Terminalcoffee discussion

How much sleep do you need in a night? How much would you like to get? Do those numbers align?
What about if you have to stay up all night long? How does that make you feel?

This past week, I went two nights in a row on only 2 and a half hours of sleep (Thursday night and Friday night). It caught up with me by Sunday, though - I fell asleep around 1am, slept in until 10, woke for a couple of hours and then napped until 3:30/4ish.

During the week, I need more sleep... I'm weird. I'm especially weird when I'm sleep-deprived.

Someone once told me that it wasn't possible to "catch up" on sleep but I totally don't believe it. Do you?

I frequently go with only two or three hours per night. It's not fun.

Why not more?

Sally wrote: "Someone once told me that it wasn't possible to "catch up" on sleep but I totally don't believe it. Do you?"

It is true... once the sleep is lost, it's gone, you can't make it up, but you can sure prepare for the next few days. That's how I see it, at least. :)

I used to be able to stay up all night, every night. During one of my college years I had a job on the night shift, so there was no time to sleep. During another semester I had a 7:00 AM class, and no way could I get up that early, so I stayed up all night, then slept from 8:30-noon. These days it's tougher, and I generally do best on six hours of sleep. Anything more than that gives me a headache.

Last night I slept four hours. I would have liked more, but had to get up to get my son to school. Staying up past 3:00 AM wasn't my choice, it was simply required because my daughter, flying standby from Chicago, got routed through Minneapolis and into Las Vegas, rather than ending up in Salt Lake like she was supposed to. That meant I had a four hour round trip to Vegas instead of a relaxing night at home, curled up with a good book (or my cute wife if the mood was right).

i go to bed between 11-12 most every night and get up around 7. that seems to be plenty for me. i do not do well on 6 or less. if i have to be up all night i am wiped. i never have been able to function too well after midnight. i am a morning person

i sleep from 12 to 8 or 9, or from 1 to 9. i can go to bed as early or late as i want, but it's very hard to get up before 9 when i don't have to. this week i'll probably be sleeping from 3 to 10 because i have a lot of writing to do and somehow that's easier to do at night.

I'll usually get about 5 hours of sleep during the week. I actually feel fine not getting much more than that. And lately I've just been unable to sleep in late anyway. It just feels weird. :/

Ashley wrote: "I'll usually get about 5 hours of sleep during the week. I actually feel fine not getting much more than that. And lately I've just been unable to sleep in late anyway. It just feels weird. :/"

5 hours per day? Or 5 hours total? There's a BIG difference... just wondering. Right now it reads like you mean 5 hours a week.

Oh ha, 5 per day. I don't know how I'd survive on 5 in an entire week.

Phil wrote: "That meant I had a four hour round trip to Vegas instead of a relaxing night at home"

Wait, where do you live?

BunWat wrote: "I need eight hours. I can enjoy nine. If I get less than six for more than two days in a row I'm not safe to drive or operate heavy machinery. Or knives.

Like janine, I sleep from about 12 t..."

I do the same thing when I'm sick or when I feel myself getting sick, Bun. I'll sleep it out.

I prefer 8-9 hours, typically get 5-7 hours (I have to be at work before 7ish, so I sleep until my alarms go off, but I don't get to bed any earlier because of my earlier morning start), and sometimes only get 2.5-4 hours. I also try to avoid drinking caffeine if I can help it. On the days I'm sleep deprived, I will drink an iced black coffee so I can make it through the day. The longest I've gone without sleep is 72 hours - because I was taking a high dosage of steroids (partially my fault because I misread the titration-down instructions) that was prescribed by my doctor. That was ridiculous. I started hallucinating.

Ashley wrote: "Oh ha, 5 per day. I don't know how I'd survive on 5 in an entire week."

I read that first post of your and thought to myself that either that was an error of omission or you're jacked up on meth/crack... or studying for finals and writing papers and your sleep schedule is all jacked up because of school.

I'm currently working on 38 hours without sleep and this is not unusual for me. I've been battling insomnia for the last ten years. It started after my son was born, of course he didn't sleep through the night until he was 4 1/2, so that might have had something to do with it. Now we have a six month old puppy with the bladder of a gnat, who finds it oh so fun to ask to be let out every 30 mins. or so. And I would ignore her but she's as loud as a frieght train, and sounds like chewbacca on crack, kind of hard to ignore or sleep through.
On the plus side, things don't get too scary until hour 48. At that point conversations mostly consist of incoherant grunts, grumbles, and small amounts of spittle. And I can forget typing all together.
I've tried taking medication, both perscription and natural, but all that succeeded in doing was knocking me out for about 18 hrs. and I woke up feeling like someone had beat the shit out of me. Seems I'm a tad sensitive to sleep meds.
The insomnia only lasts for a few weeks, then I'm back to a somewhat normal sleep schedule for couple of months.
Did I mention lack of sleep causes me to babble?

I was able to pull all-nighters in college when I was studying.

Once I had babies, I learned to take 15-20 minute naps while they were napping. Now I don't like to nap for any more than 20 minutes or I get really groggy.

When my husband was in med school/residency, he could drink a lot of coffee, then nap for 5-10 minutes and wake up reasonably revived.

These days, especially if I've had a few glasses of wine, I go to bed by 10 and get up at 5:30. I like to be the first one up in the house. Just me and the dog and the two cats, they are glad to have my company over coffee.

I don't know how folks like Heidi can live on just 5-7 hours of sleep for any length of time. I can pull all-nighters when I have to, but I feel achy and sick the next day.

Typically, I like at least 7 hours sleep. I usually sleep 11:30-7:30. When I'm worn out, I'll get to bed around 10:00 instead, and sleep really hard.

When I don't have to be at work, I like to stay up late. I love the quiet of the night, the feeling of having the world to myself. But then, I have to sleep until noon. :)

when i am really beat and need some power sleep i take 2 tylenol PM's and coma out for the night. that's when you wake up with a drool spot on your pillow and have snored like a rhino all night. you feel fantastic when the groggy's wear off in the morning

Oh, yeah, when I'm really, really tired, I nap on the couch during the day, and yes, there is often drool.

BunWat wrote: "What were your sleep deprivation hallucinations like, Heidi? I was seeing trails whenever anything moved, and everyone looked really menacing for some reason. Like they were aliens or something, ..."

They were more like auditory hallucinations than visual. :) I heard the scanners, even after I got home and the phone calls I'd get at the tv station and televisions seemed to be on even when they weren't. I know I'd stay up talking, I just don't know to or with whom. It was kind of scary and disorienting. I was working in television news at the time, so you could imagine what the stimulation and frenetic energy did to exacerbate my issues. After 3 days of no sleep, I was pissed at the doctor for not telling me about the sleeplessness side effect. When I talked to the nurse over the phone, THAT's when we both realized I'd misread the instructions. I felt like such an idiot. I also sent some very interesting rambling e-mails to people in my family and friends during that time. They were LOOONG and silly and very detail oriented.

The Ficus wrote: "Why not more?"

Because like the true dumb ass I am, I usually leave my homework go until the night it's due so I'm either up working on that or I flat out just can't sleep and rather than toss and turn all night I'll get up and read or watch TV.

It's not for lack of trying.

Sally wrote: "Phil wrote: "That meant I had a four hour round trip to Vegas instead of a relaxing night at home"

Wait, where do you live?"

The very southwest corner of Utah. St. George.

I usually try to get 7-8 hrs. Normally I go to bed around 11-12 and wake up @ 8. The past few weeks its been more like 12-1 though. I am usually ok as long as I get 6 hrs or so.

Clark wrote: Because like the true dumb ass I am, I usually leave my homework go until the night it's due so I'm either up working on that or I flat out just can't sleep and ..."

Why do you have homework?

I used to be such a chronic insomniac and went for stretches of long lengths when I would only get 2 or 3 hours a night. This went on my whole life!

Then I got MS and it's the opposite! I can fall asleep any time. What a switch!

I like 8 hours, 9 is heaven, 7 is survivable but I'll crash at 10PM. Out like a light!

I do think you can catch up on sleep, I view it as a bank, you withdraw some but you've made good deposits to cover you.

Heidi - Oy I can't believe you misread the taper of steroids, I would have been NUTS! Had you gotten IV before that? When I got a 5 day IV and then taper I was scrubbing places in my kitchen that hadn't been cleaned in the 20 years I lived there, all at 4AM!

This is a great question. Part of my response is seasonal. In the winter, when the sun goes down earlier, I tend to sleep from 8:30 or so to four. During the summer I go to bed a little later but still rise at four, maybe a little later on the weekends. However, esp. during the winter I sometimes start pushing hours earlier. I've been known to arrive at work at three or earlier in the morning. Yay for flexible work schedules. Anyway, if I have one of those nights through which I've hardly slept I'm usually ok in the morning but in the afternoon I get very socially awkward and paranoid. Then I sleep a lot and I'm ok again.

Oh, and hope your daughter is ok, Barb...

I went about 32 hours without sleep from Thursday afternoon to Friday night just this past weekend....not fun. That's the downside of working nights--everything that you have to stay awake for happens in the daytime; in this case it involved a death in the family and all the attendant required activities.

Do you work nights consistently, Mary? Or do you switch back and forth? When do you sleep, in the mornings, after your shift, or in the evenings, before your shift?

RandomAnthony wrote: "This is a great question."

I feel so validated when RA likes my questions. :D

RandomAnthony wrote: "Do you work nights consistently, Mary? Or do you switch back and forth? When do you sleep, in the mornings, after your shift, or in the evenings, before your shift?"

All 12-hr nights. I sleep during the day, all day if possible, but when I'm off for a few days in a row I like to sleep at night and stay up during the day like normal people. After many years of night shift it isn't hard at all to switch back and forth.

BunWat wrote: "Weird! ;) Hearing things huh? I wonder if that means you are an auditory person and I'm a visual person, or maybe it means the opposite, like maybe the systems that start to fail first are the one..."

Oh wow. I never really considered that. I have HORRIBLE hearing in one of my ears, so your theory is ringing bells with me (figuratively speaking) - oh, and that's another thing... I kept hearing bells chiming.


Lori wrote: "Heidi - Oy I can't believe you misread the taper of steroids, I would have been NUTS! Had you gotten IV before that? When I got a 5 day IV and then taper I was scrubbing places in my kitchen that hadn't been cleaned in the 20 years I lived there, all at 4AM!"

No IV, just a bottle full of Deltasone, I think... I was totally nuts. Thank goodness my roommate was out of the country at the time, I would've driven her nuts with my constant activity and chatter.

Barb wrote: "Oh, she was and is fine. Thanks.
We basically went to get another / better doctor to tell us that she was misdiasnosed with ton..."

Oh man, Barb. When I was in college I was misdiagnosed many times and given these huge ass hairy antibiotics that made me SO MUCH SICKER.

yup, all that talkin' about great sleep jinxed me last night. fell asleep reading around 12:30 after a huge day of work, baseball game and working outside til 9:45pm. got awakened by my wife around 2 then couldn't get back to sleep so i read til like 4:15 and woke up for work at 7:09. i am feeling crappy and groggy now. the ride in on my bike helped though

i on the other hand got 9 hours of sleep. i might try to jinx myself, i really need some more awake time.

BunWat wrote: "Hey Heidi, this theory gains momentum! Because I'm extreeemly nearsighted without my glasses or contacts, legally blind, so yeah vision not my best sense."

I wonder if any of the other senses are affected likewise for other people? I mean, wouldn't it be cool to smell chocolate cake in the morning, even if it's really not there?

NM, scratch that. THAT would just be cruel.

Barb, I am married to a pediatrician. He gives out antibiotics RARELY and has to explain to people a million times a day why too much antibiotic=resistance to nasty stuff. You were right to look for a better doc.

Ooh. That sucks, Barb. Scary as hell.

I tested the "how long will you go without sleep" this past weekend. I went from about 4:30AM one day until 5PM the next day without sleep. Well, I dozed in an airport, but that wasn't "real" sleep. However, the dozing definitely helped. I tried to stay up a couple more hours and sleep at a normal time but couldn't pull it off. I think I fell asleep for about two hours, rose for two more, then slept for twelve.

I also cannot find the insomnia thread.

So I will say, "hello, old friend, insomnia. Welcome back. I've missed you sometimes. I don't mind watching the dogs chew their bones at 2:48AM, and they're happy I'm up because they both had to pee. Everything's so quiet now. You're best in the summer, too, when I can sit on the front porch and listen to crickets and look at the big moon. I'm tempted to shower and go into work now. Should I? I could get a lot done before anyone arrived and then leave by noon. I'm tempted. Thanks for the visit, but please don't stay for more than a day, insomnia. You wear me out."

RandomAnthony wrote: "I also cannot find the insomnia thread.

So I will say, "hello, old friend, insomnia. Welcome back. I've missed you sometimes. I don't mind watching the dogs chew their bones at 2:48AM, and they..."

oh,sorry to hear it, RA. The moon was cool last night, tho.

Thanks, Sally. I was at work by 4:45 and got a lot done, though...and at least I have a choice...you are at the mercy of a small child:)

Awww, RA! You poor dear. I hope your insomnia's not gonna mean you're gonna get back to your workaholic habits. You should be able to enjoy your summer and just relax some...