(Note: I’m not talking about FFI, but healthy people.)
It’s said that we need sleep because waste products, such as adenosine (which is a CNS depressant) build up in our brains while we’re awake. When we sleep, the glymphatic system activates and flushes it out. Too much adenosine is known to cause a slower heart rate, the body temperature to decrease, immune system to weaken, hallucinations, and more.
I read about how a Chinese guy (in 2014 or 2012?) deliberately stayed awake for 11 nights with no sleep at all to watch the world cup, and he died. The articles said he died of sleep deprivation.
Here’s the part which confuses me. I understand why too much of a CNS depressant waste product in your brain would be deadly, since it’d supress vital functions such as breathing, heart rate etc. I’m just wondering why it wouldn’t make you automatically pass out and sleep, long before it got to that level as it’s something which very gradually builds up in your brain the longer you’re awake.
I frequently have trouble sleeping. After a few days of little to no quality sleep, I become unable to fall asleep.
The best way I’ve been able to describe it like a car battery. It helps start the car and when the car drives it keeps the battery charged. But if the battery gets too low it can’t start the car to recharge.
It’s like the part of my brain that tells my body to go into sleep mode hasn’t been charged by getting sleep. I’m so tired I can’t think and I feel absolutely awful, but the sleep doesn’t come.
I have to take a sleep aid when that happens.
This is just anecdotal, but if it works like that for the people who died, it makes sense to me.
I struggle with much of the same and have found that taking melatonin regularly (as in at the same time every day) and working out within 2ish hours before bed helps a lot…when I can remember to keep to that schedule, at least. Did you know that adhd is annoying asf to live with? Because it is.
Anyway, it might not be the fix for you, but it might also be well worth the shot. Either way, good luck getting where you want to be!
I’m open to try it! I also have ADHD and remembering to take my medication is a challenge for me too.
Is it something that you have to take everyday to be effective or can you just take it as needed? I hate taking sleep aids like ZzzQuil.
You can take it as needed, and it is the same chemical your brain naturally makes to get itself tired so it doesn’t feel anything like other sleep aids. I recommend taking it daily because, in my case at least, the pattern of it helps my body get back on its own regular schedule. I get used to getting sleepy around the same time every night, as long as I remember to keep to the process.