Before I went into the hospital, my sleep sucked. A brief summary: I was hyperthyoid when I was a kid and severely depressed. I rarely fell asleep before midnight and my sleep was sparse. I got maybe four hours a night in college, which was not nearly enough. Every time I went home for vacation or summer, I slept fifteen hours the first night. In college, I had a light purple portable alarm clock that I kept on my desk (which was right by my bed). One day, I woke up and couldn’t find my alarm clock. I looked all over the dorm room and couldn’t find it. I finally gave up and opened my mini-fridge so I could grab a Diet Pepsi. Hey, it’s caffeine. No reason I couldn’t drink it instead of coffee in the morning. Anyway, when I opened the door to the mini-fridge and there was my portable alarm clock.
Taiji helped me with my sleep–marginally. In increments. After several year, I was able to sleep six hours a night, waking up twice. I went from going to bed at between six and eight in the morning, waking up six hours later. I worked on pushing my sleep time back. Or is it forward? Earlier is what I mean. I managed to get it to one in the morning before I started slipping back. I am an inveterate night owl and I couldn’t help staying up a little bit longer each night. By the time I went into the hospital, I was going to bed around three or four in the morning.
All that came to a crashing halt when I went into the hospital. First of all, I was kept sedated and unconscious for a week. When I woke up, I had to get my vitals taken every four hours so my sleep was constantly interrupted. I slept a lot, though, despite that because of the sedation meds still in my blood and the trauma my body went through. I was sleeping most of the time for the first few days I was awake.