I have insomnia. Sometimes I can’t sleep at all, but lately I am in this weird cycle where I just cannot sleep more than 4 hours at a time. This has been going on for at least 3 months now.

This is what my nights are like: I go to bed around 11pm and I am up again sometime between 1 & 1:30am. I usually try to get to sleep again about 3:30am and then I will sleep until about 5:30am. Sometimes I can go right back to sleep, but I always wake between 9:30am-10am. Sometimes I take a nap that usually lasts 1½–2 hrs. I have been tracking my sleep and it seems like I average about 5 hrs. a night. Sometimes I sleep less than 4 hrs. sometimes up to 7.

I feel a bit low energy, but all in all I seem to be doing okay. Can I continue to live this way? Can my brain and body function well under these conditions?

I am under the care of a doctor for this problem, so don’t tell me to see one, please.

Topics: sleep, biology, brain, human body, insomnia