Insomnia Forum Posting

Posted by DJmaux on May 02, 2003 at 06:31:22:

In Reply to: Scared posted by The LoNeLyGirL on May 01, 2003 at 21:19:14:

Dont worry. You only start to go a bit crazy when you are totally REM deprived of sleep.
This happens when you are up for very long periods with out any sleep at all.Probably about 80 hours or more.
I once was up for about 70-80 hours without any sleep and started to hallucinate which scared me stupid. When I closed my eyes I started to see dim cartoons dancing in front of me and monsters as well like I was on LSD. If I concenterated I could here them giggling and shreiking, but as soon as it started this mechanism triggered off in my brain. Its like every 5-10 mins I would pass out for 0.3 of a second. Its like a protective mechanism the brain has. I went to bed when this pass out thing started and closed my eyes. I was really scared because I thought if I didnt sleep soon I would be seeing cartoons and monsters running around every where like a full blown LSD trip. I was so worried I was shaking and I thought it would asbolutly impossible to sleep. I then began to meditate in in bed lying down absolutly teriffied and 3-4 mins later the pass out thing happened but when it did I fell asleep instantly and woke up 14 hours later very very relieved. I found it amasing I could sleep whilst really scared in 3-4 mins!
So dont wory because that mechanism will prevent you from going to the loony bin trust me! To end up in the loony bin you have to have a very very rare genetic condition (which you would know if you had by now) or force your self to stay up possibly taking drugs to keep your self up.
If you get even just 1 hours a day there is enough REM there to stop you going crazy.
There is one man who claimed he could go with out sleep but when they studied him they found out he passed out out for 1-2 minuites every times a day and that a tiny amount of REM prevented him going crazy. So even 10 mins a day will stop that.
Now you dont have to worry about ending up in hospital, all you have to worry about is feeling a little bad thats all! Which isnt nice but theres no need to be scared. Remeber you have to be up for 60-70hr+ to start loosing it and even they like I said you brain has a fail safe pass out device to preven brain damage/insanity!
All you have to do now is make sure you do some excercise (not withing 5-6 hours of bed) and the best way to help you sleep is to do what I do, dont be greedy.
Say to you self ok I want to sleep like mad but at least I dont have to worry about going crazy anymore and take a big deep sigh that your problems bad but not very dangerous at the end of the day. This helps the feeling of it not being to important that you sleep. If you feel it is very very important to sleep you wont sleep! And if your not in danger of the loony bin then its not very very important just a little imporant right? Its the old how ever bad our problems are they could be worse thing so chill out and consider your self lucky!
Finally try relaxing/meditation excercises at the end of the night.
Its where you meditate(dont think) and breath very slow and deep and every time you breath in you open your eyes and feel alert. Then on every out breath you slowly close you eyes and relax. Do this for 20-30 mins an hour before bed and make sure in the last 30 mins you so no action TV etc. Also after the relaxing/meditation try stretching very slowly and calmly as if doing Tai-Chi. You can even try tai-chi type movments walking around the house as well because the slooow flowing movments slow your brain down far more than just sitting there. It the slow movements that calm you down. Often what keeps us awake is thinking too fast so moving,thinking and breathing slowly in last hour of night slows our body down.
Give it a try and remember there is no chance of going totally crazy unless you force yourself to stay up!
good luck

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