Strategies for deep sleep when you have insomnia

Student sleep pattern

A.I. from Boston

I like to sleep as much as possible. I go to bed late and I sleep late. When I don’t get to sleep late, I am very tired, and am susceptible to falling asleep randomly whenever I am bored. This can happen when I am in class, on the train, talking on the phone, or reading.

When I fall asleep, it is detrimental to my studies because I not only miss out on the lessons I need to be paying attention to, but the professors and my classmates think I am lazy and don’t care. The situation is quite the opposite.

I generally stay up late because I am preparing my work for school and I take the time I need for the end result to be as close to perfect as possible. I need to sleep for at least 7 hours to feel well rested. If I get less or more sleep than 7 hours, I feel very sleepy.

It isn’t ever hard for me to go to sleep because I am always tired. I do have a hard time staying awake when I am tired. Tricks like coffee, chewing gum, doodling, and daydreaming work to help me try to stay awake, but they generally loose their effectiveness over time.

Sometimes I like to play the radio or TV in the background when I am feeling restless. It is also very hard for me to wake up in the morning. One time, my dad put a live lobster in my bed to try to wake me up. He had received a gift of 4 live lobsters that were shipped to my house in a pot ready to be cooked. He put the lobster in my bed and started shouting until I gained some consciousness. Soon after I realized the lobster in my bed wasn’t a toy, I hopped out of bed. That was the quickest I have ever waked up.