Experiments with Sleep (and its Deprivation)

[1337 1]

Man, other people have cool dreams about midget game developers trying to kill them. I just dream about zombies.

My dreams usually consist of me sitting in a room. Then I'll usually declare "Well this sucks" before setting a random bomb and blowing the place to pieces.

Though I did have a dream last night where I was up against Phoenix Wright in a "Competition of the Defence Attourneys". I seemed to have won it by saying "Objection" and presenting a dbz beam attack as evidence.

Don't ask.

[Faustt]

Sleep has always been weird for me. Most nights it'll take me at least an hour of lying in bed to actually fall asleep. So rather than lying in bed for an hour or more I'll just stay awake until I'm dead tired. I work swing right now, so it isn't too bad. Going to sleep around 4-5, waking up at around noon mostly.

Earlier this year, when I was unemployed, I was on a strange 36 hour cycle. Say I wake up on Monday at noon. I'd stay up all Monday and Tuesday, then crash on Wednesday around 12-1am. I was never really tired during those few weeks. I actually got a lot of projects done with all the "extra" time (I always get a lot more done late at night rather in the day for some reason). But it started to get worse for awhile. I would stay up between 48-72 hours at a time. Things got.... interesting. lol. A lot of hearing things that weren't there, spotty vision. Things would kinda "trail off" if I was focusing on something then turned my head. I'm guessing it was depression related. After I started working again, things went back to "normal" for me.

Don't get me wrong, I like being a night person. I do wish sleep would come easier to me sometimes. I really envy people who can fall asleep 10-15 minutes after they crawl into bed.

[FlagshipAmadeus]

my dreams are usually something like I am wandering around a rocky desert with a friend, and there are people sitting against the rocks but not doing anything except different tones are coming from their bodies and so we two are going from person to person with a tape recorder trying to find the one that makes the best sound

[zircon]

I've never stayed up more than 32 hours, and my last all-nighter was when I was a freshman in college. It's kinda interesting how it works though. Once you hit about.. 15-16 hours awake, you start feeling quite tired. 17-22 or so, you might be drifting off and ready to go to bed, but then once you hit 23-24 you get a weird feeling. For me, I basically feel completely awake... almost too awake. I can talk to people, work on projects, and generally seem fine. I just feel 'off' somehow. Then, after maybe the 28-30 hour mark, another wave of exhaustion hits, and that's when I given in. Usually, that mark happened when I had finished my classes the day after staying up all night.

I remember going home, excited about a new version of FL Studio and watching some tutorial videos. Or maybe it was Stylus RMX, or something. Anyway, I couldn't even stay awake sitting up in my chair.

[sefirosu]

once you hit 23-24 you get a weird feeling. For me, I basically feel completely awake... almost too awake.

Yep, same here.

[Moseph]

I stayed up late a lot this past week working on final papers and when I finally did sleep I dreamt that there were kittens living in the walls.

[Meteo Xavier]

Do you ever dream without being asleep?

[Majin GeoDooD]

Chrono Cross music is excellent sleeping music.

YES!

I've had weird sleeping patterns for years. One summer back in the early 2000s I was constantly staying up until 9-10am and waking up around 4-5pm and repeated that cycle for a good two months. It was hell trying to get myself back on a normal sleeping pattern once school started up again.

These days I tend to work late shifts at work, going in at 4-5pm and not getting off until 11 or midnight. Naturally I'm awake until at least 3-4am and usually wake up around noon, though I had a short period a couple months ago of sleeping in until 2pm most days.

Every so often I'll have to work an opening shift at work, and most of the time I'll just pull the all-nighter. I can't recall the longest I've stayed awake, but it's somewhere in the 36 hour range. Like zircon mentioned at around the 24 hour mark I tend to get a boost and be fine for a while afterwards.

[SoulinEther]

Well, I got 3.5 hours of sleep last night and today I walked alllllllllllllllllllllllll over UCLA and Westwood for about 2 hours.

I'm so dead. Am I going to die a young man?

I'm realllly....... out of it. I was fine driving home and stuff but now that I'm more relaxed at home I'm going loco. I have a debate to write sometime between now and tomorrow so..............................................................yay.

[Matt E. Waldman]

80 hours of no sleep?! Man, I feel better now. I stay up late, but I sleep at least every night, even if it's just for 3 or 4 hours.

I sometimes have sleep paralysis problems. I was always able to breathe, though.

A weird moment I had recently was that I woke up, and I couldn't feel my right arm very well. I tried lifting it up, but it felt incredibly heavy. After a minute, I could move it fine.

[DramaNoMore]

Some morning, I dreamt that I was being blinded by a picture of my bedroom printed on my eyes, so the dream was only happening on the other senses. I was actually dreaming with my eyes open, and it was absolutely scary.

Another time, I woke up with both my arms paralized, and I couldn't even switch off the alarm clock. After swinging them like a helichopter, they came back to life.

But I don't avoid sleeping, that messes up your brain...

[Meteo Xavier]

Ok, my next question: Does anyone else experience a spasm in their arms like 25 minutes before they actually sleep? Like, all of a sudden, you shoot your arm out and flail back without being asleep but without controlling it too?

I'm just trying to figure out if this is normal or not.

[Gario]

Ok, my next question: Does anyone else experience a spasm in their arms like 25 minutes before they actually sleep? Like, all of a sudden, you shoot your arm out and flail back without being asleep but without controlling it too?

Yes, I think that's normal ('normal' meaning I do that, too).

Ah, the days without sleep that I've had... I remember one time when I got up at 5:30am one day and didn't sleep until 4:00am the day after (that's 46 1/2 hour day, my friends; it doesn't quite beat the 80 hour mark, though - 48 hours is my limit, atm)... I woke up at 2:30pm the next day and I thought my clock was broken, so I tried to 'fix it' and go back to sleep (as I seriously thought it was something like 6:00am)... I think I missed four classes that day and came into my late afternoon class incredibly groggy...

No sleep is awesome, isn't it?

[prophetik music]

Ok, my next question: Does anyone else experience a spasm in their arms like 25 minutes before they actually sleep? Like, all of a sudden, you shoot your arm out and flail back without being asleep but without controlling it too?

I'm just trying to figure out if this is normal or not.

did you ever think that most of these issues were related to your...problem?

[XZero]

My first all-nighter was a couple of months ago. It was induced by a combination of two things: (1) during the winter my house's vinyl siding creaks like hell when the wind blows more than 15 mph, and the worst creaking is in my bedroom, and (2) I was fucking busy with law school work. So having given up on sleep, I drove to Dunkin Donuts at 1 in the morning, only to discover that it was closed. I drove down the road another minute and found a Sheetz gas station where I got some coffee. I worked on Contracts stuff from 1:30 am to 8:30 am, and I got so much work done - it was incredible.

Then, I was sitting in class around 2:00 pm. The coffee wore off and the sleep deprivation kicked in. I was told later that I insisted in Criminal Law that the guy could get sued for breach of contract when, quite unfortunately, the topic of the day was rape. I remember laying down on my couch to watch House at about 8 that night, and the next morning around 9, the television was still on and I was still on my couch. And I missed most of House. Sleep deprivation sucks.

[FlagshipAmadeus]

When I stay up all night, by morning I can taste the deprivation in my mouth... it tastes poisonous.

Also I too have gotten sleep paralysis once in a while, but not in the last year or so for some reason. Usually it was that I would wake up but I couldn't move any muscles, not even open my eyes, and after what was probably only a few seconds but felt much much longer because it's kind of terrifying, I would be able to force my arm to move a tiny bit and then regain control of my body.

[DramaNoMore]

When I stay up all night, by morning I can taste the deprivation in my mouth... it tastes poisonous.

Also I too have gotten sleep paralysis once in a while, but not in the last year or so for some reason. Usually it was that I would wake up but I couldn't move any muscles, not even open my eyes, and after what was probably only a few seconds but felt much much longer because it's kind of terrifying, I would be able to force my arm to move a tiny bit and then regain control of my body.

yea, I had this too, the mind awakes and we are trapped in a dead body!

Anyway, Ive never heard of what Meteo describes, and I'm really fascinated by it.

[SoulinEther]

Then, I was sitting in class around 2:00 pm. The coffee wore off and the sleep deprivation kicked in. I was told later that I insisted in Criminal Law that the guy could get sued for breach of contract when, quite unfortunately, the topic of the day was rape. I remember laying down on my couch to watch House at about 8 that night, and the next morning around 9, the television was still on and I was still on my couch. And I missed most of House. Sleep deprivation sucks.

WEAK!! lol

[friendlyHunter]

Fun thread! I'd go back and quote a whole bunch of posts to reply to them, but that'll take too long so I'll just get right into it:

I've never had sleep paralysis, but it always sounds scary when I read about it... especially the not breathing part =/

I have had one memorable dream with my eyes open... in the dream I was in a dark place (a subway station and videogame dungeon in my basement lol), and I could see this distinct pattern of bright lines before my eyes. I interpreted it as some kind of telepathic message from aliens or something and I was studying it so I could draw/reproduce it =P

Turns out my head was facing right at my window.

Luckily it wasn't one bit scary though. I almost never have nightmares, though sometimes I do have dreams where scary stuff happens, but it's rarely "I wish I didn't have that dream" scary. My scary dreams are awesome. Like the time a giant parasitic snake-like worm went inside some guy's body and consumed the interior of his head, and then came out the guy's head and I had to hit these fast-moving worms on the ground with an axe (or was it a sword?). Scary as hell considering I hate and fear parasitic worms, but awesome.

Also whenever I have a dream where I'm running, I usually feel really physically tired running in the dream, and then feel really physically tired when I wake up.

I don't have the arm spasm thing (but then again I'm never lucid when I fall asleep)... but occasionally I do get a quick "shock" where I hear a REALLY LOUD buzzing noise for a moment before it quickly fades out. I'm not sure if my muscles spasm, or if I'm just surprised by the loud noise, but I do jolt a little. This happens only when I'm trying to fall asleep, and recently I read it's a mechanism to jolt you awake so you don't accidentally fall asleep. Go figure...

I've had my share of sleep deprevation, and if I recall correctly the closest thing to an all-nighter I've pulled has been an hour or less of sleep overnight. Symptoms included "wavy" vision, lack of focus, super-alertness (basically the OPPOSITE of lack of focus), slow visual perception (for example I'd think I'm seeing my cat before I realize it's a brown bag on the ground), "tunnel vision", seeing movement that's not there in my peripheral version (a combination of "wavy vision", tunnel vision, slow perception, and long hair)... Oh yes, and mild audio hallucinations (near-silence or background noises starting to sound like things, or sound like nothing in particular, but a noise nonetheless).

And I too feel like my body thinks days are longer than 24 hours. I can wake up at 8:00am and be tired until well into the afternoon, sometimes even tired in the evening... but by midnight I'm completely alert and don't feel tired at all, and I can't help but stay up. When I'm supposed to sleep I feel like doing stuff, and when I'm supposed to do stuff (go to classes) sometimes I can barely function.

The worst was this one class I was taking around noon... it was in a big room with these old wooden benches/chairs/desks that really restricted your legs. And the lights were really dim, since the prof used an overhead projector. And the prof's accent was slightly hard to understand, but coupled with the echo, and how quiet he was (I never sat near the front), you had to really pay attention to understand him. But it was also hard to read his messy writing (which was especially annoying when he wrote equations with new symbols, or variables with subscripts), and again the fact that I didn't sit very close didn't help.

So anyway as soon as the prof would start the lecture, this terrible urge to sleep would come over me, and last the entire lecture as I'd struggle to listen to his voice and keep my eyes open trying to look at this bright bright projector screen in this dark dark room. This sleepyness happened basically every freaking day, unless the topic was particularly interesting (which it usually wasn't). It was like a light switch - I could arrive early and sit down and wait fully awake for 5 minutes, but as soon as the lecture would begin, staying awake would become a struggle. Often I found myself listening but with my eyes closed, reading the overhead but having no clue what he's saying, or looking like I'm paying attention but thinking about something completely unrelated. And the moment the class ends and it's time to go, the magic lightswitch would flip back and I'd be completely awake again.

I've never EVER had something lull me to sleep like that. It was SOO tempting to fall asleep in class, but somehow I never did once. One of these days I'll have to make an audio recording of the prof doing a lecture, build an uncomfortable wooden chair/desk, and install dim lights and a projector in my bedroom. Then I could literally have a light switch that puts me to sleep Would be nice, considering it usually takes me a while to fall asleep.

[Eulogic]

Sleep paralysis is so cool. It happened to me freshman year of college once and I was terrified. So after I snapped out of it, I tried to put myself back into it and was able to. When you do it knowingly, it becomes less scary and more awesome. I am unfortunately not able to do it at will.

[mattoco]

For me, there exists this time barrier that I try not to cross. From my experiences I have found that, if I manage to get less than 4 or 5 hours of sleep, I am able to shut off three different alarms (across the room) and wake up at some time later with no recollection of having done so. Due to this I try to get at least 6 to 7 hours of sleep, and if I have projects or other work demanding my time and pushing that barrier, I will tend to pull an all-nighter rather than risk waking up late in the morning.

One such instance of doing so happened last week. I was working late in the lab on preparing a presentation to industry and working on my portfolio. After the time had passed 3 in the morning, I knew I would be beyond the point of no return by the time I finished what I was working on, so I stayed up all night. As has been remarked before, the first few hours past that point became more difficult to stay awake, but I got my second wind in the hours following closer to dawn.

Of course then I was working late the next night and had to get up at 3 in the morning the following day. I risked going to sleep with little time to do so in order to avoid staying up for three days straight; unsurprisingly I woke up after all my alarms had intended to wake me up.

...it still was worth it.

[SynthesizedStampede]

And I too feel like my body thinks days are longer than 24 hours. I can wake up at 8:00am and be tired until well into the afternoon, sometimes even tired in the evening... but by midnight

I don't know if this applies or not (we just actually covered this stuff in my Psychology 100 class lol), and I hope somebody in the psychological field (or someone who knows more in general) can clear this up, but there was a study a man did living underground for a few weeks that demonstrated our internal biological clock runs on a 25 hour period. So while we have 24 hour days, or body runs on 25 hour days.

Additionally, our max performance level is around noon/lunchtime, and there actually is a "dip" in our productivity right after that time. That's why a lot of people feel tired around 1 o'clock...of course our productivity goes back up a bit after that dip, but after that time it slowly goes down til we slumber.

[Meteo Xavier]

You want to hear some sleep paralysis stories?

Most of the worst sleep experiences I ever had involved me sleeping at my mom's house. My bed would always shake without me having any involvement in moving it, my dreams always took place in the laundry room.

One time, I was having an "episode" of extreme bizarrity, I found myself unable to keep silent my thoughts, so I whispered "The Devil Take Thy Soul..!"

And believe you me, he almost did.

I felt an insane electrocution, like a giant hand literally grabbed at my inner essence and I shook violently and fell to the floor. I think this lasted for like 7 minutes. Somehow I kept it together and didn't sleep at all that night.

Then a year later he tried again.

It started with a nightmare, I had a dream I was back upstairs on the computer, only the screen lighting all of existence. There were footsteps approaching. This was usually my mom, but no one ever showed up. The footsteps went behind me and sat at the couch. It turned the TV on. I didn't ever look at who it was. It sounded like a teenage girl. She asked me a random question and I just said "I don't know...." long pause... "Who are you again?"

Then the TV snapped off and I knew I was in trouble.

I immediately jumped out of bed, fell in the middle of the room and went full-fucking-conniption fit electrocution possession insane. This time is was like 10 minutes, and I fought him off again.

I got back into bed and tried to figure out how this happened. It was a rewind-rewatch session which ended up me jumping out of bed, again, falling to the floor, again, and the whole fucking room was spinning with electricity and laughing and horrible, horrible hell.

That hasn't happened to me since, but I have a host of other sleeping problems now, so...

[DramaNoMore]

...

I don't know if I should feel bad for you, or jeallous, cause this is both scary and awesome.

In a more serious tone, your experiences don't sound wright at all, it sounds like neurological issues, rather than psichological.

[halc]

You want to hear some sleep paralysis stories?

Most of the worst sleep experiences I ever had involved me sleeping at my mom's house. My bed would always shake without me having any involvement in moving it, my dreams always took place in the laundry room.

One time, I was having an "episode" of extreme bizarrity, I found myself unable to keep silent my thoughts, so I whispered "The Devil Take Thy Soul..!"

And believe you me, he almost did.

I felt an insane electrocution, like a giant hand literally grabbed at my inner essence and I shook violently and fell to the floor. I think this lasted for like 7 minutes. Somehow I kept it together and didn't sleep at all that night.

Then a year later he tried again.

It started with a nightmare, I had a dream I was back upstairs on the computer, only the screen lighting all of existence. There were footsteps approaching. This was usually my mom, but no one ever showed up. The footsteps went behind me and sat at the couch. It turned the TV on. I didn't ever look at who it was. It sounded like a teenage girl. She asked me a random question and I just said "I don't know...." long pause... "Who are you again?"

Then the TV snapped off and I knew I was in trouble.

I immediately jumped out of bed, fell in the middle of the room and went full-fucking-conniption fit electrocution possession insane. This time is was like 10 minutes, and I fought him off again.

I got back into bed and tried to figure out how this happened. It was a rewind-rewatch session which ended up me jumping out of bed, again, falling to the floor, again, and the whole fucking room was spinning with electricity and laughing and horrible, horrible hell.

That hasn't happened to me since, but I have a host of other sleeping problems now, so...

whatever you're on

i want some