Interesting NatGeo article on sleep

Never heard of this...damage to the thalamus, fatal, genetic, 50s. Interesting view of sleep.

I recently watched a show about sleep on NatGeo and it was primarily about fatal familial insomnia and talked about the thalamus being a problem. Fortunately this extreme genetic disorder is rare. I once described the years of persistent very short sleep - sometimes 2 hours a night for many months - as feeling like slow death. Maybe my description was more apt than I knew.

Hi JeffH

That has to be one of the most interesting articles on sleep that I have ever read.

Thank you a million for posting it.

It has so much good stuff in it.

My personal concern was about emergency doctors working such long hours, being deprived of sleep, and then being expected to perform competently. It is amongst the medical professions greatest shame that they have not stopped this practice.

I hope everybody on the Forum reads this, as there is so much to be learned, or reminded, in it.

And as for FFI.............and I thought I was hard done by

Well done

Mars

Fascinating article. Thanks, Jeff, for posting this.

kteague wrote:I recently watched a show about sleep on NatGeo and it was primarily about fatal familial insomnia and talked about the thalamus being a problem. Fortunately this extreme genetic disorder is rare. I once described the years of persistent very short sleep - sometimes 2 hours a night for many months - as feeling like slow death. Maybe my description was more apt than I knew.

In the past month since I started APAP, I've gone from getting, at most, 4 hours of sleep a night to a LOT more. When I was getting the 4 hours, I woke up with the feeling I HAD TO GET UP OUT OF BED!!! I HAD TO!!! Those caps are on purpose.

Almost 40 days later, and I spent almost 9 hours in bed last. I'm still having trouble beleiving this. The change in how I feel is incredible. As you typed, I no longer feel like I'm living through a slow death. I'm actually looking forward to going to bed at night.

I had some terrible dark areas around my eyes; it looked like both were black eyes from being hit. The dark spots are now just in the inside corners, MUCH lighter, and my wife said those are slowly going away. I feel much more calm and relaxed, and I'm doing better at my daily job of trading.

The bad news? I guess I'll have to start setting my alarm again in the morning. I can't seem to get up in time to trade on my own anymore...

karl9000 - Good to hear such a positive report, and so early in treatment! Maybe once you've totally recovered you won't need the alarm clock again, and you'll bounce out of bed because you are RESTED!

Thanks for posting this article Jeff.

Thanks Jeff. That is very interesting. I had never heard of FFI.