11.02.2005

A Rant on Being "Tired"

I hate hearing people say, “I’m SOOO tired!” Fuck off. You have no idea what tired is. I have Sleep Apnea. I figure I’ve had it for about ten years. Based on my test results, I was waking up about fifty times an hour. I was waking up EVERY MINUTE AND TWELVE SECONDS every night. You don’t know tired. Whaaaaaaaaa, you only got four hours of sleep. Congradulations. I wish I got that much.

In addition to Sleep Apnea, I have Narcolepsy. Basically it means my sleep cycles are all fucked up making me tired all day. Instead of a steady period of low restful non-REM rest, my brain goes straight into REM. Most people’s brain and body get about four hours of rest before REM kicks in. I get as little as twenty minutes. So instead of my body and my brain resting together, my body rests while my brain goes crazy. As a result, both my physical rest and mental rest during sleep are degraded.

My dreams are extremely vivid. I easily and frequently read things in my dreams, while most people don’t. I always dream in color, and often experience physical sensations such as the banking of an airplane, feeling the wind or rain, and bumps in the road. I always remember my dreams in the morning and usually recall bits and pieces days afterward.

To give you a sense of how chronically tired I am, I’ll give you the results of my Nap Study for my Narcolepsy. I had a full night’s sleep (actually about 8.5 hours) with a CPAP to negate the effects of the Sleep Apnea. About 3 hours after waking I was instructed to take a nap. In five minutes I was asleep and was awakened by the attendant after about twenty minutes. Two and a half hours later I was told it was time for another nap. Six and a half minutes later I was asleep. Again I was woken up after about twenty minutes. About three hours later it was time for another nap. At this point I’ve had plenty of sleep during the night and two comfy twenty minute naps. I’m not going to fall asleep again…Asleep in four and a half minutes. Twenty minutes of sleep and another two and a half for a fourth nap time. Again five minutes to fall asleep.

Four naps averaging 5 minutes and 15 seconds to fall asleep. For comparison, a “normal” person usually won’t fall asleep at all for the fourth nap. And for the other three, “normal” typically average about 17 minutes to fall asleep (the techs stop the attempt between 20 and 30 minutes).

Lately, I’ve also been having bouts of insomnia. So instead of 6.5 or 7 hours of fucked up, crappy sleep I’ve been getting 4 to 5 hours.

It could be worse. I could have cataplexy accompanying my Narcolepsy. I don’t know how those poor people even function.

So next time you “feel tired” remember this and think about how good you’ve got it.

1 Comments:

Blogger Charlie Brown said...

No problem: PISS OFF! :)

12:20 PM  

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