Insomnia... It's all in our heads

[novatom]

Article in today's Wall Street Journal:

You May Be Getting More Sleep Than You Think

[49er]

Article in today's Wall Street Journal:

You May Be Getting More Sleep Than You Think

Thanks for the link to the article novatom. As one who has a combination of insomnia/hypersomnia in addition to apnea (a whole other post), if I hear one more time that folks with insomnia issues are underestimating how much sleep they get, I am going to scream.

And by the way, it isn't the number of hours you sleep that is the problem, it is the quality of sleep as some of my best nights of sleep on the machine were 4 to 5 hours. Unfortunately, that has been a rarity. Anyway, for some reason, sleep professionals have a hard time understanding that concept.

Finally, I am always right on the money when I estimate how long I have slept even before I look at the clock or sleepyhead. I don't know, this just seems like a way to minimize someone's complaints without doing the necessary detective work to find out why someone has these problems.

Ok, now that I have ranted, as someone who has posted about your own difficulties with insomnia, do you feel this article is accurate?

49er

PS - Folks might want to google gayle green sleep misperception. It will take you to a link for a google book review for her book, insomniac, as to how this area of dispute commonly occurs between patient and sleep professional and why both parties could be right about what is occurring.

[storywizard]

Thanks for the info re: Gayle Green...she has lots of experience and info..

I also like RobySue's blog it contains a post on Taming the CPAP Insomnia Monster...

Like any topic there are points of view for every one...insomnia is a tough one...

Thanks again for the post...

Storywizard

[me50]

every sleep study that I had I overestimated how long I slept BUT I reported that my sleep quality was not good. Even today, I sleep at night but wake up several times which makes my sleep quality lack.

I think some of it has to do with stress, work, personal issues, trauma, etc. etc. and I do believe that it needs to be assessed on an individual basis.

[TyroneShoes]

My only issue with the article (the rest being great) is that I don't understand why we are concerned at all about whether we can guess correctly how much sleep we are getting and whether that means anything. I am saying that it doesn't. This gets in the way of the other points, the important points, in the article.

If your body (mind, actually) needs sleep, it will force you to get it once deprivation becomes significant, whether you realize that you are asleep or not. We can't guess accurately how much sleep we are getting because having a sense of time is not something that is prevalent when we are asleep, or close to sleep. We also do not really know and understand that we are asleep unless we are lucid dreaming, which I would like to be able to do on command, but happens very rarely for me, and for most folks. So, that we have difficulty knowing how much sleep that we get is expected and normal, so I don't see how that becomes a salient point in this or any other article.

The way it is supposed to work is that things in the circadian cycle begin to whisper a lullaby into your ear around bedtime, so that your conscious mind can take a break, and let you drift off. Insomnia is the thing that interrupts that process. Sleep apnea is a different kind of disrupter, but has that same consequence along with all of the other harmful consequences it has.

[quiescence at last]

some sleep deprived folks do not realize they are sleeping until they miss the exit - and after they hit the exit sign, and the tree behind it, get cut out of the car, transported, and treated (all of which they don't recall). That leaves questions like "what happened to fifi and my brother?" Ask them to guess how much sleep they got.

QAL