Turning Nocturnal

[Dracowrath]

I've had this happen to me a few times before, and I wanted to know if it's just some weird thing that only happens to me.

Occasionally I'll end up staying up all night, usually with a game, and fall asleep come morning to get my days and nights mixed up. But, if I manage to stay up all night and not got to sleep once morning comes, and stay awake until nightfall, I'm suddenly not sleepy any more. I've not tried it, but I could potentially never sleep again if I didn't make myself go to sleep once it gets to night time again. So, has anyone else experienced this? Any reason why nightfall suddenly removes any drowsyness?

 

[sky14kemea]

I've had that a few times. It just means you've messed up your body-clock. :0

I usually just attempt to stay up all day, or stretch it out over a few days, going to bed later and later until I've reached a normal sleep pattern again.

It's tougher when you're not tired though. I don't know why you don't seem to be drowsy at night time even after staying up all day. That might be just a skill you have. =P

 

[kouriichi]

Yup. Same thing here.

I'll sleep clean through the days and wake up at 11 or 12 at night. At least its nice and cool then though.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

http://www.bettermedicine.com/article/vitamin-d-deficiency

Stop being Nocturnal.

 

[Fiad]

I get that way. I become nocturnal when not in school. Been trying to fix it but failing. The same thing happens to me that happens to you. I just stop being tired when I attempt to go to sleep.

 

[Low Key]

I used to work overnights from 10pm to 7am at a gas station. That really messed up my body clock. It's 8 years later and I still stay up until 3am-4am most nights, which sucks because now I have a 9-5 job.

Not sure why you don't feel sleepy once the sun comes up though. If I stay up all night and at noon it hits me, I must go to sleep or I'll start dozing off in the middle of whatever I'm doing.

 

[the spud]

I have a pretty decent amount of stamina when it comes to sleep, but after 72 hours, you, well, you start to see things. weird things. Ahhh! Pink elephants!

 

[SckizoBoy]

http://www.bettermedicine.com/article/vitamin-d-deficiency

Stop being Nocturnal.

Eggs and milk... problem solved.

OT: Happened to me first year of undergrad... go to sleep at five in the morning, wake up at one in the afternoon. Sleep starving is a good way to get your bodyclock back on 'schedule', shall we say, but I think after seven to ten days without any sleep whatsoever, you'll be a little screwed...

 

[Nuclear_Suspect]

Meh, i work from 11pm to 7am, i rarely see much of the daylight

As for not feeling tired after a bit, its usually an aftereffect from toughing it through and drowsyness.

 

[Lord Honk]

http://www.bettermedicine.com/article/vitamin-d-deficiency

Stop being Nocturnal.

Also, sleeping outside might aleviate that problem, no?

 

[Gralian]

I have a pretty decent amount of stamina when it comes to sleep, but after 72 hours, you, well, you start to see things. weird things. Ahhh! Pink elephants!

This guy jokes, but it's true. I decided to stay up past 72 hours just to see the effect it would have on me. While i didn't see any pink elephants, i did see things constantly moving in the corner of my eye. I made myself jump on so many occasions when i thought a shadow was moving or someone was walking down the hall beside me despite being alone in the house. I've also had moments where i've tried to grab onto something really fast because i thought it was going to fall off a table even though it wasn't moving at all or there was nothing there to begin with and i've reached down to pet the cat i thought was beside me and ended up with my hand on the floor instead. It really starts to feel a bit disturbing after the novelty has worn off and i wouldn't try it again.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

I suppose I know what you mean, although if you stay up long enough that you stop feeling sleepy, you should probably get to sleep anyway. It's possible that you've built up energy over the two days inside playing games, that you haven't burnt properly, so the energy you're feeling isn't so much energy as it is just your brain telling you to get up and do something (Christ, that was awkwardly worded).

Edit; Jesus, reading over that, it's clear that I'm babbling. My brain doesn't work properly when I'm tired

 

[Catfood220]

I became nocturnal when I used to work in bars until the early hours of the morning, I would go to bed around about 6am and wake up late afternoon as habbit even when I wasn't working. It got really bad when I worked in a hotel as a night porter and worked through the night until mid morning. Then I got a daytime job and tried to carry on being nocturnal and just found myself completely wiped out all the time, which wasn't fun. It took a little work but I have actually got myself back into "normal" sleeping pattern through sleep starvation, I can now be counted upon to be in bed for about 11o'clock at night these days. Though I do occasionally treat myself to an all nighter every now and then.

I doubt you could actually stop sleeping. Everyone needs to sleep and sooner or later your body and brain would just shut down and you would fall asleep doing whatever you were doing at the time. Even people under intense torture and sleep deprivation will eventually just fall asleep. Plus, you need REM sleep and dreaming, otherwise you will go totally and utterly crazy. Also being nocturnal is not good for your body as your metabolism changes so you will gain weight because your body is out of its natural rhythm and you are probably eating at the wrong time of day.

 

[Dracowrath]

Not sure why you don't feel sleepy once the sun comes up though. If I stay up all night and at noon it hits me, I must go to sleep or I'll start dozing off in the middle of whatever I'm doing.

No, that's just it. When this happens, I'm only sleepy when the sun's up. It's when the sun goes down that the sleepy goes away and I'm left wondering wtf's going on.

Also...

Edit; Jesus, reading over that, it's clear that I'm babbling. My brain doesn't work properly when I'm tired

Was that intentional? Because that fits this thread so well, lol.

 

[Dracowrath]

I doubt you could actually stop sleeping. Everyone needs to sleep and sooner or later your body and brain would just shut down and you would fall asleep doing whatever you were doing at the time. Even people under intense torture and sleep deprivation will eventually just fall asleep. Plus, you need REM sleep and dreaming, otherwise you will go totally and utterly crazy. Also being nocturnal is not good for your body as your metabolism changes so you will gain weight because your body is out of its natural rhythm and you are probably eating at the wrong time of day.

yeah, I figured there'd be a limit before my brain says "Fuck you, sleepeh tiem". Also, sleeping during the day instead of night causes weight change? Right, definately need to avoid this. Don't need to gain any more weight, lol.

 

[Saltyk]

I don't think I can go much more than 36 hours without sleep. Though, I have stayed up all night and not been sleepy. The problem is that as soon as I'd have to do something, I know I'd be tired.

Also, I'm pretty sure that you couldn't just stop sleeping. I heard once that not sleeping can actually kill you, but I don't know if that's true. Wouldn't try it out anyway.

An interesting aside. They have done experiments where they completely removed a person from all outside concepts of time. No clocks, TV, newspapers, not even light and day. And people generally fell into a 26 hour day. Kinda interesting when you think about it.

 

[Dracowrath]

I thought it was a 23 hour day they fell into?

 

[Blow_Pop]

I don't know that you can exactly call me nocturnal but my internal clock is all kinds of screwed up. Currently it runs on UK time which means. Up really fucking ass early in the day(we're talking between midnight and 2 am) and sleeping in the middle of the afternoon(like about now soon as this episode of Doctor Who is over). Though mine is a circumstance of talking to a bunch of people in the UK and living 8 hours behind.....

 

[Mylinkay Asdara]

I doubt you could actually stop sleeping. Everyone needs to sleep and sooner or later your body and brain would just shut down and you would fall asleep doing whatever you were doing at the time. Even people under intense torture and sleep deprivation will eventually just fall asleep. Plus, you need REM sleep and dreaming, otherwise you will go totally and utterly crazy. Also being nocturnal is not good for your body as your metabolism changes so you will gain weight because your body is out of its natural rhythm and you are probably eating at the wrong time of day.

yeah, I figured there'd be a limit before my brain says "Fuck you, sleepeh tiem". Also, sleeping during the day instead of night causes weight change? Right, definately need to avoid this. Don't need to gain any more weight, lol.

...yeah without going into details, my advice just from my own experiences with similar problems:

A simple 24 hour 'reset' works if you're out of sync for maybe a week or two.

36 hour 'reset' for anything in the month range

48 (or 24 with medication - safe stuff! over the counter, doctor approved, etc. don't mess with your brain chemistry too hard if sleep's your problem) hours into a 12 hour sleep cycle for over a month of the undesired sleep pattern.

I do not recommend more than 48 hours awake - it gets unpleasant at odd turns despite a general feeling in that 48th hour that you could just keep cruising in awake land indefinitely, that's just poor judgement rearing its ugly head.

I'm not a doctor, btw, and have no medical background - just have had a lot of insomnia and nocturnal-ism as you describe.

 

[Ulquiorra4sama]

No idea. I'm like that too though

I'm much more comfortable at night. I work better too. Most of my higher grades have come from work i did in the middle of the night