tavie.com

I've been reading about sleep disorders a lot lately. I don't know if it's a good idea or not; perhaps it's more likely to impair my ability to fall asleep if I'm over-alert to symptoms of various disorders. But I don't think so. I've never tended towards the hypochondriatic. So I guess it's okay.

I've lurked on the sleep disorder newsgroup for years, but only sporadically. Mostly the discussion there centers around sleep apnea and treatments thereof (C-pap, Bi-pap, all the paps).

Last week's cover story in the New York Times Magazine was about parasomnia, those really scary sleep disorders where the sufferers wake up bloody or try to assault their bedmates or eat gallons of ice cream in their sleep. I'm thinking that parasomnias are more common than we think, because just describing the article to the closest person at hand (Gina) brought anecdotes about people who do these scary things in their sleep.

I think it's creepy, not waking up after punching walls. I did wake up once with splinters in my hand; I'd apparently been dragging my hand on the wooden floor in my sleep. (My bed, being a bottom bunk, is fairly close to the floor.) And I think Spike must have bitten my toe a couple of weeks ago while I was sleeping.

But my sleep disorders tend more towards the Displaced Sleep Phase Syndrome, the unhealthy cycle of caffeine and melatonin dependancy, and the fact that there's just better tv on at night.

My part-time roomie is the queen of sleep disorders: chronic insomnia, allergies, hypersensitivy to light and noise. And now that I think about it, I can't think of a single person in my life who sleeps "normally". (I encourage you to chime in if you are one of the people in my life who do.) Everyone I know gets too little sleep, or too much. (The too muches are the ones who develop DSPS, by the way. They're in "drifting periods" of their lives, with little to do during the day to compel them to wake up on time, stretching their internal body clocks. I know I developed my DSPS when I was a high school dropout with no reason to get up in the morning. Even my dad is starting to get this. Since his retirement, he stays up later and later.)

Why are you in Tavie's head? 5:49 PM | shower me with attention