(There will be several posts about insomnia very close together. I was considering several blog ideas before choosing the current format and already had some articles pre-written so I am putting them up together.)
One thing I didn’t mention on my About Me page is the fact that I’m a chronic insomniac. When I say chronic, I mean life long.
Most nights I’m lucky to get 5 hours of sleep; 4 hours is average; and 8 hours is a borderline miracle. Even on the rare nights I manage 6 or more hours, I very rarely feel well rested. I almost welcome being ill with something that knocks me flat because that is one of the few times I’ve actually managed relatively normal sleep.
I’ve had several family doctors over the years and, with the exception of my current doctor, they have all had difficulty grasping the scope of the problem, in spite of my explaining that I’ve had the problem my whole life. They’ve generally responded with suggestions appropriate to short term insomnia, one even came back with the rather condescending suggestion to go to bed earlier. (Yeah, that never occurred to me in the last 40 years.)
I finally managed to find a doctor who was able to understand the depth of the problem. After I exhausted the suggestions she was able to give me, she referred me to a hospital sleep clinic. I had already put names to some of the issues causing my insomnia but they were able to give me a fuller picture of what was going on.
In the hopes that it may be of use to anyone else suffering chronic insomnia, I will document what I have learned in the linked posts below.
Part 2 – A Perfect Storm
Part 3 – Parasomnia
Part 4 – Parasomnia/Paranormal