Throwback Thursday: Sleep
Hihi everyone! It’s already Thursday, can you believe it? I can’t- but then again, the days tend to meld together for me… And that’s partially related to what I want to talk about with you today!
I have always had weird sleep habits. I can sound totally coherent when still mostly asleep and forget the conversation after I go back to being fully in dreamland. I also have Non-24, a circadian rhythm. My body doesn’t agree with the standardized 24-hour day. I don’t know quite how, but it seems to vary a lot. This effects my sleeping times pretty heavily… Though it can sometimes take a while for it to change.
When I was in middle school, I had what I think was probably my first official manic mood. I slept 3 hours a night, stayed up watching anime and using the computer. And somehow, by six AM, I was out of bed on my own, rushing to do my karate training in the living room of the house I lived in. All this while my family was knocked out for a normal amount of time!
I know some kids don’t need as much sleep as others, but my friends heard about it and weren’t as able to agree as others claimed possible. Six to eight hours was the norm, and I was far from that.
The tables turned when I turned fourteen or so. I forget the year, honestly, but it was an interesting reason: it was discovered that this new me, who slept ten hours and often more, had developed fibromyalgia. With fibromyalgia, my doctor told me, it’s hard for the body go get into REM sleep or some such, and you’re just generally more likely to be an active sleeper, tossing and turning throughout the night to get comfortable. And I can see that being true: I often wake up with my socks thrown off, my blanket occasionally across the room…
Nowadays, I’m a bit better than my younger years. I’ve lately had a sleep schedule of needing to sleep between nine and eleven, and waking up around five to six AM, or something close to that. I’ve written some of these posts at five in the morning like it was no big deal- because honestly, it wasn’t.
I may not get the best quality sleep still- I know I toss and turn, and I often wake up in even worse pains because of the weird positions my body decided to try overnight. I sleep a lot, more often than not… But at least I mostly wake up feeling awake. I take medicine to help me with that, mind you, but I at least remember to take them- and my other meds- on time.
As always, I have questions for you to answer if you so choose: Firstly, how do you sleep? Do you have any sleep habits similar to mine? Also, what do you do to prepare for bed? I’d love to know! And with that, I leave you to what I hope is a very good day for you! Be well, and sleep well tonight! 🙂