Your sleep pattern

[Plenum]

I work night shifts, so my sleeping pattern is most bizarre. I also don't work consecutive nights (I used to when I started), so it even has greater variation than a normal shift worker.

it varies from summer to winter as well.

long sleeps (up to 12 hours as an extreme), broken sleeps (where I awake, process dream material, do some stuff on the internet, then drop back into dreamland), and lucid sleeps (not like lucid dreaming, but conscious while I'm sleeping, hard to describe).

I did experiment with caffeine for a while, but that stuff totally screws up your patterns, and wrecks your dreams. Effed me up big time (if I don't dream, I seriously get psychotic, much faster than most).

part of the reason I appreciate my job so much is because of these altered patterns of functioning, so much different from the norm.

[Ruth]

I work night shifts, so my sleeping pattern is most bizarre. I also don't work consecutive nights (I used to when I started), so it even has greater variation than a normal shift worker.

it varies from summer to winter as well.

long sleeps (up to 12 hours as an extreme), broken sleeps (where I awake, process dream material, do some stuff on the internet, then drop back into dreamland), and lucid sleeps (not like lucid dreaming, but conscious while I'm sleeping, hard to describe).

I did experiment with caffeine for a while, but that stuff totally screws up your patterns, and wrecks your dreams. Effed me up big time (if I don't dream, I seriously get psychotic, much faster than most).

part of the reason I appreciate my job so much is because of these altered patterns of functioning, so much different from the norm.

I can totally relate to the "lucid sleep." I do this all the time. Not really asleep, not really awake. Aware of myself sleeping, can hear myself breathing etc, but not awake either. I do limit caffiene - you're right it can really mess up your sleep.

[Eddie]

long sleeps (up to 12 hours as an extreme), broken sleeps (where I awake, process dream material, do some stuff on the internet, then drop back into dreamland), and lucid sleeps (not like lucid dreaming, but conscious while I'm sleeping, hard to describe).

Same here. For most of my life I hardly got any sleep at all. Lately I've been sleeping all night like I'm comatose, and I zonk out in the afternoon too. I'm even having trouble remembering my dreams (something also extremely odd for me, as I've always had perfect recall of them). I feel that I'm at a stage where I need a lot of rest; not just physically, but intellectually, socially, and spiritually. Perhaps I'm saving up strength for some busy period in my future.

[AnthroHeart]

I get normal 8-10 hours a night. But then I also take an hour or so around lunchtime to get in another nap. That's a little hard because of how hot it is outside, and sleeping in my truck isn't too comfortable.