I had an hour last night, or rather this morning, and I am exhausted. When my insomnia began ten years ago, I could go for days with little or no sleep, but not feel tired. I think lack of sleep is felt more the older a person gets. Certainly, I am so tired all of the time now, as to make it difficult to function even on a basic level. Some people however can exist on little sleep for a long time, without ever feeling tired. For instance, the singer Toyah Wilcox has slept only 3 hours per night for 36 years, yet said in an interview that she never feels tired, and always has a lot of energy. Such a person isn't considered an insomniac. It is only when it effects your day-to-day life that it is a problem.

i think sometimes i expect to much sleep when my body really just needs 5 hours..i feel fine after 5 hours straight sleep..
i dunno what to do i know that i should be tired but im not..i spose its better than being exhausted
i used to work out and be exhausted allday then sleep i forgot what that feeling feels like,however the last time i worked out i slept. i was reading before bed after i took my med aswell..maybye i should get back into that routine again..

Remember my other post about adenosine? Adenosine is the stuff that tells your brain that you are tired and should go to sleep.

I bet you don't have enough of it and that's why you don't feel tired.
You have all the signs of depleted adenosine.

Btw, if you stay up long enough, you will go in to a seizure and die. A kid in china stayed up and played world of war craft. After 7 days straight, he died.

ok thats scared the living daylights out of me..errr think i better find some adenosine
thakns

I dont think scaring people is the very nice lol. I have gone 11 days and nights with no sleep. I thought I was going to die but that was because I listened to scare mongerers. I am still here. i sleep on average 4 nights a week and i often feel tired . i dont believe it kills you because I would have died months ago. If you dont feel tired then i wouldnt worry , as long as you rest enough and eat healthily and most importantly dont stress! I think the stress is the most damaging part of it.
Listen to your body and you will be fine.
Btw i think the story of the boy says it all, 8 days and nights on a computer game, it would have affected his brain surley? One hour on the ps2 and i feel sick so its not something you need worry about. x

I have this kinda stuff happen ALL the time. I have to usually take my Klonopin or maybe an over the counter sleeping pill to sleep. Even then, no guarantees. Sominex worked once, but I know over the counter crap can be addictive. I think my insomnia has something to do with this time of year and my bipolar.

i think i need to give up meds before its to late and my body stops sleeping full stop..need to think rationally,be patient and sensible about this..
desperation will make this worse.

I have Bipolkr Disoprder among other things, including Panic and Anxiety Disorders. With bipolar, hypomania and mania can affect sleep and you can even feel great for significant periods of time without sleep, or in my past experience, no sleep at all for a long time. I used to be in a high pressure career in PR and Communications and I'd ride along with Hypomania on little sleep and get heaps of work done.

The bizarre nature of Bipolar is that the less you sleep the less you CAN sleep because the hypomania gets worse, you're flooded with adreneline and your central nervous system can't quiet down. Eventually you crash and you crash big. I can't work anymore because of my mental illnesses but I don't have the cycles of hypomania and mania as much thank God , because Bipolar is a very complex condition and if you have the hypomania or mania, you eventually have a huge crash into Bipolar Depression, which is much worse than Unipolar (standard) depression - as evidenced by the mortality rates. We also get mixed states, rapid cycling and panic and anxiety and even psychosis as a result of all this.

I am on a huge mix of meds at very high dosages and yet, if I over-do tings or something sets me off I'll have that hypomania anf not be able to sleep. At the moment I am going through a property purchase to another town and I will be mopving soon - right up there in the top three for Life Stress Indicators, and I am doing everything by myslef. So I have to try, even within limited timelines, not to do too much in a day or I'll get that elevated mood into Hypomania and struggle to sleep - which has been happening. And we in Australia just had our Grand Final on Saturday for our code of football and it is alwaya a huge event, but it ended in a tie. We have no provisions for "extra time" to get a result so the whole ting has to happen again - and this is with a crowd of over 100,000 people at our wonderful Melbourne Criket Ground and many other HUGE logistical issues and that game, being so clkose and exciting, definitely set me off and I had troble sleeping. It;s frustrating that I can;t just enjoy something without a bounceba ck to my sleep.

parts of that sound a bit like me..but i think i have developed anxiety because of fear of not sleeping which ruined everything and has now lead to depression..
anyway im going back to meditating,councilling and sleep .cds that used to work its gonna be a hard ride but ill have tobe a man and use this to make me stronger