Does anyone else suffer from any forms of sleep disorders?

[drauch]

Taken from my shitty facebook:

SERIOUS FACEBOOK TIME: Does anyone else suffer from any forms of sleep disorders/parasomnia? It's gotten so bad for me this past couple of months that I don't even want to go to sleep tonight out of irrational fear/annoyance. Today I've been dreadfully tired because I had shitty dreams all night--oh, and the fucking spider that was crawling above my head. A real spider, even, a species of Cellar spider. But yeah, this was a mild hallucination, followed by a mild act of somnambulism (sleep walking): turning on a light that didn't exist, finding the real light, turning it on, and then searching my bed for the aforementioned spider. I usually come to after I search for the arachnid, realizing I am a bloody fool and partially insane. There is never even a sense of fear in the whole thing, but more so a sense of urgency that, yeah, there is a fucking 5 inch spider in my bed. I love arachnids. I study them. I'll pick them up. I don't want them in my goddamn bed, though.



This is the 5th spider within 3 months. Oh, and the fuckin' kindergartner wearing a backpack hanging onto my wall. That was probably the only spooky one. Thank Crom the little bastard didn't look at me, for I probably would have shit the bed. He lasted like 10 seconds and was the most vivid. The spiders generally scurry away into some unknown place after dangling about or vanishing into some sort of dream sub-space.



I know for a fact from my dentist that I suffer from some pretty shitty Bruxism, which is the grinding of your teeth during sleep. I have to wear some disgusting plastic mouth guard that makes sleep near impossible so I don't destroy my teeth by the time I'm 30. I haven't worn it for a couple of weeks, so yeah, looks like I better get used to apple sauce and mashed potatoes by 35. Seems like after a bit of research even Bruxism can cause anxiety, depression, and a tired human throughout the day, despite having the recommended sleep for a person my age. OH REALLY.



As I look back onto the past of my garbage existence of sleep deprivation and the questioning of my sanity there is a plethora of odd things I've done in my sleep. My grandma said when I was a baby I would just sit in my crib at night with my eyes wide open staring at the ceiling. I recall times when I was younger and experienced other weird mild hallucinations: the man on the moon, the dead cat specter floating above my bed, and other little blobs and such moving about the room. As a child such a thing is fairly common, and I would probably rule this stuff out, but it's all getting the weirder as I type this out.



The worst was getting up and thinking my entire family was dead, or gone, or something. I frantically "looked" everywhere around the house, couldn't find them, so I called my neighbor to ask if he could come over.His mother promptly told me to "go back to bed" and probably ruled it off as some sort of prank or child irrationality. Then my parents found me crying in the front room. It was 3:00 A.M..



I had a few mild ones after that. There were times I woke up downstairs after falling asleep upstairs. Sometimes I would come downstairs and start jabbering nonsense to my mom as she watched TV, then just turn around and go back stairs. Sometimes I would wake my parents up and tell them about my friends or ask them if we could do something. These were never freaky, although it was a little weird waking up in random places. I recall trying to sleep with my parents when I was a wee lad, but they really hated it. They said I would constantly kick really hard and squirm and murmur, to which I just found out is Periodic limb movement disorder (PLMD), which I still do. I dunno how many times I hit the ex-girlfriend in my sleep, only to wake up to a very angry woman.



The spiders didn't come around until a few years ago. The worst time was when I woke up, saw a spider crawling on my ex-girlfriend's pillow and then frantically tried to find it, almost knocking over the lamp and pummeling her. After that I think I saw one more but I kinda brushed it off, knowing that it wasn't real. Ever since then--until now, of course--it's been silly stuff: waking up walking in the kitchen, getting ready for work at like 3 in the morning (I usually came to after brushing my teeth), or just getting up and walking about 5 feet before my neurons started goin' off.



I dunno, the pieces of the puzzle are really coming together. After thinking about this whole ordeal I'm starting to realize that the only time period in my life that I wasn't associated with such insanity was in my early twenties--or, the time period when I slept an average of 30 minutes to and hour and a half a night. Guess I didn't have time to slap the shit out of someone or go AWOL from my brain or see a fucking Silk Spider or Pink-toed Tarantula dangling from my curtain. At least my hallucinations are of real species...ugh.



Have I been batshit crazy for 25 years?



I dunno, the whole thing really is quite humorous to a certain degree but I'm kinda concerned that I'm gonna wake up to some creepy figure standing above my bed and freak out and kill Darryl or something. I've actually found a forum with tons of people who experience the same things, yet none of them offer any sort of help or constructive criticism to stop such unwanted actions. No, I don't care that the spider represents some Native American totem of my strength and fear, and no, I wasn't drunk (this never happens after drinking) when I was 8 years old.



But yeah, this isn't some sort of social plea for help crap, because it really doesn't bother me--as I said, the whole thing is kinda delightfully hilarious in an odd sort of way, minus the subsequent negative effects that sometimes occur during the next day--but has anyone experienced such a thing? Know any family members or friends? Any advice is welcome. Trolling as well, I guess.



May decide on purchasing a night light since I am a big baby. Or just keep hitting the Old Crow like I am tonight.



TL;DR VERSION: I sleep walk/hallucinate/grind my teeth/talk/have every sleep disorder ever. Do you know how to get rid of it?

[trap15]

Holu fuck dude. You should seriously go see a psychiatrist. I occasionally skip sleep because I can't sleep (and throw my sleep schedule off by 12-16 hours), and have practically no solid sleep schedule, but your condition sounds really bad. I hope you can figure out what's up with your situation and get it fixed soon, that sounds like it's awful to have to deal with most days.

[JBC]

Aside from the occasional sleep walking and talking I've suffered from violent sleep paralysis attacks my whole life and eventually developed a bad insomnia condition because of it. Sleep paralysis is some seriously scary shit that is oftentimes accompanied by hallucinations. It almost had me convinced I was being haunted As it turns out it's basically what happens when you regain some form of consciousness at the outset of stage 3 REM sleep, wherein your body will be locked up and your breathing will be unnaturally slowed. You're still dreaming while you are awake, and because your brain suspects something is horribly wrong you'll just naturally create the scariest shit you can think of to be attacking you.

As it turns out it's a worldwide thing that's happened to people for ages. Almost everyone reports seeing an entity in the room with them and feels as if they are being pinned down and suffocated. There's flashing lights and loud buzzing noises, sometimes you'll float up in the air, and sometimes you'll have scary bugs crawling on you.

Mine often occur with a dream that I'm being bitten on the ribs or back by a large spider or centipede. I'll struggle to pull it off but my muscles feel too weak. It always finds a way to latch back on to me and I can't move very well and then I can't breathe.

Ever since I learned about other people's cases I've developed a great skill of remembering what's happening to me and acting accordingly to wake myself up. I just remain calm and repeat "I am powerful, I can wake up" or some variation on that while trying to move my fingers calmly. If you don't panic and stay focused and confident you'll wake up in a few moments.

Hope maybe that helps in some way, your condition sounds like it could be related.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

(this never happens after drinking)

Well, there you go.

Seriously though, you could always try smoking pot before bed; worst you'll get is the munchies from what I've heard. Although you live in a country where getting caught smoking marijuana is treated akin to committing murder in some places... so yeah, sounds like you're fucked.

[JBC]

Just don't drink too much red wine, especially if it's not super fresh. It's one of the things commonly listed to bring on lots of sleep problems and I've experienced it myself multiple times. I try to stay away from the wine now and instead make mix drinks with vodka or rum. Pretty good sleep aides!

[burgerkingdiamond]

driving puts me to sleep. I work only half an hour away from where I live, but everyday I have trouble falling asleep driving home.

The thing is that I'm not sleepy before or after the drive. Something about the road hypnotizes me.

[RGC]

drauch, could've sworn you chimed-in last time this was discussed:

http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.ph ... t=insomnia

turns out, not.

My brain hates sleep.

[RGC]

Also, I imagine you do already know how to get rid of it, but you don't really want to. And when I say you, I mean me, and when I say me, I mean we.

My brain hates dull routines, so it insists on something more. Sounds like yours does too.

[DEL]

I hope you didn't opt to take that swine flu vaccination Pandemrix - one of its many side effects is narcolepsy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcolepsy
They withdrew it because of the people getting narcolepsy.

[burgerkingdiamond]

I hope you didn't opt to take that swine flu vaccination Pandemrix - one of its many side effects is narcolepsy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcolepsy
They withdrew it because of the people getting narcolepsy.

Nope, I never bother with flu vaccines. I only get the flu once every 3-4 years, if it happens then whatever. It's just an excuse to take off some work and play videogames.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I sometimes get frustrated due to having an getting easily overtired and having irregular sleep patterns, caused by working so many shift and night jobs in my working life. But reading about someone with a chronic sleep disorder makes me think i'm lucky.

Although it also depends how well a person can operate while deprived of sleep. Some folk seem to be fine with a couple of hours sleep, while others like me can be like the walking dead they don't get 6-9 hours.

Atleast I dont regularly sleep for 12 hours like I did in my teens

[neorichieb1971]

Working and sleeping is all I do. I can't do one without the other.

[Moniker]

I used to get horrible insomnia, to the point where I was actually afraid of sleep itself. Nothing worked except extreme sleep regulation. You decide on a absolute wakeup time that you never change, then how many hours you're currently getting, subtract 30 mins, and only let yourself go to bed once you hit the time where you'll get that much sleep. Add 15 mins a week until you're at 7-8 hours. I was absolutely miserable for the first month, but stuck to it. Worked beautifully and haven't needed meds or anything else since.

I also used to grind my teeth. Using a bite guard and breaking myself of the habit while awake seems to have done the trick.

[system11]

I have legendary sleeping problems - I don't remember having regular good sleep for at least 10 years, but I had problems before that too. It will certainly make me die sooner than I would have.

1) Tinnitus - that's the high pitched (in my case) whistling in your head. I have to run a large slow floor fan to give a distraction noise, or this will keep me awake.
2) Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) - absolute torture, I won't go as far as to say I wouldn't wish it on anyone because I really hate my ex boss. This is a stretchy crawly sensation in the back of your legs that JUST WONT GO unless you keep moving them. It gets worse at nights which is just ideal for not sleeping. I'm not even joking that this one has made me so desperate that I keep a small hammer by the bed, and when it's really bad I hit my muscles because pain is easier to sleep with than the stretchy crawly torture.
3) Thinking. I can't stop - it's a mixture of things, don't have to be stressful ones but often are. Think, think, think - brain just won't stop.

It often takes me 4 hours to get to sleep. Our much championed National Health Service will not prescribe the drugs I need to fix item 2 because they are too expensive, despite the fact that I'm a high tax payer. Excellent. My sleep problems have been so bad for so long that my doctor actually advised that I -should- have a few drinks to help me sleep sometimes, rather than sleeping pills that don't (item 2 overpowers them easily).

[Moniker]

I'm sure you've tried this for Restless Legs, but before they came out with whatever med was made for it, my dad would load up on tylenol and advil and wash it down a lot of milk. Worked for him, anyway. Might be better than nothing.

For the thinking problem, that was the cause of my insomnia. Not anxiety or stress.. just constant thinking. Writing a journal an hour before bed helps, but sleep regulation works for realzies. Better than booze, narcotics, and superillegaldrugs.

[Vexorg]

I don't think I have anything too weird aside from some occasional insomnia (Melatonin seems to help that,) but on occasion I've suspected I might have some sort of Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder. This is basically where your sleep phase is several hours off from "normal," but otherwise you sleep normally. This can cause significant problems for people who have to work a normal schedule, but has never caused me much issue since the fields I work in tend to not to start work too early in the morning. I find that left to my own devices I tend to go to bed somewhere around 2am most nights, although I've been able to adapt to an earlier schedule with a job that makes me get up earlier.

Then again, I could just be a run-of-the-mill night owl. Who knows?

[RGC]

Work Related Stress is another common contributing factor. However, like BF I've suffered pretty much as long as I can remember -- certainly before I was even of working age, and that was a long time ago. In the late nineties, I was regularly going through the kind of experiences drauch describes (minus the aracha-noids). I agree, in many cases routine is the obvious, and most effective way forward, if you're prepared to regiment your life. Also, the diary/plan-of-action thing can work wonders. Ultimately, I'm still battling though...

[xbl0x180]

Hahaha. I wonder if there's something in common here. I cannot function at all without at least 10 hours of sleep per day. This means I actually get by most of the week on sleep deficit, so that when I get to the weekend, I am sleeping 12-16 hours per day to "catch up." With sleep deficits comes difficulty in concentrating, confusion, euphoria and mania, physical lethargy/malaise/fatigue, among other things that make me look as if I was "drunk" or "high" to other people who aren't aware with what's going on.

The last time I tried to get this diagnosed and treated, the doctor reported me to the DMV and they suspended my driver's license. Hence, I refuse to go to a doctor and have this checked and just self-treat with tons of sugar, B12 drinks, caffeine pills, and other goodies. If cocaine was legal, I'd probably be on that

[brentsg]

1) Tinnitus - that's the high pitched (in my case) whistling in your head. I have to run a large slow floor fan to give a distraction noise, or this will keep me awake.
2) Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) - absolute torture, I won't go as far as to say I wouldn't wish it on anyone because I really hate my ex boss. This is a stretchy crawly sensation in the back of your legs that JUST WONT GO unless you keep moving them. It gets worse at nights which is just ideal for not sleeping. I'm not even joking that this one has made me so desperate that I keep a small hammer by the bed, and when it's really bad I hit my muscles because pain is easier to sleep with than the stretchy crawly torture.
3) Thinking. I can't stop - it's a mixture of things, don't have to be stressful ones but often are. Think, think, think - brain just won't stop.

I'm in a similar boat, it seems. I have #1 above. I struggled with it a ton because it went from nonexistent to very significant in the span of 1 night, thanks to a concert. My brain kind of locked into it as well. I keep a nice whole-room fan in the room outside my office and use a pretty calming cricket-sounding noise maker in the bedroom. I highly recommend the latter, as it sounds like I have the windows open.

Wife has #2 but I'm spared, fortunately. However I do suffer from sleep apnea as well. I fall just short of a level where they'd prescribe machines and such, but it's significant enough that sleep aid medicines seem to make it worse.

I can also sympathize with #3, but I seem to be able to curb it using a combo of 3mg malatonin and watching a 20-40 minute video (tv episode or something) on my iPad when I'm trying to fall asleep. It seems to settle me and also occupy the mind.

Probably nothing that will help you, but who knows..

[CStarFlare]

If I have trouble getting to sleep, it's because I don't really want to. So for me, the things people are describing here are kind of terrifying.

I vaguely recall one sleepwalking incident when I was young, where I wandered into my brother's closet and got stuck until my parents rescued me. I think it's a hilarious story, but I probably wouldn't if it were an ongoing thing.

[drauch]

Also, I imagine you do already know how to get rid of it, but you don't really want to. And when I say you, I mean me, and when I say me, I mean we.

My brain hates dull routines, so it insists on something more. Sounds like yours does too.

Well, I can't really find any firm answers in battling such a thing. What are ways to get rid of this, minus doctors and prescriptions? I mean, this is partly entertaining, yet it's kinda annoying being tired after 8 hours of sleep. I'm not even that concerned with completely stopping such problems, rather than I am at least dulling the experiences down. Aka no spiders/figures in my room.

[drauch]

I have legendary sleeping problems - I don't remember having regular good sleep for at least 10 years, but I had problems before that too. It will certainly make me die sooner than I would have.

1) Tinnitus - that's the high pitched (in my case) whistling in your head. I have to run a large slow floor fan to give a distraction noise, or this will keep me awake.
2) Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) - absolute torture, I won't go as far as to say I wouldn't wish it on anyone because I really hate my ex boss. This is a stretchy crawly sensation in the back of your legs that JUST WONT GO unless you keep moving them. It gets worse at nights which is just ideal for not sleeping. I'm not even joking that this one has made me so desperate that I keep a small hammer by the bed, and when it's really bad I hit my muscles because pain is easier to sleep with than the stretchy crawly torture.
3) Thinking. I can't stop - it's a mixture of things, don't have to be stressful ones but often are. Think, think, think - brain just won't stop.

It often takes me 4 hours to get to sleep. Our much championed National Health Service will not prescribe the drugs I need to fix item 2 because they are too expensive, despite the fact that I'm a high tax payer. Excellent. My sleep problems have been so bad for so long that my doctor actually advised that I -should- have a few drinks to help me sleep sometimes, rather than sleeping pills that don't (item 2 overpowers them easily).

Yeah, my RLS isn't that bad most of the time, but sometimes it gets pretty rough. I generally think to myself that the ultimate torture would be to be bound and not move your limbs. It drives me crazy to the point of harsh anxiety and hysteria if I can't move against my will.

And yeah, I only occasionally experience Tinnitus, but I'd love all those hours back when I laid in my bed thinking for 3+ hours about nonsense.

[louisg]

I used to have really crazy insomnia, but nothing as extreme as what's going on here. It really screwed me up in college, but somehow I got over it. The standard list of things to try for insomnia can work-- the trick is to try a couple new ones each week so you can tell what works and what doesn't. Lack of sleep can indeed cause hallucinations, though I never got to that point myself (though I did have plenty of days running on 3 and fewer hours of sleep).

What you're going through sounds horrible, and I wish you the best of luck. I know in my case I thought it would never end, but determination and strategy paid off. It's hard to do, and it sounds cheesy, but the only real advice I can give you is to stay positive! Also, melatonin can work wonders.

As someone mentioned above, watching daytime habits can do a lot for tooth grinding. Also, cutting out caffeine and beer helps a lot too, which took me by surprise. I know that's hard advice to take when you need to be sharp after a terrible night of sleep!

[drauch]

Ah! I was hoping caffeine wouldn't be brought up at all! I...need it. Bad.

[Vexorg]

Caffeine can be a tough habit to break (I see a lot of people around here who just can't function without their Diet Coke or their coffee) but I've managed to do just fine without it for quite a few years now. I think I've got an unusually low tolerance for the stuff though; back before I stopped drinking it I found that one can of Coke at 10am could keep me awake until 3am the next morning whether I wanted it to or not (and usually the answer was "not".) The last time I had a can of Coke a couple of years ago (after avoiding it for several years beforehand) I found that not only could I not sleep well that night, but that I was incredibly loopy for hours afterward.

[drunkninja24]

I've never had too many problems with insomnia, but it does always seem to happen at the worst possible times (ie I need to be somewhere early in the morning and I can't manage to fall asleep). The best I can suggest is to try some melatonin, or perhaps some OTC sleep aids (of course I'd recommend finding ones that aren't chemically habit-forming). As for the hallucinations, I feel like those may subside if you're able to get more consistent sleep. I had a few problems with that at a few points in my childhood when I wasn't sleeping during some stressful times in my family.

[spoot]

My current sleep disorder is the fact that our production EMR system is down........for 15 hours and counting so far.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

I've experienced what the op decsribed quite often in my life. I remember punching the wall next to my bed once because I thaught there was a big rat scurrying along. Sometimes i wake up in the middle of the room, and though I'm "theoretically" awake and see my surroundings, I can't shake off the illusion that I have to find something (like a door in the wall). Usually takes a minute or two to realize that I'm awake. The only time this was a problem for me was when my wife told me one morning that I tried to choke her in my sleep. Couldn't remember anything about it.

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

Oh, and I also grind my teeth in the night and usually I wake up up to a dozen times in the night, which doesn't exactly make me the happiest person during the day. Weed usually helps a lot, when I smoke it I sleep like a baby, but since I live in the most conservative state in Germany I have to endure dry spots regularly.

[ZacharyB]

Some scary stories happening here...

I've experienced having an involved hobby with lots of problem solving and little stress with a good, natural diet (no drugs, homemade foods) will allow for good sleep.

Stress has to be the biggest factor though. If it's so bad, it might be worth it to change jobs, even a lesser-paying job. Money isn't worth it if the quality of life to attain it becomes so bad.