I once got woken up by a security guard in the casino as I was taking my 35 nap sitting up and I found when I just said the phrase "medical reasons" he backed off.
Have you considered getting tested for sleep apnea?
In addition, the therapy they recommended (bi-pap or something like that, basically a two-way assisted breathing machine) did absolutely nothing for me.
What finally helped was a min dose of an SSRI, which I started for totally unrelated reasons. Guess it was anxiety, never got any confirmation from any doctor that this is a known presentation of it, but swear to God literally two days on the stuff made me sleep easy with no breathing problems whatsoever. After six months I got off and once the withdrawal symptoms broke (real bad in my case, which is super weird for a min dose, but :shrug:) I've never had the problem again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis#Threat_hyper-v...
As one falls asleep one loses the ability to voluntary breath. This can cause sensations of suffocating and resulting in panic if experienced when still conscious.
Very interesting. I wonder if this helps to explain why I'm not all that productive when experiencing insomnia, even on the occasions when I say "okay well if I'm gonna be wide awake, I'm gonna get some work done on xyz"
I worked midnight-8am for 10 years right out of high school, and now, if I'm not asleep by midnight my body just 'revs up'.
I used to stay late and do school projects at night (mostly programming). I always felt my mind is so calm and with no outside distractions I was able to focus very well and be very productive (may not be objective truth at all though).
I would use full black out blankets, ear plugs and noise canceling headphones with video game music.
Pair programmer was wonderful for me, as it kept me on task and I didn’t give into distractions as easily.
Later diagnosed as ADHD. Medication made a massive quality of life. Up until my body decided that stimulants are invaders and my immune system went bonkers.
Have you found anything that gets close to it?? I have quite bad gerd and so taking any medication is a quick way to end up on the toilet but I would love to be able to focus!
Fruit and yogurt helps me a lot.
I think it's because fruit doesn't digest primarily in the stomach, so it moves the pills faster into my intestines.
Not a doctor.
I could take care of the baby while my girlfriend was sleeping at night and I could go out or work on my hobbies all night (with 27m naps) without any problem. It was like I was a liberating experience, I watched the whole of society shutdown at night, but I was awake every day all by myself, it was very odd. I also realized I didn't really need a house if I could sleep anywhere, except in winter - but I started thinking I could just sleep 30m here and there (in trains, at work, in the park on a bench) perhaps with electric blankets. A real nomad lifestyle. I also noticed that I had to force myself being productive at night as my executive function wasn't quite there - it was like my mind was used to doing nothing consciously at night, an unconscious part didn't really see a point in being awake and doing things at night - so I mostly just was sitting there, contemplating or meditating. When I made a todo list it was better.
As I also had to organize naps outside and at friends and family places it caused some tension and conflicts (I can tell some really wild stories) - and eventually, also because I didn't want to risk potential long term issues I went to 2 naps and eventually 1 nap each day.
Regarding 35 minutes, you risk entering deep sleep with 35m, at least I did when I went over 30m a nap. Or did you mean 25 minutes?