Sleep

[Wagon]

Yeah that makes sense Jimmy. Hence the key words at the bottom.

I do feel better about my sleep after what you have said. I guess sleep is another newly discovered country in the world of medicine. Things changing with each study. But it is starting to make sense.

Hay Ned, same thing here, If I do get a good nights, Man, I look like hell, Not that I'm any Gary Cooper in his prime either, but I scare myself. And it takes forever to get alert again, even though I am rested. My Wife has learned, don't ask complex questions in the morning, I can't even speak intelligibly. It's like the brain finally had a chance to shut down and does not want it too end too soon.

Wagon

 

[Ned]

Wagon, that's it, I think. I suppose in a useful sleep everything slows down (metabolism) and the rev-counter drops and yes it takes a while to crank up again.
No bad thing and the lazy wake-up (where it can be allowed to happen) is a good thing.
I like to chug coffee and Muller and watch TellyTubbies. No shit, it works....

 

[reddevil1111]

I was forced by a combat situation to stay alert and awake for 7 days in a row and a large portion was in a hide so there was little activity and movement. Combined with a day and a half or hard running/walking in the end to reach a safe landing zone.
We took some orange pills that made us super jumpy and agitated.
I will say that past the 3rd day I was pretty useless. Being a junior member of my team I got stuck with the extra rotations of observation time so that added to the stress factor even more. I was like a zombe at the end. I didnt want to do anything but sleep. We got back and cleaned weapons. That took over 3 hrs to do. It normally took 1-1.5 hrs. Then I slept for over 2 days in a row without waking at all. most of us did. I pissed myself and never even woke up. I was that tired. Just like you said.
Sleep for me comes in small sections of 10/20 maybe 30 minutes. I have suffered from PTSD for over 20 years. And I didnt know it was PTSD untill a few months ago.
I do something that kinda scares me a lot when I do sleep. I cry nonstop most of the time. My pillow is always wet and I have tears running down my face when I wake most of the time.
I follow a pattern of little sleep -all broken maybe 3-4 hrs for a week or even two. Then I have what I call a decent nights sleep of 5-6 and less interruptions as well. Then back to the crap sleep.

 

[Fargo1]

I have slept five hours maximum for 20+ years. Until recently if I laid my head down, I was out like a light for exactly five hours. No alarm needed. When I woke I was completely alert and ready to go.

During my active duty time, I averaged only 3-4 hours of sleep at best and as many/all of you regular stints of no sleep for 2-4 days. After getting off active duty, I went into a profession that also trains you to get very little sleep. During architecture school, every class I took seemed to push the "too much shit to get done to only work a 24 hour day," so when I went to work I tended to do a lot of all-nighters frequently working all night and through the next day to get a project done on some ridiculous schedule. But through all of this I felt like I was in top shape. If I could get my five hours and the occasional power nap I was good to go and performed at a very high level.

After coming back from Katrina however, my sleep went to complete shit. The nightmares started. I started needing to have the radio on talk radio on. Not music, music keeps me awake. But the sound of people talking allows me to sleep. I am jumpy when I sleep and if the slightest thing happens, like my girlfriend rolling over or her quietly walking into the room, I am up and ready to fight (balled fists and angry demeanor). However, if she just walks in all noisy and such, I wake, but am able to just roll over and go back to sleep.