Insomnia Department

I figure I'll put my posts re insomnia into this blog-post, keep them on the same page.

5/22/15

Thursday May 21, I was able to achieve approx 7 hours of sleep. This normal-sleep was healing re-invigorating & calming compared to the kind of sleep I have been getting the past few weeks, during which I had been sleeping about 4 hours per 24-hour-cycle at unpredictable times. The insomnia coincided with the effort (mostly successful) to practice eight different sports, with 2.5 hours being spent per-day on sports every day except Sunday, with a detailed log-report made of each practice. I wonder how much better I would have done if the insomnia had never hit me.

May 21 when I finally got normal sleep, it had been 39 hours since the end of my previous sports activity, I had not engaged in sports the previous day. Similarly, Monday May 18th I had done no sports May 17th the previous Sunday, & May 11 I had done no sports May10th the previous Sunday. Yet on May 11 & May 18 I did not get the normal sleep I got on May 21,

Two days before May 11, the sport of the day was walking, and two days before May 18th, the sport of the day was walking. I conclude for now that for me, a strenuous workout such as tennis followed by 40 hours of rest tends to produce a normal sleep, and that a less strenuous workout, the 6-mile walk, followed by 40 hours of rest does not produce a normal night or day's sleep.

So for now off-the-bat I conclude that if an insomniac pattern develops, I should resort to a day of exhausting exercise such as tennis, or double-dose of sports, & follow this with a day of rest.

Meaning that, since I am trying to abstain from sports on the Sunday-Sabbath, I should make a point of exercising especially hard on the Saturday the day-before the Sunday, as a way of establishing a proper sleep-pattern.

And remember the common-sense rule that everyone seems to forget: when you get sleepy at the wrong time, keep yourself awake until it is the right time for sleep. Because we can keep ourselves awake when we are sleepy, but we cannot fall asleep when we are not sleepy.

I figure I get so sleep deprived that when I get sleepy I lack the fortitude to procrastinate falling asleep. This despite the fact that if  I stated awake until the proper time, I would probably sleep better & cure the insomnia.

For a while now I've been thinking that, for several reasons, I should exercise every other day, not every day. Exercising every other day would reduce time invested in travelling to & from the exercise location, packing the gym-bag etc., & recuperating from exertion also maybe. According to Muslim tradition, King David fasted every other day.

I suppose one reason I have not instituted this pattern is my interest in sabbatical traditions & keeping Sunday as a day of rest. If Sunday is adhered to as a day of rest, then if one attempts to rest every other day, the pattern becomes Sports on Saturday Monday and Wednesday (3 days a week), or sports on Saturday Monday Wednesday & Thursday or Friday (4 days a week), result being something other than rest every otherday on half the days, result being three out of every seven days or four out of every seven days includes sports.

Therefore it becomes impossible to simultaneously exercise every other day and keep the Sunday-Sabbath free of exercise. The compromise would involve either complete cessation of everything other than sports on every-other Sunday so as to increase the level of rest to compensate for the sports activity, or alternating between keeping the Sabbath on Saturday, & keeping the Sabbath on Sunday.

Problem is that, the gym-schedule is such that I have to utilize the 'Open-Gym' time whenever it is available regardless of what time or day it is; often there is no open-gym when I wish there was 'open-gym', & there is 'Open-gym', when the last thing I want to do is exercise.