Restful sleep - I don't get it

In My Humble Opinion
1

By that I mean I don’t get restful sleep most of the time, and also I don’t get why sometimes, for reasons beyond me, I do.

I consider myself a hypersomniac, meaning I need (or at least I think I need) more sleep than I should/do. If I have to work the next day, I’m usually in bed by 10 pm, 11 at the latest, and I get up around 7:15 or 7:30 am. Once upon a time I used to drink a lot of coffee, but now I limit myself to one cup of coffee or tea when I get to work, and absolutely no more caffeine for the rest of the day. (That is, unless I don’t have to work the next day.) However, I do smoke like a chimney, and nicotine is a stimulant. I don’t have trouble falling asleep, because by 10 pm I’m pretty much tranquilized by my meds, but I do experience frequent early morning awakenings. However, I can fall back asleep quickly enough.

So usually when I wake up in the morning, I feel hung over from the sleep - my head’s all cloudy and I just want to go back to bed.

However, last night, I was in chat with my board crush until about 11, then took 50 mg trazodone to help me sleep. Once the trazodone kicked in, I got the munchies (side-effect) and got up to make myself some Tater Tots®. I ended up settling down to sleep around midnight.

I still had sleep disruptions, but woke up feeling great, and I still feel great. No clouds in my head. So what’s the deal? Anyone else had this inconsistency in terms of what their magic sleep formula is? I should add that I can have bad sleep whether I take trazodone or not.

The only thing I can think might have been different was that I had my bedroom window open for the first time in ages, since it was so warm last night.

Anyway, I’m not going to knock it, especially since I have the afternoon off. (Kick ass! :D)

I’m interested in others’ experiences.

  • s.e.
2

I don’t think 8 hours of sleep would necessarily be considered “more than usual” I need 8-9 hours and don’t consider it a problem. I must be in bed by 11-11:30 and I get up at 8-8:30. yeah its more than my boyfriend needs but… so what?

3

Well, my sleeping pattern is pretty unusual, too.

It used to be (a few years ago) that as long as I had the chance to catch up on sleep on the weekends, I’d be fine going on 4 or 5 hours of sleep each night all week long. I miss those days!

Now I find that no matter what time I go to bed, when I have to wake up in the morning, I’m tired. If I go to bed really late, then I’m more tired (generally).

The only time I wake up and I’m not tired is if there is no alarm set and I can wake up at my leisure.

So, if I go to bed at 11 and wake up at 8 (to go to school, with alarm) I’m tired even though I’ve had 9 hours of sleep, but if I go to bed at 5 and wake up at, say, 11 (I rarely sleep later than that), even though I’ve only had 6 hours of sleep, I’m not tired.

4

I don’t know about you, but I find that if I sleep for more than 7 hours at a time, I wake up feeling very tired. 6-7 and I’m fine, but more than 7 and suddenly I feel like I could sleep for 3 more hours.

5

I used to have major problems getting to sleep, having restful sleep, and trying to function on very little sleep (for me, like 3 hours a night). Some things that helped me were turning my bed so it now lies north-south (with my head north and feet pointing south), forcing myself to stick to a more regular bedtime schedule, forcing myself physically to get out of bed when I wake up in the morning, and doing something when I can’t get to sleep instead of just lying there and becoming more and more frustrated as the hours and minutes tick by.
The quality of my sleep has dramatically improved over the last 6-8 months; I find I no longer need the amount of caffeine I once did to get through the morning, I have more vivid and involved dreams that I can actually remember when I wake up, and I feel like I am functioning more productively. I tend to get into bed at about 10:30/11:00pm, and read until I know sleep is imminent (often at 12:30 or so). I get up at about 6:30/6:45 on workdays sometimes without the alarm, but more often than not with; and at around 8:00/9:00 on the weekends (when I’ve usually been out later, punished my body a little more than normal).