The reason I have such terrible sleep habits comes from my childhood (I think I said that in my first post) and the neighborhood I lived in. It was a very low income area and the usual gang violence of the 90's was a constant thought as I would try to fall asleep in an empty house. Unfortunately my parents worked nights, so I was constantly alone. Now that I am an adult I find myself unable to actually sleep during the night. It feels so unnatural to be in a bed with my eyes closed and to actually feel safe. I've tried everything. When I was sixteen I had insomnia so bad that I decided to stay awake for four days (one of my longest sessions) and then force myself to fall asleep around 8PM. Well, the problem is that my body immediately fell into R.E.M. sleep and I woke up at 1AM. I was confused, angry, and unable to think rationally. After that I was prescribed sleeping pills, which did not work. Eventually I was given Ambien, but guess what... didn't work. In fact, it had the opposite effect. Instead of getting sleepy I would get a massive rush and be in complete euphoria. Sure, I wasn't angry or sleepy or irritable, but I was little more than stoned out of my mind. Eventually I learned to control myself and now I have decently normal sleep hours. It was all a mental process, a simple decision to change myself. I like to think of it in the same manner as being sick. Whenever I have a cold or flu or whatever else you can think of (that is relatively plausible) I simply refuse to allow myself to feel bad or to give in. Instead, I eat as much as I can, I exercise, I take all my vitamins, and I am constantly on the move. It doesn't always work and sometimes I am sicker for longer because I refuse to stop eating my bacon and egg breakfasts on Sunday, but I have no choice but to try and feel better. What's the point of limping around and feeling sorry for yourself?
I have hypersomnia. So basically, my problem is I sleep too much. I usually sleep for over 12 hours a night, occasionally up to, and over 15 hours. When I'm sick I don't get out of bed, or I'll get out of bed and stay awake for a couple of hours and then go back to sleep again. It's not at all healthy and I do suffer awful side effects from it (which are very similar to the side effects of insomnia), I'm trying to break the habit... but man, it's challenging.
I DVR it, of course, but everything is better live. Plus I don't need sleep that much, since I can rarely get to sleep anyway. Insomnia, maybe.
It's probably a medical thing for me, too. I mean, even when I take medication that say drowsiness is a side-effect, I am totally alert, and when I want to sleep, I still have trouble.
