What do I do know? I slept most of the last 13 hours! I
regrouped. I was refreshed and pain free, a very wonderful thing after a
migraine experience. Today is Saturday and I have the whole weekend to hang
with my kids and enjoy the time we have together. Well, except that it's April and
snowing outside. The joy of living in Canada!
So we did just that. We baked, we watched a matinee on TV,
I coloured and trimmed one daughter's hair and braided the others. We thought
about going out to a movie but couldn't decide on one, so we PPV'ed a comedy,
moved the living room into a theatre, made popcorn and had fun! I did nap 2, 6
and 10 pm that day. My kids are very accommodating, often not even noticing my
20 minute disappearance every four hours. They are protecting my time too,
answering the phone and giving me messages when I wake.
Day 7
I slept solidly from 2 - 6 am and woke refreshed. Before
I started this experiment I absolutely needed 9 hours of sleep at night or I
was tired. I mean falling asleep at dinner tired. Now I am finding 5 -5.5 hours
of sleep is more than adequate and I'm feeling selfish because I feel so good!
I am sleeping a consistent 4-hour core and 2 - 4 nap schedule right now (with
the exception of my migraine days). I am falling asleep within 5 minutes of
laying down and waking easily after an average of 20 minutes for each nap. Today
my naps were at 10 and 2. My youngest son and I were engrossed in a board game
right up until dinner so I skipped my last nap and went to sleep for my core
sleep at 10 instead of 2 am.
Lucid Dreaming
I have yet to not dream during my naps as I am well aware
of my dreams. However, one of the interesting outcomes uberman sleepers have
experienced is lucid dreaming. Lucid dreams are dreams in which one is aware
they are dreaming. I have had experience with lucid dreaming in the past and
would love to explore this further.
When I was a teenager, I experienced horrible nightmares.
At my wits end, I read what I could find on dreams (not much and all having to
do with dream interpretation). Frustrated and angry with not finding any
answers, and desperate to stop these nightmares, I decided to teach myself to be
aware of my dream and change my dreams, I could do this couldn't I? As it was a
consistent nightmare, in that it was the same dream repeated over and over, I
would go in night after night and change it, a little bit at a time. When I was
running and allowing panic to overcome me, I taught myself to push the panic away
and reason my way through. When I couldn't see for the torrents of rain, I
would grab an umbrella or duck under and awning to gain a better perspective.
Eventually the nightmares went away. Since then, I have been highly aware of my
dreams and able to recall them upon waking, or waking myself to escape a nightmare.
The only time this was not the case was when experiencing
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after my caesarean experience with my
firstborn. My nightmares had become so severe that I avoided sleep and I started
to hallucinate while awake. My doctors solution was "to get out more away
from your baby" which I clearly ignored and did the best I could to deal
with it on my own, using the techniques I had learned before. A solid nine
months later I saw my first glimpse of normalcy and I tell you, it was like
seeing heaven. From that point, it improved quickly, and though I will likely
continue to experience some PTSD symptomology as a result of my continued
contact with my abusive ex-husband (we have shared custody of our four
children), it has been completely manageable from a psychological viewpoint.
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