X-Posted from my journal
I have been having extreme difficulties sleeping lately. I mean, it has been an ongoing thing for my entire life, but lately it has been getting ridiculous.
3 hours of sleep a night is enough to render one's mental capacities severely diminished. Even on weekends, I rarely get more than 5 hours of sleep. It bloody well adds up to some severe sleep debt.
On thursday, after going to sleep at around 5 am, I woke up at 7 and decided I had enough. So, I went back to sleep, and I woke up at 3 pm.
I decided, since I have to write a column, I might as well write it on sleep disorders. It's not like I'm sleeping. I haven't written it yet, but the research I have found is pretty interesting:
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS), for instance, is a fairly common disorder of sleep timing. People with DSPS tend to fall asleep at very late times, and also have difficulty waking up in time for normal work, school, or social needs. Typically, the affected person is unable to fall asleep until 3 or 4 a.m. or later and finds it difficult or impossible to sustain alertness during the day if they have to wake before 10 or 11 a.m
If they are forced to rise at 7 a.m. or so to go to a 9-to-5 job or to school, they become seriously sleep deprived-but even then cannot fall asleep until 3 or 4 a.m.
The disorder often first appears in late childhood and adolescence. In fact, some studies indicate that as many as 15 to 20 percent of university students may be affected, though their symptoms tend to be discounted as simply a side-effect of puberty.
3 hours of sleep a night is enough to render one's mental capacities severely diminished. Even on weekends, I rarely get more than 5 hours of sleep. It bloody well adds up to some severe sleep debt.
On thursday, after going to sleep at around 5 am, I woke up at 7 and decided I had enough. So, I went back to sleep, and I woke up at 3 pm.
I decided, since I have to write a column, I might as well write it on sleep disorders. It's not like I'm sleeping. I haven't written it yet, but the research I have found is pretty interesting:
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS), for instance, is a fairly common disorder of sleep timing. People with DSPS tend to fall asleep at very late times, and also have difficulty waking up in time for normal work, school, or social needs. Typically, the affected person is unable to fall asleep until 3 or 4 a.m. or later and finds it difficult or impossible to sustain alertness during the day if they have to wake before 10 or 11 a.m
If they are forced to rise at 7 a.m. or so to go to a 9-to-5 job or to school, they become seriously sleep deprived-but even then cannot fall asleep until 3 or 4 a.m.
The disorder often first appears in late childhood and adolescence. In fact, some studies indicate that as many as 15 to 20 percent of university students may be affected, though their symptoms tend to be discounted as simply a side-effect of puberty.