Thursday, February 26, 2009

To Sleep Perchance to Dream

I think we all can agree that sleep is pretty awesome. It renews us, it provides us with inspiration, but what about when it evades us? It's almost 5am here in Canada and I am still awake - tired, but awake. I've always had a love/hate relationship with sleep. When I was a kid I hated to go to bed but who doesn't actually love to sleep - I loved to sleep then and I still love to sleep but I'm not sure how very fond sleep is of me.
In December I finally got tired of my sleepless nights and decided to go and speak to a doctor about my problem. I was then formally diagnosed with insomnia and very luckily managed to get an appointment at a sleep clinic a few days later.
That was an interesting experience I can tell you - hooked up to all those wires....you'd think that would make it even more difficult to sleep but remarkably I did sleep that night.
However, it is now months later and I'm still waiting to hear the results of that sleep test and I am still having enormous trouble sleeping at night. I feel like I'm being driven ever-so-slowly mad.
It's very frustrating. I should explain though I can sleep - just not at night. I usually end up nodding off around 7 or 8am and sleeping well into the afternoon. As you might expect this rather interrupts my life - especially those 9am classes.
Still more frustrating though is the information out there about sleep. Stumbling on the internet I've read article after article talking about good sleep hygiene - about how you should only use your bed for sleep and sex and that you should have nothing in your room except what you need to sleep - no distractions around you. And I can't help wondering if good sleep isn't a luxury of the wealthy. My apartment has a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom - I live in my bed and we can't afford anything bigger at the moment. So now what?
Well then the next question they ask is what keeps you up at night? Worries? Well, you must do away with those, pesky things you know - believe me, if I could live a worry free life I would but that's not likely to happen. So they tell you to de-stress before you go to bed and all manner of other things. Don't drink pop for at least 8 hours before you go to bed and nothing sweet....
I'm complaining now I think but I am so tired.
Anyways, I did come across one interesting article though from the perspective of another night owl. It discussed the idea that not all of humanity is necessarily hard-wired for the day time. Isn't it possible that some people are meant to be awake at night? And this got me to thinking about how much society really has an influence on our lives. How many people live in this sort of haze because they're trying to conform to normal standards of living? I wonder. Nevermind though, just the ramblings of a very sleepy woman. I think I'll try and entice sleep to come and pay me a visit. Nighty night for now.

1 comment:

  1. All those tips are really annoying sometimes, aren't they, however "true" (?) some of them may be. Like they seem to presume everybody has a bedroom that does not have to be used for any other activity, and the possiblity to adjust the temperature in it as you please...

    I'm reading a book on sleep just now. It says not everyone has their inner clock on 24 hours, some have it on 23 and some on 25. The 23 h people are early risers (larks). The 25 h people are night owls. Our modern society does not make it easier to adjust since we tend to prolong the daytime with electric lights, TV, computers and social activites in the evening.

    I hope you get your test results back soon and some useful advice to go with it.

    ReplyDelete