Sleep and you!

[schmevil]

As a dedicated non-sleeper with just about every sleep-related dysfunction known to man, I'm ridiculously interested in sleep.

Tell me all your secrets about your sleeping patterns. Or just fill out this poll!

[Poll #1333570]

Comments

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're almost normal. Apparently that's rare on my flist. *g*

I can get by an very little sleep, but my body likes to get 7+ hours.

[crimsonquills.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're almost normal. Apparently that's rare on my flist. *g*

*g* I think that's rare in life in general, to be honest. Most people I know get about 6 hours on a regular basis. I talk about sleep with people more than I should, probably. *g*

But almost everyone I talk to about it tells me they don't get much, but they're fine, really. I'm pretty skeptical about it. I thought the same way, but once I started sleeping myself out (and there was a period of time when I was doing this every night, even if I've slipped back to 7-8 now) I noticed such a huge difference in the clarity of my thoughts and the stability of my emotions and my productiveness that I've become convinced that most people honestly don't know how much better they could feel and work if they slept more.

I try not to get preachy about it, though. Don't always succeed, but I try! *g*

ETA, after having a look at the poll again: I read at least one article that asserted that remembering your dreams is actually a sign that you aren't sleeping enough. If you get through the entire natural cycle of sleep, it says, you shouldn't remember them at all. When you do, it means you woke up before your body was finished sleeping. I don't have a lot of data points to test this idea, but it generally seems to be true for me, personally. I'm tempted to correlate the results of your poll to see if the people who sleep less remember their dreams more.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

I read at least one article that asserted that remembering your dreams is actually a sign that you aren't sleeping enough.

You know, I've read this too. Waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle also seems to result in near-useless sleep: you're almost more tired after interrupted sleep than before.

I'm always counseling people to get more sleep if they can. Usually they think I'm weirdly obsessed with the subject, but as someone who literally lost her mind for a while, due to insomnia-enhanced depression and anxiety, I'm convinced that sleep is something we all need to take more seriously.

I've been happy with the recent push to criminalize sleepy driving, because it forces people to recognize just how debilitating sleep deprivation can be, even in the short term.

[crimsonquills.livejournal.com]

I've been happy with the recent push to criminalize sleepy driving, because it forces people to recognize just how debilitating sleep deprivation can be, even in the short term.

I didn't realize there was a movement towards this. I confess I've done sleepy driving more than once. *wry* In fact, very nearly annually, during the all night drive to San Francisco. But I can't really argue with the folks who are pushing against it--I know that my attention and reaction time are shot when I'm driving tired.