Research- Non Fiction
Dead Awake at 3 A.M.
How sleep-maintenance insomnia can affect you as it affects me
I don’t sleep well.
Even as a teenager, I never had the sleep-all-day mentality. I got my 7–8 hours and was fine with it. I have figured out this is not hereditary, since none of my children believed that sleeping less than 12 hours a day was healthy as teens.
For the last several months, however, it has been worse. A lot worse. I can go to sleep between 10–11 pm, and wake up between 2–3 am. I can go to sleep at midnight, and wake up between 2–3 am. And not fall back asleep for the most part, unless it is several hours later.
I always called it reverse insomnia. It has gotten to the point where I am just completely worn down daily. Since I don’t bother my doctor unless it is life or death for me, I decided to check the ol’ interwebs for this condition.
#1- I found out it’s not reverse insomnia. Reverse insomnia “involves excessive daytime sleepiness or the inability to stay awake during the day.”
#2- What I have is sleep-maintenance insomnia, a term I have never heard before today. So I have been spending the last several hours seeing what it is, and what I can do about it.
