Sleep difficulty

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What makes it easier or harder for you to sleep?

What kind of sleeping pills have you taken? How well did they work?

How long is the longest you have gone without sleep?

What kind of things did sleep deprivation make you do?

When you pulled an all nighter, what were you doing?

When you could not sleep all night long, why not?

What makes it easier or harder for you to sleep?
Harder: Usually having a nice long lie-in the previous morning, and not getting enough fresh air and exercise. Possibly staring too long at TV and computer screens.
Easier: The converse - getting up early on the previous morning, getting lots of fresh air and exercise, not using computers or watching TV much.

What kind of sleeping pills have you taken? How well did they work?
Never took any. I've heard they don't give the quality of sleep that's necessary, and I'm wary of pharmaceutical potions. I've got some melatonin tablets somewhere but I've not tried them yet. They seem to be fairly safe. I've been known to use CBD, and in large amounts it seems to help me sleep, but it's too expensive to use very often.

How long is the longest you have gone without sleep?
Just over 48 hours if I remember right. Bloody airlines screwed up the flights, and didn't give me the help I needed to get me to a free hotel overnight, so I sat about in the airport and there's nowhere to lie down. And even when the flights run properly, it's a long way I have to travel. And I can't sleep on a plane.

What kind of things did sleep deprivation make you do?
I was getting visual and auditory hallucinations by the end of it. Not really psychosis, but definitely illusions. I kept seeing things out of the corner of my eye and my perception told me they were people, but they were just objects, and I was hearing music in engine and fan noise.

When you pulled an all nighter, what were you doing?
See above. Beyond that I very rarely fail to get at least a few hours of sleep per night.

When you could not sleep all night long, why not?
See "What makes it easier or harder for you to sleep?" above. Plus sometimes I think it's because I've been thinking too hard for too long just before bedtime, or I'm excited about something, or worried about something that I can't see a solution for.

What makes it harder? Definitely overthinking and being on screens too late. Silence helps, but only when my brain's not being loud.

I've tried zopiclone and over-the-counter stuff like Nytol. Zopiclone knocked me out but made me groggy for hours the next day.

Longest without sleep? Around 60 hours. By the end, I was saying weird stuff and couldn't follow basic conversations.

Sleep deprivation made me zone out in the middle of tasks, like I'd walk into a room and completely forget why I was there.

Pulled all-nighters mostly for work or when I was stuck in my own head. And when I couldn't sleep at all, it was always stress.

Now I keep a couple strains around that are good for sleep and some of them genuinely work better than anything else I've tried. These weed strains are what I recommend.

Easier: A quiet and dark room. I'm ok with a fan on in the summer and the noise of my housemate watching tv two rooms away, though.
Harder: having a long nap during the day. I try not to, and now that I'm on Vyvanse I tend not to feel the need for one. There are also two cats who like to meow and scratch at my bedroom door during the night. Then they get most insistent at dawn because they want to go outside.

I've had Phenergan (promethazine) in the past. That works well but I don't have the need to take it any more. In hospital I was put on Seroquel (quetiapine) because I found sleeping there almost impossible. That used to knock me right out. I was on it for six months after I left hospital which is one of the worst things that could have happened to me (weight gain and subsequent diabetes), when I realised I could sleep just fine without it.

I stayed up for two nights with just a couple of hours' sleep in between finishing a uni assignment. I regretted it so much that for later assignments I gave myself more time to do them.

I've had sleepless nights that just pop up out of nowhere where I just lay awake. I've heard the best thing to probably do is to get up and read or do some other quiet activity. I'll have to try it next time I have insomnia.

Easier: ignorable noise. I tend to fall asleep listening to a TV show that I know so well I don't have to watch. The noise quietens my mind but I can still tune it out. When I was a kid I used to have the radio on and fall asleep to that.

Harder: if I've worked late. If I have something on my mind. If I've been using computers late. If I've napped during the day. Sometimes I get insomnia and it doesn't seem related to anything.

I've never taken pills for sleeping as such but I sometimes use other medications for their sleepy side effects. Amitriptyline is good if I've had a few nights of disturbed sleep, almost guarantees me a full night. Cetirizine Hydrochloride (allergy medication) makes me conk out too. I used to think weed made me sleep well but I don't think so anymore. It certainly makes me sleep but I don't wake feeling rested.

I've gone a few days without much sleep through insomnia, mostly when I was in my late teens/early 20s. It doesn't happen so much now.

I remember once going for a walk at 5am after not sleeping and sitting in the middle of a park on the grass and the whole ground was undulating, like waves on the sea. I could feel it as well as see it. Things just get very surreal for me when I'm sleep deprived. I don't dislike it.

When I was about 12 our family was going through some stuff and I got convinced a house we lived it had some sort of malevolent spirit in it. I was awake a lot then, listening to the radio throughout the night.

The only all nighter I've deliberately pulled was when I had to do a night-shift as part of a job I had.

Otherwise I'm very happy, generally to go sleep.