standard time / insomnia
Question:
Dear Newsgroup: It’s been 2 weeks shy of a year that I started posting here, scared about my sudden insomnia. Last week, and in fact until Friday night, I was sleeping much better — up to 5 hours at a stretch, with another 2 drifting either in front of the TV at one end, or under a cat at the other end. OK, we "fell back" last night and BAM!! — woke up every three hours again!! Something about the time change seems to have triggered that pattern in me; perhaps it’s *not* peri or age?? When I lived in England some 28 years ago (gasp!) we had "double summer time" (two hours ahead) all year as some kind of energy saving measure. I wish they’d try that here, for a year. It would be interesting to see if the insomnia would go away completely. Anyone else have this? RuthJ
Response:
Dear Ruth, About the time change/insomnia thing. I am affected just the opposite way. I do better once we "fall back" and it gets dark earlier. Mid Summer is the worst for me as far as insomnia goes. I always thought it had something to do with melatonin and light. If your pineal gland responds to light and doesn’t produce melatonin until it gets dark outside, that would explain why I have trouble falling asleep until late. It’s like I need a few hours of darkness for my melatonin to kick in and allow me to sleep. OR….it could just be that I am so much busier in the Summer with yard work, company, etc. that I keep going till after dark and don’t take the time to "wind down." Either way, I know I just do better on this time. Slept like a Baby last night for about 8 hours. Haven’t felt this rested since last Spring.
Response:
On Sun, 25 Oct 1998 09:27:52 -0800, RuthJ <rcjac…@pacbell.net> wrote: >When I lived in England some 28 years ago (gasp!) we had "double summer >time" (two hours ahead) all year as some kind of energy saving measure. >I wish they’d try that here, for a year. It would be interesting to see >if the insomnia would go away completely. Anyone else have this? RuthJ
We now have single summer time and have to change all our clocks twice a year which is a TOTAL NUISANCE. It hasn’t helped my insomnia one iota. Best wishes Joanna
Response:
Oh, yes, Ruth: I catch myself doing weird math at 3 am: "If it’s really 3, then it is 4 for my brain, and that means when I woke up at 1:30 I had been asleep for two hours, but if I *really* fell asleep at 11, then it was 12, so I have only had 3 hours sleep, and that doesn’t count 1:30, which was really 2:30…" I hate this. Thank God for CNN and old movies! And isn’t the worst the l-o-n-g afternoon at work? The double take at the clock, which surely has stopped? Sigh. Jackie RuthJ wrote: > Dear Newsgroup: It’s been 2 weeks shy of a year that I started posting > here, scared about my sudden insomnia. Last week, and in fact until > Friday night, I was sleeping much better — up to 5 hours at a stretch, > with another 2 drifting either in front of the TV at one end, or under a > cat at the other end. OK, we "fell back" last night and BAM!! — woke > up every three hours again!! Something about the time change seems to > have triggered that pattern in me; perhaps it’s *not* peri or age?? > When I lived in England some 28 years ago (gasp!) we had "double summer > time" (two hours ahead) all year as some kind of energy saving measure. > I wish they’d try that here, for a year. It would be interesting to see > if the insomnia would go away completely. Anyone else have this? RuthJ
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