Sleep Disorders -

Dec. 2nd, 2008

11:51 AM

I've always had insomnia and take many hours to get to sleep if I sleep at all. Knowing this makes me panic about sleep making everything harder and meaning I can't usually get to sleep if I know I have to be up for something the next day. I'm also an incredibly light sleeper.
My housemate has just set the heating to come on just before 6 everyday so I wake up with it, this means I have the chance to get about 2 or 3 hours sleep but probably less because I will panic much more about getting to sleep.
He's already rearranged when he showers in the morning so he doesn't wake me up and I feel bad asking him to do anything else. I'm constantly exhausted as it is, largely because of housemate noise and this extra issue is causing me to consider moving out on my own. It probably sounds like I'm exaggerating but the thought of being even more tired than I am constantly already is scary.

How have the rest of you light sleepers survived with room/housemates and do you have any advice for this situation?

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( 8 comments — Leave a comment )

hrolleif wrote:

Dec. 2nd, 2008 12:23 pm (UTC)

Have you had any sleep studies done? I was a very light sleeper before getting a CPAP. Come to find out I was not entering the deeper stages of sleep because I was having hundreds of apnea events per hour, so that's a pretty literal definition of "light" sleep. Now that I have the CPAP I am completely gone and out. It's a very different sleep experience to say the least. I don't even experience the insomnia panic much anymore, just when I have quite a lot of life stress and even then I manage to fall asleep.

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baby_dracula_ wrote:

Dec. 2nd, 2008 12:37 pm (UTC)

I haven't. I've had various medications to help falling asleep when it gets really bad but I have quite a few other issues and my doctor just seems to lump them all together and decide counselling is the answer. How did you get into the studies?

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hrolleif wrote:

Dec. 2nd, 2008 12:50 pm (UTC)

I told my doctor I suspected I had sleep apnea because I was waking up at night gasping for air. Most people who have it don't even know they have it, though because they don't remember waking up from not breathing. You might just tell your doctor you want to be referred to a sleep lab to rule out any sleep disorders. If you're in the US, you'll probably need to have some sort of insurance because sleep studies are incredibly expensive.

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baby_dracula_ wrote:

Dec. 2nd, 2008 01:04 pm (UTC)

I'm in the UK, I'm not sure how that sort of thing is done here but you've definitely given me something to look into, thanks!

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philentropist wrote:

Dec. 2nd, 2008 04:33 pm (UTC)

One thing that might help is earplugs. They've been quite useful for me.

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baby_dracula_ wrote:

Dec. 2nd, 2008 11:03 pm (UTC)

I use them every night, they tend to muffle things but I still hear and wake up with pretty much everything.

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themadmyth wrote:

Dec. 3rd, 2008 02:51 am (UTC)

I was a really light sleeper. Learned that I had sleep apnea, and was waking up once a minute, despite ear plugs and sleep aids.

I just had my tonsils/adenoids taken out yesterday. we'll see how that helps... since the doc said he was 90 percent sure that it would cure my sleep apnea. i feel i am doing better already.

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