ID:275341
![]() Oct 12 2003, 11:34 pm
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It's 2:30am and I have to goto school tomorrow and I can't sleep. I was just wondering if anyone knows how I can tell if I have insomnia. Some times I have trouble sleeping but not all the time. It's usually just because theres too much on my mind. Plus I'm pretty depressed right now and I don't know why. This really sucks guys and I would appreciet it if you could help me out.
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Spending too much time on the computer often causes me to have problems getting to sleep. Also if you can't sleep and get on the computer it usually doesn't help. heh Or you could just stay up all night. By the time you've been awake for 38 hours you're usually ready to collapse from exhuastion :). |
Heh, I can run for longer than that before I start to get tired. I have a bad case of insomnia (doctor proven and all), and I usually need to force myself to sleep, but if I don't I can go for a solid week before starting to get tired.
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[Edited exclamation]! The most I have ever stayed awake is 52 hours! And I was really pushing myself not to fall asleep! I wish I had insomnia! I normally sleep 7 hours every night and still wake up tired, and spend the whole day dreaming of going to sleep!
~Ease~ |
I have sleep problems and have for my entire life. It sounds like you have a more minor form of what I have.
If I stay up too late, I will get to the point that my body wont let me go to sleep, and will only allow it sleep when my body clock tells it it can, Example: In the summer I could only sleep for about 4 hours every 2 days for a little while (I even made a topic similar to this one but longer whne it happened.). Now though, even if I am tired, I have lots of trouble falling asleep before 11:00pm. One thing that always helps me is if I don't fall asleep within an hour, to get up, and do something non-stimulating to my brain. Also avoid watching TV, or doing anything that makes your mind active at all before bedtime. Don't go to bed until you have been bored for about 10 minutes. Reading (pfft) or maybe a crossword puzzle would work good to keep you busy without stimulating your mind. I don't really know the exact definition of insomnia, but I had temperary insomnia that time during the summer, but what I have right now I would call just sleep problems, and it is also what I would say you have. I would say you have insomnia when it becomes a more constant thing, and not about an active mind. During insomnia you can pretty much have you mind completely turned off along with your body, but it wont make that last transition from wake to sleep. Here is the link to my post in the summer: [link] |
It could be PMS. I get insomnia during PMS. I'll go to bed exhausted and my mind will keep racing for 7 hours until I manage to grab half an hour of sleep before I have to get up.
My guess is that it's just what your body is going through, if you're young. The 18 and under set often suffers from poor sleep, and it isn't always from staying up late and partying. But depression is also a common reason for sleep disturbance. I would certainly chat with a doctor... few people really want to take pills, but it could be helpful. They even have sleeping pills with some antidepressant effects. I do recommend a doctor, but if you'd like to try some OTC stuff, antihistamines like benadryl help some people. It makes you drowsy. Z |
your minds too active... most likely if you're depressed you know why you're depressed, and you're most likely thinking about it, quite often then not. Another thing is that being on the computer usually keeps your mind active enough that it can stay active for long periods of time, try reading a book or something before you go to bed... books usually are read slower then the mind owuld like to so it slows down your thinking processes (an idea by one of my college teachers).
I'd reccommend doing something athletic too during the day... that'll tire ya out!! Perhaps drink a small glass of wine before you go to bed, usually helps and wine in small amounts is good for you! if you stay up too late also it's harder to get to sleep, and nothermind those comments about pop and coffee... Try drinking a good amount of caffeine (if you're ok with drinking caffeine) 6 hours before you plan on going to bed, what caffeine does is puts your body in a state of emergency, then when it wears off after 6 hours your body is usually extremely tired. |
Benadryl makes me feel very distant, and I'm unable to concentrate. It really sucks when I take it before school, especially before bodybuilding.
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I stayed up 72 hours and didn't even feel tired...Actually I didn't really mean to stay up I kind of just did and then I just went to bed because people started thinking I was on drugs from all the lack of sleep and what not. Funny thing is I can go to sleep at 5:30 and wake up at 6 and not be tired...I know I'm weird aren't I...
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what caffeine does is puts your body in a state of emergency, then when it wears off after 6 hours your body is usually extremely tired. I hate to nitpick*, but that's not even close to what caffiene does. Caffiene doesn't affect your body much at all, it affects your mind. Contrary to what many people think, caffiene doesn't boost your energy levels or give you a shot of adrenaline or whatever. When your body feel tired, it sends chemical signals to the brain. When these signals hit the brain is the first that you hear about it... that's when "you" feel tired. Caffiene happens to be the right size and shape to plug up the receptors where these chemical signals are supposed to go. Your body is just as tired and fatigued as ever, you don't know it. If you take enough caffiene, your brain doesn't even get the routine low-level, background reports of fatigue and tiredness... that's the caffiene "buzz." If you take enough caffiene over a period of a week or two, your brain will adapt by making more receptors, which means you must drink more caffiene, and when you stop drinking it, you get hit harder then normal because you have more open receptors than your brain knows what to do with. In addition to extreme drowsiness, this can cause shakes, vertigo, nausea, and worse. If you don't normally overindulge in caffiene, all that will happen to you at the end of a 6 hour duration (assuming that's when your dose wears off) is that you'll suddenly feel as tired as you should feel anyway. It might feel a little bit more because it hits you all at once, but unless you're an addict, coming down from caffiene doesn't create "extra tiredness" or the sensation thereof any more than caffiene creates extra energy. And the more you rely on caffiene's effects to regulate your sleep cycle, the less it will work, because the more the brain will become adapted to it... and getting a headache right before bed isn't a great way to get to sleep... if you ever get up to the level of a true addict, you won't be comfortable enough to sleep without some caffiene in your body, which will naturally tend to interrupt your sleep cycle at odd times. *Obvious lie. |
Hedgemistress wrote:
I hate to nitpick*, but that's not even close to what caffiene does. Caffiene doesn't affect your body much at all, it affects your mind. Contrary to what many people think, caffiene doesn't boost your energy levels or give you a shot of adrenaline or whatever. Sounds like any other hardcore drug to me like speed or herion... but why is it still legal? Because people don't have fun with it thats why. |
I hate to nitpick*, but it's caffeine, not caffiene.
Hahahahaha. Interesting reading, Lexy. (Though for the poster who said it sounded like a hardcore drug like heroin... how does it sound like a hardcore drug like heroin?) Z |
Of course some people use it to have fun... just like some people use cocaine just as a stimulant, to stay awake and alert and sharp and whatever.
The difference is that you're much less likely to die (or kill someone) from the effects of drinking coffee than you are from snorting cocaine. |
In my defense, let me just say that I dare not display an awareness of its correct spelling, lest my supreme knowledge of the subject shake the foundations of Mt. Olympus and I shall be struck down for my own hubris.
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Hedgemistress wrote:
The difference is that you're much less likely to die (or kill someone) from the effects of drinking coffee than you are from snorting cocaine. I'm sure if you had enough caffine in your system you could either die or possibly kill someone. That's true for any drug, anyways usually the only drugs people kill other people on are hallucinogens, and cocaine isn't a hallucinogen. Of course you can't have people walking around the streets trippin on PCP or acid, but I don't see the problem with people walking around high on cocaine or weed or some other "background substance". |
Zilal wrote:
Interesting reading, Lexy. (Though for the poster who said it sounded like a hardcore drug like heroin... how does it sound like a hardcore drug like heroin?) Because that's the effect herion has on your brain. It block the disphoria receptors and increases the euphoria recptors. Most drugs have the same effect on your brain I'm just pointing out that caffeine is a drug just like herion, cocaine or tweak. Not really like weed though, weed is more like alcohal but I'm not so sure on the chemical reaction. |
I'm sure if you had enough caffine in your system you could either die or possibly kill someone. Let's get together and have a contest. We'll sit down. You do a line of coke... I'll drink a can of coke. Then you do another line of coke, and I'll drink another can of coke. usually the only drugs people kill other people on are hallucinogens, and cocaine isn't a hallucinogen. You're right that cocaine is not a hallucinogen, but the rest of this sentence is pure, 100% uncut primo Columbian bullspit. The only drugs people kill other people on are hallucinogens? So... drunken bar fights never turn fatal? Drunk or stoned drivers never do more than scratch their hit-and-run victims? People in cocaine or meth induced rage have never shot anybody or any place to hell? Give me a hit of whatever it is you're smoking, because the world you live in sounds like paradise. Marijuana and alcohol in particular are difficult drugs to pin down. Depending upon the individual and a lot of other factors, they can act like stimulants, depressants, and/or hallucinogens, with some people manifesting symptoms of all three from the same prolonged dosage! Some people indeed just "mellow out" when they're high on marijuana... but some people honestly go out of their skulls. I'm really pretty doubtful about the rationality of banning marijuana and allowing alcohol... they're really on the same level as each other in every way that I think can be measured... cocaine and heroin, though... that's insane. They're not only in the same league as marijuana and alcohol (and caffeine is a minor leaguer compared to both those drugs), but they're in a different sport altogether. Like, table tennis vs. ultimate fighting champion. I'm already over my quota of monstrous argument threads for this year, so I'm going to end it with this sumnation: 1) Trying to argue for legalization of marijuana? Fine, as long as you're making valid points. There's so many rational, good, intelligent reasons for decriminalizing pot that I'm sure it would be legal by now... if not for the fact that most of its advocates are too stoned to think of them? 2) Trying to argue for legalization of marijuana... by saying it's no worse than caffeine? Insane. Yes, they're both mind-altering and addictive... does that mean they're the same? Hey, I've got a nickel. I'll give it to you for a hundred dollar bill. I mean, they're both money, so clearly, it's an even exchange, right? 3) Trying to argue for the legalization of almost all drugs... by saying that cocaine and marijuana are no worse than caffeine but none of them are as bad as a little LSD? I think that one speaks for itself. |
You could also be drinking too much stuff like Coke/Pepsi/ect. Then again you could just not be active enough (Sitting on your butt all day doesn't burn off any energy).
On a side note, your depression could be linked to your lack of sleep.