The Moment I Knew I Needed More Sleep

The moment I knew I needed more sleep was four years ago, when I learned the value of sleep -- the hard way. I'd just returned home after a week of taking my daughter on a tour of colleges, and the ground rule was no BlackBerry during the day, so I stayed up very late to catch up on work. Next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor, bloodied. I had passed out from exhaustion and banged my head on the way down. The result was a broken cheekbone and five stitches under my eyebrow. And it was also a wake-up call, leading me to renew my estranged relationship with sleep.

What was the moment you knew you needed to get more sleep? I want to hear your story.

 

Take a look at our readers' submissions below:

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• Julie Flygare, J.D.

• Robert J. Feldman

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Comments

[OBL4POTUS16]

11:20 AM on 05/29/2012

I knew I needed 8 hours of sleep when I realized I'd be more tired if I didn't.

[Tracey Easter]

01:56 AM on 05/29/2012

Hmmm .... when I read things incorrectly.

[Pointless Dullard]

04:32 PM on 05/28/2012

I learned in my mid-50s that I needed less sleep (5-6 hours) and that conditioning trumps sleep or age. Boxing a big bag and climbing stadium stairs seem to work best. When I was able to keep boxing through a round in my tenth round and a 20-year-old who walked in the door could not keep up with me, I realized that point most fully. Still, we all want to sleep in at least one day a week....

[alnicov]

11:56 AM on 05/26/2012

This past winter I started turning in around 8 p.m. and got about 3 hrs of sleep until the 11 p.m. news came on. I would then stay awake until 2 a.m. and then slept for another 3 to 4 hrs. I couldn't believe how great I felt! Now I make sure to get at least 6 hrs. of sleep every nite. It cuts into my social life a little but it's worth it. Problem solved.

[Jess Randall23]

04:10 PM on 05/25/2012

I've suffered with insomnia for more years then I care to remember. I sometimes feel quite lightheaded and exhausted in the middle of the afternoon, and I've noticed I get quite ill, like I catch colds more quickly and then I force myself to rest so I know I can do it but my problem is once I'm functioning back to normal, I'm rushing around again, it's a vicious circle with me I guess!

[Jimmy Arnold]

10:07 PM on 05/25/2012

Hi Jess,

That describes my problem to the tee as well, over working and under sleeping my body, although anytime i acquire more than ,(or less than),4 hours of sleep, i feel as though i have either overslept or under slept, leaving me feeling grogy.
Take care,

P.S. try white noise, it does work been practicing it for years,(since 1995).

Jimmy A.

[Lil Husky]

10:32 AM on 05/25/2012

This may be a combination of lack of sleep and the fact that I haven't seen the light of day since I went blind over 20 years ago. Anyway, I'm raising 4 kids, have a full time job and a minimum 3 hour daily commute on public transportation every day I work. When I get exhausted, or should I say when I get severely exhausted, I can maintain a semi-conscience state while I watch my dreams. Literally, I can tell you what I'm seeing as my eyes flicker back and forth behind my eyelids. If I open my eyes, the dream will disappear, then when I close them again, up will pop another dream, completely different from the one I just had, - like channel flipping.

Last month on my ride home from work, I couldn't find a seat on the crowded train, so I stood and leaned up against a pole. Once again, I was really exhausted and began doing the channel flipping thing. Only this time I lost conscienceness and my knees buckled and I fell down. The passengers around me thought I had passed out, which I did I guess, but I told them just give me a few minutes to lay on the floor and dream and then I would be OK. So that's what I did. And when I got to my feet, a very nice passenger offered me her seat.

[Robert J. Feldman]

10:25 AM on 05/30/2012

Wow you are an amazing person Lil Husky.
What with raising four children, working full time with a onerous commute all without visuals other than your own mental "channels".
You have encouraged us and I suspect the fact that you so encourage others makes you successful and happy and wise!

[carmillivanilli]

09:32 AM on 05/25/2012

Wow - before reading these comments, I had no idea that so many people out there were so sleep-deprived. Being in my late twenties and having no kids and regular work hours means that I don't often have difficulties due to sleep deprivation, which I'm now especially grateful for after having read all of your horror stories.

[WomenOnGuard]

08:26 AM on 05/25/2012

Some people can't help not sleeping enough, people with sleep apnea. It's a huge problem. They mostly snore all night long and constantly wake themselves up throughout the whole night. Never getting to real deep sleep. Many also stop breathing several times a night, due to their tongue blocking their airway. If you wake up tired in the morning, you might have sleep apnea and you should see a doctor!

[Mustique]

07:10 AM on 05/25/2012

I knew I needed more sleep after my severe work-induced lack of sleep triggered a month long manic episode. The irony is that my lack of sleep pushed me into a state where i was able to go for days sleeping only a couple of hours a night. It was an incredibly productive time. Then I crashed.

[Melissa Gingerich]

06:49 AM on 05/25/2012

I was driving home from the airport and the car in front of me turned into two because I was so tired my eyes couldn't focus anymore. I pulled over to the side of the highway my leg jerked and I immediately fell asleep (for two hours).

[DoesNotComputer]

12:47 AM on 05/25/2012

Stay up.

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Stay up.

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Stay up.

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[NoFancyScreenName]

11:57 PM on 05/24/2012

The moment I knew I needed to get more sleep, I was sitting in a neurologist's office, and he was explaining that stress and extreme lack of sleep had led to the grand mal seizure I had experienced several weeks earlier. The seizure had caught me while I was driving through town, with my dad and my husband in the car. They were fortunately able to stop the car without injury to anyone but myself - but I suffered compression fractures in two different vertebrae, a dislocated shoulder, and the piece of bone at the shoulder that holds all the muscles and tendons in place had completely broken off and was floating inside somewhere around my elbow. Two surgeries, months of disability and physical therapy and a lifetime of constant pain are the result - all from not having gotten enough sleep over the previous few months.

[Melissa Ausua]

11:56 PM on 05/24/2012

When I was driving on the highway thinking, "I think I can close my eyes for 2 seconds and still hold the wheel steady."

[Peek-a-chu]

02:00 AM on 05/25/2012

never a good thing!

[Meoquanee]

11:41 PM on 05/24/2012

I've been sleep deprived since my daughter was born almost 6 years ago. It finally caught up to me a few months ago when I was driving (a route I take everyday) and didn't know how I had gone from point A to point B until I "woke up" and realized I had arrived. It scared the heck out of me. I've started taking power naps about 2 hours before I need to leave the house and it has helped a lot. I still feel tired during the day, but not like I used to. So far, no medical explanation has been found.

[Alvarask]

08:32 AM on 05/25/2012

I hear you! I have two children and was sleep deprived for almost a decade. Even now that they're grown I still feel like I'm trying to catch up.

[cmh6473]

11:30 PM on 05/24/2012

I was in the Army, I had just arrived in Germany and my unit was put on alert. At about 5 pm I had to camouflage our trucks and missile launchers. I managed to get done around 5 the next morning, in time to pull a shift in a bunker. I was forgotten about and being a new guy no one really knew me yet so they didn't realize I was even there. I pulled a 23 hour shift in the bunker because no one knew I was missing. Finally, my platoon sgt., doing a perimeter check found me huddled under a cammo bag protecting the M-60 from the weather with my gear. I was in a daze. He asked how long I'd been there. I told him about 24 hours. He was pretty upset, so he relieved me, told me to find my section chief and have him report to the bunker, then get some breakfast and something hot to drink. I did as I was told. As I stood in line I guess I fell asleep standing up with my eyes open. My platoon sgt. saw me standing there literally snoring with eyes open, he woke me and moved me through the line and walked me back to a small GP tent and put my rear in a cot. That is when I knew that I was not getting enough sleep and sleep was not going to be a close friend for years.