Intentional Insomnia?!


Question: Okay, this is about to sound insane, but I was wondering if anyone has any information on intentional insomnia (I'm not talking about the dubious abuse of sleep aides but about the intentional or at least semi-intentional act of not allowing your body to sleep the way an anorectic doesn't allow her body to eat). Any help? I'm looking for information or anyone else who has experience with this.
Thank you


Answers: Okay, this is about to sound insane, but I was wondering if anyone has any information on intentional insomnia (I'm not talking about the dubious abuse of sleep aides but about the intentional or at least semi-intentional act of not allowing your body to sleep the way an anorectic doesn't allow her body to eat). Any help? I'm looking for information or anyone else who has experience with this.
Thank you

Its not insane at all, and is quite natural for people who suffer from emotional stress. Its a condition of acute stress where an individual is constantly worrying about near future situation. This may be caused due to personal relationship, work life or self esteem in social life.

If this is recurring, its important to address the root cause and accept the condition before acting on it. Often, people who change their routine to accommodate exercise and regular balanced diet tend to recover sooner.

Its best to seek professional help in such cases. If that's not available, ask few questions from yourself:
1. What in life at present, is unacceptable, why it is so?
2. What can I do about it?
3. Write the steps you can do to address root cause.
4. How is hurting self(not sleeping, not eating/exercising) going to improve situation?
5. What will improve situation then?

these are very simple questions and may look silly at first sight. but writing down answers to these may bring in very positive results.

Hope this helps

I think I have experience with this, I am tired and have no reason not to go to sleep, but just can't seem to get myself to go to sleep. I think this happens to people who easily get into whatever they do, get caught up in the moment.

You just have to force yourself to go to sleep.

I've done this before. I could feel that my body was tired, but I refused to go to sleep. There was a time that I just didn't feel like sleeping. I didn't have things to do, my life wasn't cluttered and stressful, but i just didn't want to sleep; I wanted to just milk the day for all it was worth. I think I was tired of not having time to do things that I found were fun, like reading (non textbooks!), writing, graphic design, etc. I would drink coffee at 3am, and that would keep me awake. After awhile though, all the side effects of not sleeping got to me.

Well I don't know what kind of info. you want on the subject. But I can tell you from personal experience. Plus I have known people who almost test themselves to see how long they can stay awake before having to sleep. The most I could do was about 48hrs, I've known some to do 3 days without sleep. It is a very bad situation because your mind while sleep deprived, cannot stay alert no matter how much you try. So if you were to drive you are in serious trouble of falling asleep at the wheel. Hope this helps . . .

Sleep is required by your brain, not your body. If you forcibly pull off consecutive all-nighters, your brain works less efficiently and you make mistakes. You're obviously going to hurt yourself or hurt somebody else, especially if you're operating heavy machinery (like a car).

Even more sleepless nights will make rudimentary walking a huge choir. In which case, you better stay away from stairs.

If you go further, you'll straight out go loony because your brain is exhausted and essentially wants to shut down.

Peops in northern Alaska always have to watch of for this slippery slope during the long summer days that'll be sunlit for months. For example, check out the movie "Insomnia" with Al Pacino, Robin Williams, and Hilary Swank.

On the flip side, you shouldn't try to force sleep if your mind doesn't need it. I have natural insomnia ... it sucks but as much as I'd like to sleep on a 36-hour cycle (i.e., go to sleep when my mind is good and ready to sleep), I do have to go to work and make a living on a 24-hour cycle. So, I take sleeping pills to go to sleep but get out of bed the moment my mind is ready to get up in the morning.





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