My insomnia comes and goes. I never know when that bastard will creep up and I hate it!

In these winter weeks/months where my work is shut down for the season, the insomnia switch kicks on immediately. My work is pure manual labour so falling asleep at 10pm isn't hard due to physical exhaustion. Now that I'm collecting EI until things start back up again, 3am seems to be when I will even remotely feel sleepy. Wake up at noon, go about my lazy day, go to be at 3am, repeat.

Yep, on and off - I've had a couple of bad weeks recently with an hour or two of sleep every night since Christmas. Starting to feel quite tired!

I sometimes get insomnia, although I do keep hours of beign awake during the day and sleep at night. Usually it is that my mind just won't sto thinking and settle down enough for sleep to happen.

My sister and I have a friend who keeps night hours even though she is retired, she is awake at night and sleeps during the day. I think different people just have different sleep patterns.

From and evolutionary viewpoint it would seen to make sense for a certain percentage of the population to be awake at night to keep watch over the community or village.

When I was younger I worked graveyard. I could not sleep solidly during the day, so I split my sleep into a few hours in teh morning and a few more in the evening before i went to work. In the middle of the day, I usually went to the movies to take advantage of matinee prices. They say the first three hours of sleep are the most important. by splitting my sleep times like I did I got by with six hours of sleep in a 24 hour period instead of eight hours.

Does waking up 4-5 times a night count?

I take Trazadone to sleep at night. Or else I would be awake for days, and then crash.

I'm not really an insomniac, but I do find that I am more "alive" during the night. I'm not a morning person at all.

I am! I'm really glad this site does not post the time of comments, everyone would think I'm an absolute nut or a vampire.

When I was much younger I could be drunk as a skunk fall asleep and be up 3 or 4 hours later. I have had many surgeries one was an ulnar nerve transpiration the bandage was on too tight my arm turned black went to the emergency room. The ER nurse was told to give me 100cc of demerol. She said in 30 years of being a nurse I have never given 100cc of demerol. She then stated that I would be out for about 10 hours. Got home fell asleep 3 hours later wide awake. I do not drink at all anymore. My doctor has me on ambien even 10mg of that only put me out 3 or 4 hours. Have tried ever remedy melatonin, valerian root, kava kava, ashwagandha, benadryl. nothing will let me sleep more than 3 to 4 hours a night.

My meds screw my sleeping all up. My wife too. I got up at 4:45am and made a pot of coffee. Hopefully I'll be tired tonight.

Since being retired I fall asleep on my couch between midnight and 2:00 am. Sleep tiil 8 or 9 sometimes.

VA hospital tried to regulate my sleeping pattern and I still got the pills. I don't medicate. I could stay up for days or sleep for days. Depends what cycle you catch me. Retired, my cycle is life with or without a sleep pattern. I will let my partner regulate my sleep. Done it all my life I guess.

MASSIVELY. I've even been sectioned for being in a world of my own after 6 days of no sleep. In the UK they are right c**ts with giving out benzos/Z Class drugs for fear of addiction. After 2 days I no longer feel tired and am in for it. I didn't sleep at all last night, for instance. Saying that, I do get a lot more done/read than most other people. I regularly go 2/3 days in a row with zero sleep.

Indoors, my natural clock for sleep is 2-3AM until around 9-10AM. I tend to sleep solidly six hours on the best night, then sporadic dream sleep after. This night owlishness runs in the family (my folks and my kids).

My migraine meds (a MUST have, or else pain 24/7) induce hypnogogic hallucinations. These are ALWAYS unpleasant (fire, smoke, spiders, threatening intruders, rising flood waters) and occur almost nightly. Sleep is not fun, though sleep deprivation is a bitch, too. Sigh.

I work from home thankfully as I seem to hit patterns of waking about 2-3am. I just shuffle into the office and get my crap done. I'm able to nap so that helps.

I am a slave to insomnia as well. Cardio helps, so do lots of veggies in your diet.