Insomniacs incorporate!

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, fellow chronic sleeplessness ones…what do you do when you reach that semi-arbitrary point on the clock? Do you press on, say “f* it” and stay up, hoping for a better day tomorrow? Do you try for a power nap figuring some is better than nothing? Last-resort medications? If you’ve been this way a long time, has your default response changed?

Me, I’ve been insomniac my entire life (I think my cues are just off, because daytime naps work within ten minutes, and generally don’t make me anxious). If it gets past 3 AM or so, even if I’ve had some wine or another sedative, it’s usually better for me to just stay awake. I can’t powernap anymore. Well, unless it’s really short, but who’s going to enforce that? Alarms don’t work well for me if they are in the very near future–my brain just makes me stay up till alarm goes off.

What do you do when you can’t sleep?

2

I’m doing it right now.

3

It’s not that late.

4

Lifelong insomniac with one brief 5 or 6 year period where I slept like a baby. When I wake up I get up almost immediately. If I get tired an hour or two later I go back to bed. I typical fall asleep easaily about 9:30, I seldom sleep past 3 am 2am is more typical. I go through frequent bouts lasting a week or more where I don’t get more than 15 or 20 minutes sleep maybe 3 or 4 times per night.

5

I stubbornly keep trying to get sleep until the alarm goes off. Some sleep has to be better than none at all. I think.

6

Me too. I’ll of course invariably fall asleep about 20 minutes before the alarm goes off, but I do feel I’m a tiny bit better off with even a little sleep.