Forget sheep; try a puppy

Just wanted to pop in quickly from the madness and note: 2 weeks ago I experienced another night of restless tossing and turning. The next day I met with friends for tea and we all ended up discussing sleep problems and the old "counting sheep" remedy, which we all had problems with (my sheep tend to jump backwards over the fence, mock me, huddle in groups and basically undermine the purpose of the counting sheep exercise.) My friend suggested an alternate method she uses: rather than counting something she just focuses on her breath, and when her mind wanders she says she doesn't get upset or try to start over with counting anything but she just gently calls her mind back to the breath "like a little puppy" that's wandered off. I thought that was a pleasant image, so since then I've been practicing that a bit when I go to sleep and using the little puppy metaphor to gently corral my attention back in place. So far, I've been getting to sleep well, although that could be a combination of factors (remember, I don't believe in a magic pill.) But I think this is definitely a helpful tool to be added to the box. So many thanks, Ariel! (who probably is not one of the 3 people who reads this blog, so I'll have to thank her directly.)
This blog will not be seeing much action for the next few weeks at least; for reasons why, see my midwest adventure blog.

Can't Sleep

Thanks to Jason for alerting me to this great strip from xkcd:





I can relate.

Some symptoms of LOSS (Lack of Sleep Syndrome)

(as experienced by me)

• Irritability. Of course this one should be obvious, as in the "grumpy" person first thing in the morning. I posit that it's not just "grumpiness" as that implies it is not to be taken very seriously. I think the LOSS impairs my ability to get perspective and look at the bright side of things.
  
• Related to above, there is oversensitivity. I describe it as having little or no "filter" on me. I can't filter things out or prioritize their emotional effect. Everything is equally devastating, be it not getting what I want for lunch or hearing bad news about a friend. And if I get upset, I can't stifle it.
  
• Light sensitivity. OMG, turn down that bright light, pleeeeease! What do you mean, it's coming from the sky?? Who asked my permission to make it a sunny day??
• Loss of appetite: This one really sucks, because obviously having more food in me would give me more energy, and make me feel a little more grounded, less floaty.
• which brings me to: The floaty feeling! "Floaty" is actually not a good word. That makes it sound too pleasant. I do not enjoy it at all. It is mentally floaty but also physical, like I am sapped of all energy and strength.
• Also related to this: a strange ache in the muscles; not exactly the same as the achiness you get with a flu or sprain, but almost a sense of depletion as if the muscles aren't getting enough energy to function properly. Any demand put on them feels like 1000 times more effort than it really is. (Unfortunately, I've had a lot of time to explore this sensation and put it into words.)
• Impaired coordination. I am clumsy. I shouldn't try to do any intricate work or work that requires strict attention to detail or drive a car. Which is very dangerous. I will be devoting a whole post to the driving issue.
• Slow thinking: as if my response time has slowed way down. As my mom would say, "The synapses aren't firing quickly enough." I put this one here because it is linked to the above symptom. Putting these two together, it makes things very difficult if any of the following are planned for the day:
  
  • Job, job interview, major networking event, major social event, tests, finals, papers due, anything requiring major decisions, giving a speech, performance.
  Fun fact! I myself have at some point participated in all of the above while suffering from LOSS, (except for giving a speech.)

After compiling most of this list one groggy morning, here is what I added: "If everyone suffered from this the way I do, they would be much more sympathetic and considerate because they would also want to get sleep."
All together now: Awwwwwww! Isn't it easy to dismiss that person as feeling way too sorry for themselves? That's kind of my reaction right now, except that I know that I wrote this. And that all the above symptoms are real.

"Late night, huh?" (wink wink)

I think one common misconception of lack of sleep is that it is due to a wild night out or something else that is within the person's control. It is slightly annoying to constantly hear "late night, huh?" with the implied suggestion that I spent my night doing something fun, or crazy, and ultimately I had a good time anyway so I shouldn't really feel that sorry for myself. When in fact it is almost always a night when I tried my best to get a good night's sleep-because that is almost every night. I cherish my sleep and go to great lengths to try to make sure I get it. If I know I am going to have a "late night" doing something fun, I make sure I will be able to sleep later in the morning.
More later. I just wanted to address this while it was still on my mind.

LOSS: Lack of Sleep Syndrome

I had this inspiration on New Year's Day, in California, a morning after yet another night of interrupted sleep. There was no real explanation for it, except maybe stress. Sometimes I just can't sleep. When it was happening to me more frequently I tried many things to remedy it. I'll list those at another time. Right now I just wanted to introduce this blog and the inspiration that came from that groggy morning. As I lay in bed thinking of the sleep-deprived day ahead of me, I thought about all the symptoms I would probably experience and it popped into my head that the experience should have a name, something like Loss Of Sleep Syndrome...hey, that spells LOSS...how clever...surely this already exists; I can't have just made it up? So as soon as I got up I checked the mighty Internet, and I found nothing known as Loss of Sleep Syndrome or LOSS. And of course, you know, if it's not on the Internets it must not exist...so voila! A new quasi-medical term was born, and apparently I get credit for it. Of course it was ironic that I thought of this in a sleep-deprived state. Sometimes interesting things can happen in this state. Usually though, it is just a drag.

So. What is this blog for? I want to talk about all the effects of LOSS. There are many different causes of sleep deprivation and a lot of discussion out there on these different conditions and their symptoms and treatments. However, since I don't appear to have a specific condition that causes these bouts of sleeplessness, I'm interested more in talking about the results of those bouts. I have a few reasons for doing this, but mainly I don't think there is enough out there on the subject. I think many people suffer from sleep deprivation, even deprive themselves of sleep deliberately, and shrug it off as no big deal. I am here to posit that it is a big deal. It is bad for the health, it is dangerous, and at the least it is inconvenient for those around us who deal with the aftereffects.

I will go into more details about these symptoms in later posts. For now, I just want to open this blog and state of course that I am not a medical professional and anything posted here will be purely my own opinion (unless of course I cite someone else); that I do not have advice to give and most of the contents will be of my own personal experience and mostly be ramblings on this topic and not conclusions or solutions. That said, I will welcome any contributions or suggestions along this topic. That would be the topic of sleep deprivation, it's symptoms and effects. I'm not really interested in specific sleep disorders or treatments. Although I will at some point list the various things I have tried to remedy lack of sleep-more for amusement and sympathy (if you've been there too) rather than as advice. If it helps you in doing your own research, great, but I know there is no magic bullet or cure and I think that every person has a different solution or combination of solutions that will work for them.

That being said, I will go so far as to highly recommend one book: Healing Night: The Science and Spirit of Sleeping, Dreaming and Awakening by Dr. Rubin Naiman. This is the single most useful and interesting book I have read about sleep and it significantly helped me to change my attitude about sleep problems, which I believe makes a huge difference. For me anyway.