Out of Pod Experience

I like your conjecture so I hate to break your chain of thought but it is already known that circadian rhythm is built into us and is partly calibrated by the environments we experience in early childhood, and is also partly a response to light levels around us. My guess is those people you met had a circadian rhythm that assisted them in getting up when it's light, given that the times it would be light were entirely predictable from a biological standpoint and followed patterns that haven't changed much in the past several dozen million years, at least not for that specific geographical location. It is almost certain that if you move one of them to a place with a very different lighting cycle, they would find themselves up during complete darkness at times and asleep or sleepy during light at times, and that the conflict between their light-sensing response and built-in rhythm would cause loss of sleep and physiological distress.


It's unlikely to be something that primitive societies relied on due to its rarity, unless it is merely a recessive trait and was much more common in a certain region before it was diluted. But that is a distinct possibility. While they wouldn't have needed anyone to get them up in the morning, it would have been very favorable perhaps for them to have one person awake at night to keep watch. With each person sleeping about 8 hours per day-cycle, the nocturnal individual(s) would have a significant amount of time each day to interact with the others.

Nasty.

You realize, if you intake caffeine, or you don't avoid chocolate (for its caffeine content) you don't have a leg to stand on.

As someone with a diagnosed condition (insomnia) I guess I'm just trying to keep it real. I also have prescriptions for Adderall, along with an Insomnia prescription of Quetiapine. And Peroxetine, an antidepressant, but standard for a lot of veterans with PTSD symptoms.

I *may* be awesome. Anyway.

I don't know what type of mental gymnastics you're attempting to put me through, but the basic idea behind my comment is that if you take a condition seriously, the rational thing to do is isolate that condition and avoid things that would aggravate it. Like caffeine. Until you do that, you can't really establish a baseline for yourself.

Now. The combination of Adderall, Quetiapine, and Peroxetine is about as rockstar as you can get. Having been a medic, and having a trusting relationship with my psychiatrist, I'm basically on grown-ass-man rules to use my medications properly. The Adderall may be a stimulant, but the form I use (instant release) dissipates after four hours... so it's something I can use alongside my other prescriptions.

Caffeine, however, has some lasting effects that go beyond the wakeful periods. Most importantly, your rest will not be as deep. It also affects your mood, and no one is impervious to it.

I will relate and say that when I used caffeine to regulate myself, most of the time I felt like a piece of burned paper. I don't know how else to describe it.

If you're concerned and would like to get a handle on your sleep habits, you should quit the Caffeine.

What I started doing instead of trying to keep myself awake is forcing myself to sleep. Maybe we're different in what our bodies tend to do--mine will stay awake for days on end, and only fall asleep for cat naps, or finally when I'm exhausted, for 18 hours+

You can ask Kate what my sleep used to be like.

Some quick comments:

-I used over-use caffeine (coffee), trying to stay alert during daily 12-hour study and paper writing sessions. Eventually the complex organic drugs that are in coffee had the opposite effect. After the buzz of the first few shot, the later ones actually relaxed me, fuzzed my brain, and made me sleepy.

-The generic melatonin capsules in drug stores work, for me at least. They won't knock you out or erase some tension that's still in your body or mind at sleep time. That's a good thing, I'd say. But if your body and mind are tired, but can't manage to get drowsy, that tiny little melatonin effect can ease you into the transition to sleep.

-If you've got a lot on your mind from the day, and you haven't had a chance to sort it out yet-- that unresolved issue might come back at you in your sleep again. Nobody needs tense, edgy sleep, with dreams that are just recreating the issue in a different format, and making you have another job to deal with, in your sleep. That is bullshit doesn't help anybody at all.

Probably better not to go to bed with that unresolved thing still hanging. Better to stay up a little longer, look at it good and honest, and say "Alright, I got it" or "Alright, **** you, I don't got it yet. But I more or less acknowledge all of the steps I'm going to have to go through to deal with this shite!" Then, "Hot damn... that's a load on my plate. Damn, I'm just thankful to have some rest and sack time." zzzzzzzzzzzzz

-If you're having a crap dream where you're reliving the day and half-sleeping projecting in the next one, I think it's better to just exit the dream and wake up. You might have to become fully awake, turn on the lights, and do bathroom and kitchen for a while. Don't worry, you'll sleep again, in that deep "before the alarm clock" sleep. Better to lose a half hour doing that than to spend the whole night in half-sleep and wake up worn out.

Just general thoughts, of course. Everybody's different. In my case, insomnia is pretty much about something that will kick my family's ass if I don't do something-- something that definitely does have the ability to do that, and will actively work on doing that! :] But everybody's different, when it comes to sleep, especially.