Sleeping Musings

[sparkindarkness]

My sleeping has gone all weird lately. I’ve tried drinking less coffee, drinking more coffee, drinking alcohol, drinking less alcohol but it’s still weird. I’m not sure whether to be worried or not - any sleep experts out there?

Normally I need 7-9 hours of sleep a night, preferably 9 - I’m a VERY light sleeper so those 9 hours will always be interrupted. Normally by the time Friday comes round I’m pretty worn out (because getting 9 hours of sleep on a weekday is just not possible) and I hibernate on the weekends to recover. Yeah, I know, probably not the most healthy sleep pattern in the world, but it’s worked for about a decade or so now, so I didn’t really expect it to change until I’m old and wrinkly and falling a sleep in a chair with my pipe and slippers (I don’t smoke and never will, and avoid wearing footwear as much as possible - I hate shoes - but I’m going to have a pipe and slippers, damn it!).



But it’s all going weird now. For the past 2-3 weeks I’ve been sleeping DEEEPLY. I NEVER sleep deeply. Not even as a tiny baby (as my dear mother will tell me how I never slept 3 hours together until I was 5 years old. She will tell me this at length, with much grumbling and the time she nearly throttled my father when he said “sleep when he does” and she replied [screamed] “HE NEVER DOES!!!!”) I digress.. Anyway I am sleeping like a comatose ZOMBIE. I’ve actually scared Beloved more than once because he COULDN’T wake me. We’re talking bounding up and down on the bed screaming, couldn’t wake me (and no, he wasn’t doing THAT to wake me. Minds out of the gutter people. Or at least invite me).

My pattern for the past 2 weeks? Steadily decreasing sleep. Last night I had 4 hours, same as the night before. Before that I don’t think I had more than 5 hours - but I’m not even slightly tired. Frankly I’m kind of freaked, I know how my body works and it doesn’t work like this. I keep thinking I’m tired and my body’s just hiding it. Beloved also reports that I’m no longer holding my breath when I sleep (an annoying habit also from being a little baby - many a night mum rushed through to my room thinking I’d stopped breathing only for me to start again. Yes, I‘m amazed she didn‘t smother me as a child) which he likes since he no longer feels the need to check my pulse when I sleep (and wake me up).

Apart from the worrying lack of sleep my main problem is “waking dreams.” I did have these as a kid, about 11-15. I’d seem to wake up... but not. I’d still be dreaming, still in a weird place in my head and not seeing the room or where I was - kind of like sleep walking - but you can talk to me and have a conversation with me. A surreal one, but I still interact - just not rationally or according to the reality in my dreams rather than the real world. The next morning? I do not remember a thing, not as a teenager and not now. In fact it could be a weird conspiracy between my parents and Beloved to make me think I’m insane.

Needless to say this FREAKS Beloved, especially since whatever I am seeing in the night is apparently pretty scary - more a waking nightmare than a waking dream.

Can I keep the deep super-sleep but drop the scary beloved freaking?

Comments

[only-playing.livejournal.com]

First of all, have you been diagnosed with sleep apnea, or has anyone in your family. The non-breathing is a sign of that.

Second, and this is my psych major coming out, have you been depressed or under severe amounts of stress lately?

Third, have you been taking any new non prescription medicines?

If no to all of the above, I think your circadian rhythms changed for some reason. It happens.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

1) No.... buuuuut it's also the kind of thing none of us would ever go to the doctors for

2) I'm alwasys under stress kinda... but I wouldn't say I'm under any more stress than usual

3) Nope, No non-=prescrip or prescrip. I hate medicines of all kinds. I won't even take aspirin when I have a headache

Randomness for the win!

[jerril]

It does sound like you have/had Apnea.

if that has resolved itself, then your body isn't waking you up by failing to breath in your sleep. Considering you've managed to make do on what is really poor quality sleep with probably insufficient REM and etc for a very long time, now that you're actually able to sleep deeply I'm not 100% surprised that you aren't sleeping as long (same total "quality" of sleep in less time) and that your dream states are totally wibbly.

That said, I've never heard of apnea spontaneously resolving itself.

I'd expect that if your apnea stays resolved, you'll eventually settle into a new and more stable pattern.

I do something like your waking dreamstate when my sleep cycles are disrupted; if I keep getting woken up because my partner is snoring or something, I'll spend a good 10 minutes in the morning with my eyes open and tracking targets, able to hear and remember what I'm hearing, but totally dreaming that I'm standing up and walking around, trying to turn off the radio, etc.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

So, after dealing with this apnea for years my body may have finally beat it and that's sent my sleep patterns haywire/to normal. But the sudden change fo sleep patterns (and deep REM sleep) may prompt the waking dream weirdness.

That could be it. I wonder if it will resolve itself

[beladibaby.livejournal.com]

I'm also a very light sleeper, from the sounds of it you and I have very similar sleep patterns. Over the years I have had bouts where for a few days to a couple of weeks I will suddenly start sleeping very deeply for a few hours and waking up feeling well rested and energetic. Hubby calls it "dead sleep" since I don't move at all. I also have waking dreams, very odd dreams that feel as if I'm awake, that I wake up wondering if I have been dreaming or if it all happened when I have "dead sleep" bouts. Usually one of these cycles happens when I'm coming out of a very busy and/or stressful few weeks. I have always figured it was my body's way of forcing me to get the rest I need to recover from the stress and lack of sleep I normally operate on. It usually only happens for a few days to weeks then I'm back to the normal sleep so light a leaf falling off a tree outside will wake me up....lol.
I do second that you should see about getting checked out for sleep apnea. Hubby does the same holding of breath in his sleep and it scares the ever loving life out of me. Better safe than sorry on that front.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Maybe my body has just decided it needs some of the dead sleep, but I'm not sure what stressful thing would have prompted it - or my waking dreams that i don't remember but freak everyone else out.

I'll be glad when my sleep is back to normal and I wake up every 10 minutes. I'm used to that

The sleep apnea thing is something I've had for years - it's only just stopped. IU never real;ly considered it a problem or dangerous.

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

The sleep apnea thing is something I've had for years - it's only just stopped. IU never real;ly considered it a problem or dangerous.

While it may not *seem* like a problem, sleep apnea can cause and/or aggravate all sorts of things... and of course, right now the only thing I can think of off the top of my head is high blood pressure. But I know that just before my dad was diagnosed and put on a CPAP machine, he was falling asleep in meetings at work, and *always* tired. Now that he's got a CPAP, he's getting much better quality sleep, and is somewhat healthier (now he just needs to get back to the gym on a regular basis).

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

ok - that would bother me too. Although if it's just been for a week, I'd say you've got a week or two more of 'maybe it'll just randomly shift back' before the panic really sets in.

The waking dreams sound horrible - that may be something worth taking to the a medic if they continue. I have a friend who's been suffering with night terrors who's due to a sleep clinic in a week or two, so at least in some parts of the world some doctors take it seriously enough to refer.

(If you do go to the doctor they're almost certainly going to ask you to send a week or two with no cafienne and no alcohol or other such things.)

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I think I'll give it until june before I think I get myself to a doc to sort out my head because it's freaky

It doesn't bother me because I don't remember it, but it really worries Beloved. It scares him to have me APPARENTLY awake but terrified and reacting to things he can't see

What? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ladydyani.livejournal.com]

Apnea maybe?

[ladydyani.livejournal.com]

Whoops, just saw that someone else suggested it.

It's a possibility though.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

it's looking likely

[klgaffney.livejournal.com]

yeah, it sounds like you've been sleeping less, because you've been sleeping deeply, and you're sleeping deeply because you're not having the same issues anymore. huh.

the waking nightmare thing sounds like stress and/or anxiety about something. w tends to do that sort of thing, and i have to be careful waking him.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

Maybe that's it - maybe all the stress I am used to has just decreased a lot. I think my life is issue free for the first time in a long time

I can imagine he wakes up very disorientated and acting weird and scary - and not good weird and scary either