Website owner: James Miller
My sleep problems
A personal problem that goes back to my freshman year in high school (around age 14) is sleep problems. I think the problem started with me staying up until the wee hours of the morning studying (I would watch television until 10:00 or 11:00 PM when I shouldn’t have and then have to do my homework. I wasn’t managing myself properly.). Anyway, some people are naturally early risers. They wake up early in the morning and their mind is bright and alert in the morning. Then during the day their mind is at its best. Then they get sleepy at the right time in the evening and go to bed and get a good night’s sleep. I would say this is the normal rhythm. This is the way things are supposed to go. Well, I have never been normal. I am naturally a late riser. If I didn’t get a good night’s sleep I will be groggy and sleepy in the morning. Then my mind improves and is most alert between the strange nighttime hours of between around 10 PM and 4 AM. I would say that my circadian rhythm has long been just way out of whack. At times the problem is a lot worse than others. Over the years I have mostly been able to manage the problem using some tricks I have learned. Often having some breakfast cereal or a slice of bread with peanut butter and jelly before going to bed will cause me to go to sleep and get a good night’s sleep. But there will be periods when that trick doesn’t work. For example, for some time now, I have been having problems. If I go to bed at say 12:00 PM I will just lay there for hours wide awake (just thinking), even if I have eaten something. I need to wait until 1:00 or 2:00 AM before going to bed. Then I will usually wake up around 4:00 AM and have to eat something more to get to sleep again. Otherwise I will stay awake until 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning and then I will go to sleep. The strange thing is that I never have any problem going to sleep in the daytime. Anytime between around 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM I can lay down and fall asleep in a second and sleep like a log for a couple of hours. (This is probably a big part of the problem. I sleep during the day and can’t sleep at night.) Now I am retired and I manage the problem but it was a big problem for me back in my school years — in high school and college. If you are studying something like mathematics or physics or just reading on some other school subject you need to be able to concentrate. Your mind needs to be in good condition. Whether you are sitting in a lecture or reading you need to be alert, wide awake, aware, attentive, observant. If your circadian rhythm is out of whack it can affect you in school. My sleep problem was just another of the many problems I struggled with in my school years. My school years were very difficult years for me — by far the hardest years of my life. I realize now that I was struggling with a lot of handicaps, a lot of personal problems. And I had a lot more than the usual share of bad luck. But, on the other hand, I wasn’t out running with the crowd, wasn’t fooling with girls, and that saved me from a lot of troubles, too.
28 Feb 2021
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