What keeps you awake?

[Caledonia]

So this is an open thread.

I had to do an overnighter 3 days ago to complete a client's project. That was really hard and laid me out for two days, and I'm working on another one just now and getting about 3 hours before the panic for 10am tomorrow. I've been doing them twice yearly for 3 years for the degree I'm doing part-time (exams, revision, etc, etc, yawn.) I've also been kept awake by night terrors, tumultuous rain, dogs barking at anything at any dangnabbit time of night.

What keeps you awake? There's been a thread on insomnia and how we deal with it. This is specifics of staying awake or being kept awake, reality or spooky time. And if you want, how do you deal with it? Keep me up peeps, I've got a long way to go!

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

I could do them easily when I was in my 20s. Now, forget it. It's bad enough that I work until 2AM most nights, and am lucky to get to bed by 5. I've adjusted somewhat, butit still kills my energy.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A lot of things keep me awake. If I have a Coke or any other caffeine containing drink after 5pm, I'm going to have an awful time getting to sleep that night. Or if I eat a big supper. Or if I see an exciting movie. Basically anything that gets me worked up will keep me awake.

I lie awake worrying a lot more than I wish I did. Right now I'm scared to death the company for which I do my writing -- my main source of income for the past nine years -- might go under this fall, and I have no idea what I'll do if that happens. I'm an independent contractor, so I've got no unemployment coverage, and I've got no savings to fall back on, so if the axe falls, I'm in big trouble. So I lie in bed and come up with all these awful scenarios in my head, and the more I try to stop the worse it gets. Lately it's been keeping me up most every night, and I'm getting really sick of it. Sometimes it helps to drink a pint of Guinness really fast, and if I'm really desperate I'll put a dropperful of valerian extract in it -- sort of like slipping myself a mickey...

I've never liked working allnighters -- when I was in radio, I'd have to go 48 hours or more without sleep covering election night and the day after, and by the end of it I'd be hallucinating. Not fun.

 

[Rosie]

When I was in undergrad, I would stay up all night finishing whatever project I was doing at the time, take a shower, and go to classes the next day without a problem. For a year after undergrad, I worked on movie sets where working a 14 hour day is nothing, (add travel time, showering, eating, grooming to that and you're looking at 3 hours sleep tops). Once, we worked 22 hours, everyone just crashed in the house we were filming in because there was NO WAY we were going to be able to get home and back in time fo the next day of shooting. Now, I can go about 18 hours straight on four hours but, not for long, maybe a three four days tops.

What keeps me up at night are simple, silly, childish things. If I've seen a really scary movie, particularly anything involving aliens (not the cute kind like in Close Encounters of the Third Kind),

, or ghosts. So, Scary.

Another thing that keeps me up is too much quiet. I have this sound machine that I adore, if I forget to turn it on, I toss and turn until I realize how quiet it is.

 

[CharlieH.]

The only thing that manages to keep me awake is a good movie on the ole tele-vision reception equipment. Well, that or the nagging sound of a tune in my head... or the neighour's backyard.

 

[Caledonia]

A lot of things keep me awake. If I have a Coke or any other caffeine containing drink after 5pm, I'm going to have an awful time getting to sleep that night. Or if I eat a big supper. Or if I see an exciting movie. Basically anything that gets me worked up will keep me awake.

I lie awake worrying a lot more than I wish I did. Right now I'm scared to death the company for which I do my writing -- my main source of income for the past nine years -- might go under this fall, and I have no idea what I'll do if that happens. I'm an independent contractor, so I've got no unemployment coverage, and I've got no savings to fall back on, so if the axe falls, I'm in big trouble. So I lie in bed and come up with all these awful scenarios in my head, and the more I try to stop the worse it gets. Lately it's been keeping me up most every night, and I'm getting really sick of it. Sometimes it helps to drink a pint of Guinness really fast, and if I'm really desperate I'll put a dropperful of valerian extract in it -- sort of like slipping myself a mickey...

I've never liked working allnighters -- when I was in radio, I'd have to go 48 hours or more without sleep covering election night and the day after, and by the end of it I'd be hallucinating. Not fun.

Ohmigosh, Lizzie!!!! I haven't even read the rest of the thread! I'm coming over. Hold the Guinness, at least till I get there And above all, only 10 drops of valerian to a pint!

 

[mysterygal]

what keeps me awake:
caffiene...lots of it! or, if I'm really stressed out about something, it's darn near impossible to get any sleep

 

[Caledonia]

I used to try ProPlus, those high caffeine tablets. All they did was keep me on a buzz till I fell asleep! [huh]

 

[mysterygal]

That's what I found annoying about drinking caffinated beverages before bedtime is that, you may feel tired, but you'll just toss and turn all night because of the 'buzz'

 

[Pilgrim]

The thing that keeps me awake most often is unfinished business. My mind gets to working on problems or projects, and I might as well get up, write up my thoughts and email them to myself at work. Then I have a sense of completion and can get to sleep. This only happens when I'm really hard-pressed and feel a big need to finish something - so it may only occur 2-3 times a year.

Otherwise, as long as I lay off coffee after about 8 PM, I'm good. I've never had trouble sleeping, and I consider myself fortunate at that.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

My neighbors!

My numb skull, lame brained, nit wit neighbors keep me awake,...those imbecils!!!


Other than that, it would be some problem of someone or another's weighing on my mind. Or sleeping in an unfamiliar place, like a hotel, keeps me awake every time.

 

[colleency]

To try to stay awake, I usually use a lot of sugar and caffeine.

I can't sleep when my husband isn't with me, either at home or away. It helps if I put The Thin Man dvd on. I can doze a little.

 

[VintageJess]

My sweet little 18 month old son, who still wakes at least a couple of times throughout the night to nurse.

 

[Lady Day]

When I get a creative streak, as in Im animating, or working on a painting, it can be 5am before I notice and Im all "Well, might as well stay up!"

I remember just a few weeks ago staying up for 56 hours. I went to class, the store, did tons of work, took doggie to the park, etc. I wanted to maximize the time in the printing lab. Since I graduated last month, Ive only done 2 all nighters. One was washing my hair (that can taks as much as 5 hours), and the other was just felt like it

LD

 

[Sefton]

My numb skull, lame brained, nit wit neighbors keep me awake,...those imbecils!!!

Oh yes, I know how you feel (that is, I used to know. I moved ). I used to live next door to a DJ. Not the plays records of actual music type of DJ. The "I have two turntables, a Mac, and gigantic bass speakers so I'm a musician" type of DJ. Living next to that selfish ignorant jerk kept me awake plenty!:rage:

 

[dr greg]

nothin

I sleep the sleep of the just.
And I live in the country, so the only noise we hear after dark is wildlife..unless the hillbilly across the ridge's dogs are playing up.

 

[G. Fink-Nottle]

Caffeine after 8 p.m. is the chief culprit. If I have coffee after dinner, I'm in for a hard time getting to sleep.

Years ago, worries about work kept me up. It wasn't uncommmon to get two or three hours sleep a night. I was a workaholic and nothing was done unless it was done perfectly. 9/11 changed all that. In a strange way, it forced me to focus on what was really important in life - and it wasn't work.

 

[nightandthecity]

Quite. You'll never hear a dying man say 'I should have spent more time at work'.

Caffeine does it for me too. And in the days when I drank so did booze. I would pass out easily enough but after four hours, on the dot, I'd be awake and nothing could get me back to sleep, though I'd be dead on my feet. I've read since that even small quantities of alcohol seriously disrupt the body's sleep mechanism.

 

[funneman]

What keeps me awake?

...the people behind me honking their horns!

 

[matei]

What keeps you awake?

The knackers/crackheads two floors up from us keep me awake.

They come in around 01:00am after a hard day of begging on Upper Street. The start bickering and carrying on until about 3:00, sometimes even longer.

After that they start going in and out of the building, up and down the stairs. Buying? Selling? I don't know, but I would sure like it to stop.