In Reply to: Re: Chronic Insomnia posted by Farmer on August 16, 2005 at 19:12:07:
Insomnia presents in different ways, but if you have it you'll know. You won't wonder if maybe you have insomnia, you'll know because of how it affects you. It's not necessarily about how much sleep you get. Some people get by with very little sleep and are not bothered by that. There are many different causes, some of which are internal such as those you've mentioned like stress, worry, etc., and others which are external, such as noise.
In my case, for many years I could only get about 6 hours sleep or less a night. If I awoke after 4 to 6 hours that would be it, I couldn't go back to sleep again no matter how long I stayed in bed tossing and turning. It was very rare that I could get 7 hours, and never 8 hours, even when I tried to sleep in. It was annoying that I couldn't sleep in when I felt like it, but it wasn't too bad and I managed to function fairly well. I didn't consider myself to have insomnia.
Then several years ago I moved near a railway line. The first six months weren't a problem, but when the railway upgraded its equipment I began to be woken up every night, all through the night by train whistles, and other train noises. That was the beginning of serious sleep problems. My neighbours and I began a legal battle with the railway, but it took a few years before the noise abated. I was in law school at the time and somehow I managed to get through that with an average of about 5 and a half hours a night.
My seriously disrupted sleep pattern was not back to my normal six or so hours when, about a year and a half ago I began to have chronic pain, which woke me a lot. Once I was awake I couldn't get back to sleep because of the pain. I was pretty desparate by then, so I began to use a sedative as that was the only way I could get the sleep I needed. For the first time in many years, I've been getting about 8 hours a night now.
This is probably as good a place as any to mention this as well. I've been hesitant to publicly discuss details of my personal health in part because I know that TF leadership takes this kind of information and presents it to their followers as evidence of how God punishes backsliders and, in my case, the ungodly. Because of that, I was going to post that link to the insomnia study without referring to my own problem, but then I thought, to hell with TF and their ridiculous doctrines. Many millions of people around the world suffer from insomnia and it has nothing to do with God's punishment. Besides, I'd far rather be free and sleepless than a sleeping slave.