# Dealing with a sleep disorder

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-a-sleep-disorder/692276>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 3, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-a-sleep-disorder/692276 "2014-07-03T15:46:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-a-sleep-disorder/692276/1 "2014-07-03T15:46:50Z")

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After dealing with a sleep disorder for the past 2 1/2 years where 4 hours sleep is heaven I think I finally hit the right button. I tried coffee moderation, drinking coffee at night , Tv on, TV off, 1 pillow 3 pillows etc. nothing worked.

About 2 weeks ago I went back to having my early evening cup of coffee and it seemed to help. I am thinking now it wasn’t so much the coffee that actually helped me sleep as much as it was the coffee sharpening me up just a tad so I could plan tomorrow better. I just realized I have always had a plan for the next day which I usually settled on early the evening before. I find now I can relax, watch a movie and then drift off to sleep and sleep for 6 hours or close to it. I have removed some complicated unneccessary clutter from my day to day activities and make it a point to tie up what I consider loose ends even though I am not being pressured by anyone.

I never realized how much it bothered me just knowing I had to get a box out to someone even though time was not really an issue. From this point forward I plan to stop volunteering for commitments that are not really important.

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Being recently retired I tend to over estimate how much time I have on my hands. Thought I would post this in case anyone else might be experiencing a similar thing.
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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dealing-with-a-sleep-disorder/692276/2 "2014-07-03T18:37:46Z")

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Interesting thought. Maybe… just maybe… I should try that myself and see what happens. It does sound counter-intuitive at first, doesn’t it?

I tend to be a split-sleeper. Commonly, I only manage to get about 4 hours of sleep a night (amidst many additional hours of laying in bed, just waiting patiently – or not so patiently – to fall asleep). Then, sometime in the afternoon, I get sleepy again and take a nap for another 2 to 4 hours or so.