Sleep

[Kingswood]

Sleeping is one of my favourite pastimes.

After studying Psychology, dreams analysis is one of my favourite subjects. I still read books today about it.

Sleeping disorders are also common among people and interest me. I am wondering which of the following sleeping disorders you have/ are experiencing at the moment. I took the below list from Wiki but added my own comments/ experiences

Insomnia Everone should know what this is, chronically unable to fall asleep, yet still feeling tired throughout the day/ night. Feel sorry for anybody that does.

Bruxism Involuntarily grinding or clenching of the teeth while sleeping. Never experienced it

Delayed sleep phase syndrome Inability to wake up/ fall asleep at socially acceptable times, yet no problem maintaining sleep once asleep. I am surprised this is a recognised disorder, I can say I suffer from this but its mainly due to my social life. Its very common for me to skip a night of sleep because its too late and I'll know I wont wake up early the next morning, so I just plan to sleep earlier the next night.

Narcolepsy Falling asleep involuntarily. Never happened to me

Cataplexy Sudden weakness in motor motor muscles, causing you to collapse to the floor. Never even heard of this, sounds crazy

Night terror, Its been ages since I've had a real life nightmare. And I don't think Ive ever waken up suddenly from a really bad dream (except for dreams where I'm falling - when I land I always wake up)

Parasomnias Disruptive behaviors during sleep. I used to sleep walk alot during the night, and people tell me I still talk during my sleep

Periodic limb movement disorder Involuntarily sudden jerks of limbs, eg legs. This happens alot to me. Like my leg will just rise and bang on the bed. Also, whenever I have a dream of falling I wake up with the feeling like my head just hit the pillow.

Rapid eye movement behavior disorder: Acting out violent or dramatic dreams while in REM sleep This sounds crazy to me, never experienced it

Restless legs syndrome I hate this one the most. Its just this unexplainable feeling that you have to move your feet and you cant stand being restless

Obstructive sleep apnea Common symptom of this is snoring. People tell me recently I've started to snore alot. I reckon its because of my increased smoking

Sleep paralysis OK this is the one that I really wanted to talk about. It happens to me at least once a week. Its explained by your brain waking up from sleep, but you are still too tired so the brain is unable to send signals to your body to move. So you feel like you're paralyzed. Yet, your brain is awake, you're alert with whats around you. And since your brain is on, your imagination is on so your still half dreaming (lucid dreaming). This is what I believe people talk about when they say out-of-body experience.

The first time this happened to me was as a kid. I was laying in bed, all of a sudden I heard this loud noise like big flapping wings, it came closer and closer until it felt like some huge angel/ devil was flying right over me - then it went away. I was so petrified, especially since I couldn't move a muscle. I later learnt that during sleep paralysis since you're awake you can hear all your body noises, it must have just been my heart beating or blood rushing through my body - but the noise was so loud.

After happening a few more times to me, and me being so scared - I researched it and found out it was harmless. So the next time it happened, I welcomed it. And I found myself being able to control the hallucinations, I was able to create objects/ people around me, move around, see things, go places. I used to love every moment of it.

Until yesterday. Yesterday was by far the worst. I had just came home from Europe and hadn't slept for two days due to jetlag. So I felt it coming on (usually starts with a pulling sensation like your body is getting sucked into something really powerful). But where it usually lasts like 10 minutes with me, this lasted for what felt like hours. The crazy thing is, I would wake up from it, get up, get dressed, go downstairs, have breakfast, i.e. do normal things.. then something weird would happen and I'd find out I'm still dreaming. This kept happening over and over. I distinctly remember pinching and punching myself really hard to see if I was awake or dreaming and it didn't work. After a while I was trying desperately to get out of this endless loop and couldn't. Everytime I would think I'm finally awake I'd find out I'm still dreaming.

By the time I eventually woke up I was tripping. I didn't know what to do. I went down and found the first person I could to speak to, making sure I'm awake. I'm still here so I guess I'm no longer dreaming... or am I lol

Anyways does any one else suffer from Sleep paralysis or any of these other ones?

[OEP]

I get about 3-4 hours sleep a night, but it's not uncommon for me to go a couple of days without sleep. Though I would say my lack of sleep is more to do with life factors than a sleep disorder.

[Dragme]

If you have gone 2 days without sleep and you are jet-laged then I wouldn't worry about it till you get back into a normal rhythm.

I think 24 hours without sleep is equivalent to being over 0.05? Your just tripping because of this.

What is interesting is that you are being told that you now snore alot. If you stop breathing or are seen to gasp for breath you probably are suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnoea.

A plain loud snore in and out may be annoying but if you are stopping your breathing then your brain is waking you up to catch your breath. You may not be aware of waking but these arousals may be stopping you from getting through the normal sleep stages and you may not be getting enough deep sleep to get normal dreams and refreshment.

I know its hard after a flight but try to get into a normal 7-8 our sleep routine and then see how you feel. If you are still having issues then go and have a sleep study performed. They will wire you up and give you the low down on what is really happening to you when you sleep.

I have done 2 - 3 sleep studies in the past on myself and it is freaky what they can pick up. You may think you are sleeping well but till it is pointed out to you and then you take the steps to actually sleep well you wont know the difference.

[stui magpie]

To the best of my knowledge, I don't have any of those. I only snore when I'm really drunk or tired and the only issue I have is when I have a lot on my mind my subconscious won't let me sleep for long.

Otherwise i bomb out happily for my 6-7 hours each night no probs.

My stepson Gav, has night terrors. While he was staying with me he tore the architrave off the door jamb several times trying to open the bedroom door. He'd basically wake up and move - out of bed, out the door and through the house like a misguided missile until he found a light switch.

It's quite freaky to watch, but don't get in the road.

[punkologist]

i get the involuntary limb movements very regularly. It's usually not long after falling asleep.

[Pied Piper]

I am a frequent insomniac and am about to take a temazapan to help me nod off. Mostly that comes from years of shift/night work. I am a natural owl anyway, but it's pretty bad when 1-2pm becomes one's natural waking hour. Thankfully that's not the case at the moment and I've got an 7am start coming up. Night night

[David]

I've had something that seems a little like sleep paralysis on a couple of occasions, but after reading the wikipedia article on it I suspect it might be something else.

Kingswood, I have become fascinated by oneirology (the psychological/scientific study of dreams, as opposed to oneiromancy, which covers the more spiritual side of things) in recent times. It's such an interesting field of research, and still so unexplored. I have been experimenting with lucid dreaming, which is quite exhilarating when you can actually make it work.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/oneirology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucid_Dream

I had what might have been a cataplexic incident a couple of months ago - got out of bed, walked a few steps and then collapsed on the floor on my side - I just couldn't hold myself up. Perhaps I had just slept awkwardly, or something, I don't know.

[stui magpie]

^^

I've been doing that Lucid dreaming thing for years but that's the first time I knew that there was a term for it.

I can sort of day dream while I'm listening to music, relaxing or sometimes driving the car (yeah, bit dangerous i spose). I've got a pretty active imagination so I just let it run off and I can actually dream and see pictures while I've got my eyes open navigating a car at 80km/hr.

At night if I'm in the mood I start off with a premise and as i start to go to sleep I let the brain run off. If I don't like where it's going I can intervene, stop and go back to an earlier point and restart or just scrap it and start again.

It's a handy skill, at least I know I'll be able to keep myself entertained when they eventually come and drag me off to the psych ward.

[Miss_Lisey_Molloy]

I have parasomnias.. I used to sleepwalk all the time when I was younger. It's very rare for me to do it now.

One time I was sharing a bed with my mum and she woke up to find me climbing the bedhead like a mountain saying "I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna get there". Lol.

Nowadays, I talk a lot in my sleep.. Friends will question me about entire conversations I've had with them, that I never recall having!!

And the worst thing I do in my sleep is laugh. Anybody that knows me in real life will know I laugh constantly. Sometimes because things are funny, sometimes because I'm nervous, but it's just something that I do. Unfortunately, anyone who has to share a bed or a room with me, has to put up with me doing it all night too

I read the thing about lucid dreams. I have them all the time, whilst I'm still awake. And like Stui, I can change it if I don't like where it is going. That's really interesting.

Love always, Alyssa xoxo

[Kingswood]

[Kingswood]

[Miss_Lisey_Molloy]

[tcnthat]

Shift work has messed with my sleep over the last few years. A couple more months and it is back to 9-5, cannot wait.

I hate not being able to sleep when you are really tired (insomnia?) and then feeling like you need to sleep again after having a full 8 hours.

Some of my colleagues have done alot of research in this area, circadian rythyms etc. Interesting stuff, and the short answer is there is NO good way to work on a 24 hour basis.

[jjpie]

I suffer from the night bruxism, which often ends with my jaw dislocating.

[BlackAndWhiteSince87]

I dunno what it's called,but I have these dreams,where I am fully asleep,most of the time in a very deep sleep,and it is so vivid,I remember the whole thing when I wake up.But the thing is,when I wake up,I think what am I doing in bed?Shouldnt I bet at whereever with whoever?

It's abit creepy,but the scariest bit is when the dreams I have happen.I've dreamt footy scores,questions on my VCE exams,Tattslotto numbers once but the problem is I forgot 2 of the 5 I needed