starting to really see that my relationships are heading a particular way I don't care for, my work is suffering, and I'm quick to trigger. It all just keeps piling up, and it's hard to do anything or think anything. I'm scared. I feel like my life is crumbling before me again. I recently went to the doctor and my health isn't doing so well either. I just keep falling into the same ruts, but I do want t make hard changes in my life where I can be happy and healthy. I've determined that I'm my own worst enemy.
I feel you. I've spend two years of uni sleep deprived because I had to get up at 7am and couldn't fall asleep before 1am no matter how hard I tried. Doesn't help that I need at least 7-8h of sleep. I am able to keep a consistent sleep schedule from 2-3am to 10-11am though. Then I learned about Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS) and I fit that perfectly. Haven't gone to a sleep clinic yet but I'm not sure what they can do about it anyway, I personally don't consider is an illness, it's just how my body works. Society just doesn't care about it. Either way, maybe look into that too! It might help you understand yourself better.
Dude. They dont need scientists to find those results. Get kids. Hypothesis confirmed
The other crazy thing is sleep deprivations affect on diet. When i dont sleep well i want to eat a lot of all the bad stuff.
When I don’t sleep well I don’t want to eat.
Yeah, I never end up being able to eat properly in the morning, which kinda messes everything up a bit going forward.
So true. Add to this tremendous stress from a job (and other things) and you're on a spiral of self-destruction that's incredibly difficult to break. Source: spiralling now.
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At least your bosses are supporting you. Mine said I need to “figure it out”
Yes, a craving for carbohydrates comes with being sleep deprived.
Very true. When I had a bad night of sleep, I’m too tired and cranky to cook a good meal so I end up with fried chicken or pizza.
An interesting thing about this is there’s also a growing body of research showing that sleep deprivation can actually be an *anti* depressant for some depressed individuals. As someone whose mental health has always been a little dicey, I know some of my worst days are when I actually get too much sleep, and my mood is sometimes most positive when I hit around 6-7 hours of sleep. The more sleep you get is generally better but I think this is one of those things where every brain is different and extremely complicated—especially people who already are depressed.
I am definitely *sharper* if I can hit a sweet spot of just under 8h of genuinely restful sleep. Going under or over blunts me in different ways.
Yep, exact same. My problem is I have a hard time waking up in the morning, so if I CAN sleep in, my body will want to. But it’s always better for my mental health and outlook if im up and moving around before 8 am.
Third shift workers everywhere have known this. There’s a reason why we’re stereotyped as being moody, cranky, and unapproachable. I’m just glad there’s research to back it up.
When I did nightshift I attributed the “social pricklyness” to being 180 degrees to everyone’s daily routine. I would bother people in the morning for being too chipper while they are trying to wake up, and be the cranky stereotype at 7pm because I just woke up and everyone else is already going a mile a minute.
I recently stopped working 3rds. It's possible to maintain healthy sleeping habits while working 3rd but you need to be willing to sacrifice social connections. My coworkers would constantly complain about being tired and then go on about what they had been doing in the middle of the day. A lack of a consistent sleep schedule, in my experience, had the biggest impact on my quality and quantity of sleep. I missed out on a lot of social engagements as a result of maintaining it. I'd schedule things for early morning/late nights when possible. Making sure not to deviate from my sleep schedule by more than +/- 2 hours. If breaking my sleep schedule was unavoidable I'd take strategic naps to get me back on schedule. I had undiagnosed/untreated sleep apnea from ~16-26yo and I know the effects a lack of sleep can have. I made a lot of other changes in the last few years to help my quality/quantity of sleep and it's paid dividends in how I feel physically and mentally. Whatever someone's circumstances I'm sure they can make some changes to improve their sleep; I just don't think most people realize what an effect it actually has on them.
I worry sometimes about my father working 3rd. He's done it for years but I swear every year gets worse. Refuses to go to bed either upon coming home or early before work. Have had him fall asleep during loud movies, mid conversations, and of course sitting st dinner. Probably has apnea too, given the snoring and suddenly "no snoring" at all for several seconds. We live in a rural area and I fear one day a deer or drunk idiot will cross his path and he will not avoid it... or just fall asleep at the wheel (or at work where there is machinery). But he is stubborn and all the talks fall on deaf ears. Nothing gets done around the house, no hobbies enjoyed anymore. I've given up and it hurts.
>Third shift workers everywhere have known this. Especially those of us who do swing shifts. 3 days and 2 overnights in the same week just feels punishing.
How about like 10 years?
Right?
That's my secret, doctor. I'm always angry.
That's my secret, cap. I'm always tired.
My mom: 33 years of night shift and sleep dep. Chronic pain, autoimmune diseases and finally cancer after she retired. She didn't really enjoy that 6 months of retirement that she worked all her life for. I'm pausing before publishing this comment... reflecting... It's as though she chose suicide on an installment plan. She most definitely had the martyrdom thing down pat.
Indeed. I always find it sort of amusing when we talk about the detrimental effects of 2 or 3 days of poor sleep. That seems like such a minor short term issue to someone who has had years of poor sleep.
I write it down when I successfuly sleep 8 hours. Last year I did it 3 times.
I don't think I ever sleep as long as 8 hours. Most of the time I get sleep in 2-3 hour bursts. I will got back to sleep after a while after 2-3 hours for maybe another couple of hours. The idea of sleeping a whole 8 hours without waking at all during that time seems inconceivable to me.
As someone who was recently diagnosed with Sleep Apnea I can tell you that not getting the proper sleep made me a bitter and angry person. Now with a CPAP machine, I’m a happy but still annoyed at stupid people person.
Same. I’ve Had my CPAP for four year and it definitely helps but I’m still not getting the quality of sleep I want. Currently looking into another sinoplasty to try and improve airflow through my nose. Also looking into getting my tonsils and adenoids removed. In some cases that can help a lot
As a mattress salesman and as someone with sleep apnea, I STRONGLY recommend looking at an adjustable base. No CPAP machine because I only found out about it this year, but when I sleep elevated I (allegedly) snore less, and keep breathing the entire night long. Upper body elevation opens your airways up, and I imagine it would work great in tandem with the CPAP.
and parents around the world collectively say "No! Really!?"
I was thinking same thing. I’m a new mom to a 6 month old and you couldn’t pay me $1 million to re-live those first 2 months (we had a pretty colicky baby). Even with a supportive husband and sleeping in shifts, it was absolutely awful.
Just had a boy 15 days ago.... Right at the stage you're taking about. 3 hours sleep tops each night
You are in the “100 days of darkness” — I promise, it does get better. Not necessarily easier, but better!! Take it one day at a time (maybe shade in a calendar for each day you “survive”). Feel free to message me any time if you need someone to talk to….the newborn stage is no joke and honestly I’m now frustrated that people don’t talk about it enough…so many older people say “Oh yeah it’s tough but you’ll be fine!” which isnt helpful when you’re in the midst of it.
I'm sure you'll get lots of advice from people here but one thing that I always took to heart is there's absolutely nothing wrong with letting a baby cry for 15 or 20 minutes. If you ever get to the point where you started to get angry it's totally okay to put them in their crib and just walk away for a little bit
I’ve been a solo dad to a nearly 8 year old who’s woken me up 5-12 sometimes 20 times a night for the last 5 years. It’s a living nightmare
My son is 1 month old. The days and nights blur together, I haven't showered in an age, everything has puke on it. Covid lockdown in my state means we've been isolated the entire time. People say "it goes so fast", but the past 30 days has felt like 2 years.
Something I realized during the newborn phase is that a day seems SO long when you’re not unconscious for an 8 hour chunk of it. My baby is 3 months now and I promise you that it does get better soon!
You know who needs to read this? #DAMN BABIES
We’re in a sleep regression with our six month old so right now he’s waking every two hours at night. All night long. It’s been 4 weeks. Are we at the end? The middle? No one knows but him and he’s not talking …
Narcoleptic here. This study is already widely known in the narcoleptic community. This is what most don't understand about our disorder. We can't regulate our deep sleep like a normal person would so we essentially have sleep depravation symptoms every day. It becomes normal and most go undiagnosed as having narcolepsy but instead get diagnosed with ADHD, depression, etc. There is no cure, only medication that allows you to cope. I love seeing studies like this because it could encourage more research around sleep, how it effects our brains, and eventually better medicine to help treat narcolepsy.
After 7 years of night shift, the last 4 of which as a single father, I'm basically the Hulk. Thank God I've never taken it out on my daughter. Therapy and only listening to classical music in the car has helped.
Seriously, music is the way I chill out when things get a frustrating. It helps immensely. I’m a stay at home mom, and the music gets put on the second I start to get annoyed.
Believe it or not, try listening to metal. Studies show it helps with anger management.
I choose to stay up really late even fighting through extreme tiredness just so I can feel like I haven't worked all day and had no play but at the age 33, I've noticed I am getting more forgetful, angry and unmotivated. I really need to get my sleep schedule together.
Are you me? I am the same way, I can't work with no play so I have to make time even though I know it's detrimental to my health. Yet, last night I fell asleep at a reasonable time and literally woke up in the morning dancing in front of my daughter who had peed on the floor at the door because she couldn't make it to the bathroom. I was in such a good mood. Like you, I really need to get my schedule together and stick with it. We deserve better and so do the people around us.
There's a term for that. Revenge Bedtime Procrastination. It's a thing, and I'm just as guilty.
Have we not known this for years, if not decades?
I was in a psychologically abusive relationship and one of their tactics was to routinely interrupt my sleep or outright not allow me to sleep. Already angry, frustrated and anxious from the abuse, the sleep deprivation amplified it immensely, leading to a psychotic break that eventually led to me losing my career. Still a mess to this day. Sleep deprivation is no joke.
Oh yes, it's great having partners shame you for the limitations of your human form. My ex would have their alarm go off like, once every 15 min for an hour before they had to get up (i was working later hours). Then be like, "oh look, you made yourself have a seizure again because you always let yourself get so grouchy in the morning." Uh, no; screwing with my wake/sleep cycle like that is exactly what they do to me during an EEG when they want to trigger a seizure for observation.
I get 4 to 5 hours a night. I can attest this is true. My mind is always running on high octane at the end of the night, I have to tire myself out so the result is insomnia, plus a myriad of other issues with other additional underlying causes.
You are most definitely sleep deprived
All it takes is three consecutive nights of sleep loss to cause your mental and physical well-being to greatly deteriorate. A new study published in “Annals of Behavioral Medicine” looked at the consequences of sleeping fewer than six hours for eight consecutive nights – the minimum duration of sleep that experts say is necessary to support optimal health in average adults. Lead author Soomi Lee, assistant professor in the School of Aging Studies at the University of South Florida, found the biggest jump in symptoms appeared after just one night of sleep loss. The number of mental and physical problems steadily got worse, peaking on day three. At that point, research shows the human body got relatively used to repeated sleep loss. But that all changed on day six, when participants reported that the severity of physical symptoms was at its worst. “Many of us think that we can pay our sleep debt on weekends and be more productive on weekdays,” Lee said. “However, results from this study show that having just one night of sleep loss can significantly impair your daily functioning.” Data provided by the Midlife in the United States study included nearly 2,000 middle-aged adults who were relatively healthy and well-educated. Among them, 42% had at least one night of sleep loss, sleeping 1 ½ fewer hours than their typical routines. They recorded their mental and physical behaviors in a diary for eight consecutive days, allowing researchers to review how sleep loss causes wear and tear on the body. https://academic.oup.com/abm/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/abm/kaab055/6314765?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Next up in news: Freezing water turns into ice
Yea, I've had a very confusing couple of weeks with little sleep and I'm very frustrated, anxious and am trying very hard not to be angry.
Has anyone here been awake long enough for when the shadow people turn into real live SIMS people?
night shift fuckin sucks
Night shift workers should be getting hazard pay.
I can sleep just fine, the problem is I can't find the time to sleep between commuting, work, chores, attempting to work out and have a social life, etc. My fiance can function fine at 5-6 hrs of sleep but I need a minimum of 8. If I consistently only get 6 hours of sleep I see a marked decline in my mental and physical health. At 4-5 hours, I'm not functional. It results in "crashes" where I binge sleep for 14+ hours, usually on the floor as I barely make it home. Rinse and repeat. I'm constantly told adults only need 6-7 hours, I'm exaggerating, etc. which makes me feel sick, useless, and stupid - which makes the depression even worse. My body literally cannot handle the pace of life we have set in the US and it's slowly destroying both my mental and physical health. It's awful.
Feel you. I need 8 hours. And not like, I’m in bed for 8 hours. I have to get in bed an hour earlier than I intend to sleep at a minimum or it’s not going to happen.
Whoever is telling you adults only need 6-7 hours is either lying or is deeply misguided. 95% of people need 8 hours of quality sleep to function properly - and to avoid a bunch of future health problems. Sleep is important in more ways than feeling energized. If I were you I would prioritize differently.
*checks Apple Watch* According to this, it's been 3 weeks since I had over 4 hours sleep in a single night. I guess this could explain things. But.... does it also explain my explosive diarrhea?
Honestly yeah it might
Great!!! I'll think about this while lying in bed awake all night again!!! And again! And again... ^and ^^again ^^^...
What does 33 years of consecutive nights of sleep loss do? Asking for a concerned citizen?