Insomniacs

[bungeejumper]

Still posting in the Snug at two in the morning? And then up again at five thirty to do it again? And that's not just our brethren in faraway time zones I'm talking about, it's the Greenwich meantime contingent. (Give or take an hour, obviously.)

Look, don't you people ever sleep? Or do you keep your smartphones on the bedside table in case you get some blinding insight or some irrefutable argument at 3 am?

Just wondering?

BJ

[scotia]

Still posting in the Snug at two in the morning? And then up again at five thirty to do it again? And that's not just our brethren in faraway time zones I'm talking about, it's the Greenwich meantime contingent. (Give or take an hour, obviously.)

Look, don't you people ever sleep? Or do you keep your smartphones on the bedside table in case you get some blinding insight or some irrefutable argument at 3 am?

Just wondering?

BJ

OK - I confess to the 2am (BST). But 5:30am - Never!

[UncleEbenezer]

To whom could he be referring?

[Itsallaguess]

OK - I confess to the 2am (BST). But 5:30am - Never!

What's wrong with 5.30am?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

[Golam]

Nothing, nothing at all wrong with 0530 hrs. To quote ' the early bird catches the worm' and ' early to bed and early to rise, makes a man wealthy and wise'. Would vouch for the merits of the early start. This habit has served me well. I find my mind to be at its most creative at that time of day.

[UncleEbenezer]

Nothing, nothing at all wrong with 0530 hrs. To quote ' the early bird catches the worm' and ' early to bed and early to rise, makes a man wealthy and wise'. Would vouch for the merits of the early start. This habit has served me well. I find my mind to be at its most creative at that time of day.

What's early about 05:30?

[johnhemming]

I am an insomniac in that I have had problems (mainly resolved) with sleeping. However, part of my resolution at times it to go to sleep before 10pm and wake up around 4.30pm which measures as about 6 hours sleep taking into account waking between those points. That is enough sleep to get me through the day so I am not tired in the afternoon or early evening. However, it does mean that 5am is now not early for me.

[Rhyd6]

I suffer from insomnia and in the not so distant past I used to have a natter with Basket Bob usually about 3.00am as he too was a sufferer. These days I just read my kindle as I don't have to put the light on and disturb OH. 5.30am is the time I used to get up when I was working so I don't really class that as early. These days I stay in bed until 6.30am, a real lie in.

R6

[bungeejumper]

To quote ' the early bird catches the worm' and ' early to bed and early to rise, makes a man wealthy and wise'.

Early to bed and early to rise, mid-afternoon you'll have rings round your eyes.

BJ

[AleisterCrowley]

There should never be two 5.30s in a day....
I struggle to get up at 8am for my 8.30 call. Mainly because I have trouble getting off to sleep at a reasonable hour

[sg31]

I've never previously had a problem sleeping but recently I have. I'm on painkillers for my back, it's deteriorating badly and isn't likely to improve so I have no other option. I've already tried all the obvious 'cures'.

Sometimes I can't get to sleep, at other times I drop off but wake at 2 a.m and then spend the rest of the night wide awake. I can cope during the day but around 5 p.m i'm flagging and feel wiped out. The trouble is sleeping during the day just makes the prolem worse.

I'm due back at the pain clinic shortly but I don't think there's much they can do.

The delights of getting older.

[johnhemming]

Sometimes I can't get to sleep, at other times I drop off but wake at 2 a.m and then spend the rest of the night wide awake. I can cope during the day but around 5 p.m i'm flagging and feel wiped out. The trouble is sleeping during the day just makes the prolem worse.

Things I find that help, that may help in this situation, are magnesium malate and vitamin D 3 3000iu. The magnesium may assist in stopping you from lying awake thinking. If you take vitamin D take it in the morning.

I now have quite a routine of various things that I take and do, but I also use a fitbit to record how much I sleep and hence I have managed to develop a sleep pattern that enables me to work effectively during the day. Sleeping in the day is a bad idea although a siesta can work, Otherwise, however, it can reduce the sleep pressure for night. I am 60.

Otherwise standard sleep hygiene things like not looking at a mobile phone during the night (blue light) and keeping the bed room dark are good. Also avoiding (too much) booze.

[UncleEbenezer]

Sometimes I can't get to sleep, at other times I drop off but wake at 2 a.m and then spend the rest of the night wide awake. I can cope during the day but around 5 p.m i'm flagging and feel wiped out. The trouble is sleeping during the day just makes the prolem worse.

Think of it as a siesta. Is that not a healthy pattern?

[AleisterCrowley]

Two sleeps, that's what you need - just like the good old days.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

[servodude]

Two sleeps, that's what you need - just like the good old days.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

How on earth am I meant to know when Christmas is then?

- sd

[johnhemming]

Two sleeps, that's what you need - just like the good old days.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16964783

The key as I see it to understanding sleep is to recognise that the pineal gland generates melatonin which drives sleep (not entirely, but quite a bit). It injects melatonin in to the third ventricle of the cerebral spinal fluid and that gradually comes out of the third ventricle into the blood (with the serum). The pineal gland tends to stop generating melatonin when there is a high level in the blood. This leads to a cycle where the pineal gland will switch itself off after a period of time. it gets calcified and less efficient as people get older. (whether one relates to the other is another issue, but I would not be surprised if it were to be the case).

Hence if you wake up at say 2am it is a good idea to get up and do something and then go back to bed perhaps an hour later. That enables the pineal gland to switch off and start up again.

Blue light tends to get rid of melatonin so avoid this from computers or otherwise if you are wanting to get back to sleep. Generally staying in bed whilst awake is not a good idea.

[scotia]

I have found that Test Cricket or Formula 1 on TV is a great way of getting a bit of extra sleep during the day.

[Clitheroekid]

What's wrong with 5.30am?

Virtually everything in my book!

For a start, for half the year it's pitch black, and it's a rule of my life that I will never get up in the dark unless it's completely unavoidable. I feel it's a crime against nature - if The Good Lord had meant us to be up and about in the dead of night he'd have given us nocturnal vision.

Getting up at that time of the morning is only (just) tolerable if it's fully light, assuming it's a bright sunny day - though on the odd occasions I've witnessed the dawn while getting up rather than going to bed I must admit that I've quite enjoyed it.

I rarely go to bed before 2am, and even then I'll usually read for 15 - 20 minutes before going to sleep. But when I do put my head down I'm asleep within a few minutes, and the only time I would then wake up is for the pleasure of looking at the clock and realising I've another hour or two in bed!

The corollary is that I rarely rise before 9, but by the time I do surface I'm fully refreshed and the day is properly underway, even in winter, so I don't have that horrible, half-dead feeling that getting up in the dark induces in me.

So I'm entirely happy to be an owl, and I've noticed that those of my friends who are similar all sleep very well, whereas the larks always seem to suffer from insomnia to a greater or less extent.

And finally, being an owl is better for mental health - it's official! https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/alzh ... 28981.html

[Mike4]

What's wrong with 5.30am?

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

I find it a little late to be going to bed these days.

[UncleEbenezer]

I find it a little late to be going to bed these days.

Yeah. I can get away with it once in a while, but I think you have to be a different generation to do it the student one-night's-sleep-a-week way.