denverpilot
Tied Down
The other thread on snoring and sleep meds made me decide to ask questions.
I snore. My wife snores. About every person in both our families as far back as we can remember, snores.
Now lets throw in here that I've never been a good sleeper. Once I'm out, I'm out and nothing but WWIII will wake me. I even have an extra loud alarm clock that's only marginally effective if I haven't gotten enough sleep.
If I get eight hours, no problem. We all know what a challenge that can be. I'll wake easily on my own.
I'm also a big time night owl. Ever since I can remember I'd much rather be awake at night than during the day. Obviously this is inconvenient at best.
None of this is "changing". The experts always say if you're seeing differences in your sleep patterns or whatever, they can be a sign of underlying medical conditions. This stuff is life-long for me.
One of the crazy things about working with Jesse in Nebraska this year on my IR was that due to his work schedule, we flew almost exclusively in the afternoon and well into the night. I thought this was GREAT! The joke that "no prop should turn before noon" by Jeb Burnside on the Uncontrolled Airspace podcast, hits me just right.
So I cope. Early mornings and I rarely get along, but can be tolerated for brief bursts. In one job many years ago, I was required to be there in time for a 5AM start. During that year, I was continually drained and found myself with little brainpower and no energy for weeks on end. The sleep cycle never really adjusted forward on the clock. I ran on 4-5 hours of sleep for a year with 12+ hour weekend catch-ups that would make things worse.
When I was a kid, no one had ever heard of sleep apnea. Now it seems every fourth person I meet is using a CPAP machine.
Since this is about aviation medical issues, I'll stare that I never fly "tired" and I've cancelled flights for fatigue. Not a lot, but I've read how well the poor girl who was in the right seat of the Colgan flight slept in the days leading up to her and her passenger's deaths.
So naturally, my mind wanders to thinking about whether or not one should do a sleep study. The Internet has a way of convincing you that you have every disease on the planet.
I know a number of people here use a CPAP and have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. I've also read that many of you "always felt tired" or had other symptoms. I don't. My body just doesn't like sleeping at what most others would call "normal" times.
Before someone jumps on the "exercise more" bandwagon, I'll say that heavy exercise has an effect. I can utilize it to make myself more tired for short periods of time. Maybe even a month. But the cycle rebounds and I'm up at 2AM again in short order.
I've had jobs my whole life where being alert at 2-4AM is often useful. Bosses seem to figure out I'm not so useful at say, 6-7AM most days, but they can call me at midnight and know I will be fine with a request to fix something at 2AM, without even batting an eye. So they usually have a love-hate relationship with my natural rhythm.
I guess what I'm wondering is this... My GP has no answers. He'd probably order a sleep study for me if I asked. He's a screwball marathon runner who believes what works for him, works for all of his patients and recommends his neurotic non-stop motion as the fix for everyone. Heck, he may be right. I would certainly drop where I stood into a deep sleep if I ran as much as he does. Or my body would condition itself and I'd be a wide-awake night-owl with an emaciated body, slamming in 5000 calories a day just to exist. Haha.
So I'll ask. What would you do? Get a sleep study? Ask someone to hit you over the head with a frying pan at "bed time"? Become a midnight novel writer? (Oh wait, I already do that on PoA! Grin...) Take up a new line of work where graveyard shifts are commonplace?
Let's throw another one out there... If something is going on in a few days that's so damn cool I *must* be a morning glory, I can always fake it for a few days. I've even done the trick of getting a nap in, waking up at 2AM and starting the "day" from there.
Is there a "night-owls anonymous" group? Should I be standing up front saying, "Hi, I'm Nate and I'm a night owl. The last time I went to bed after midnight was three weeks ago. I've been sleeping ever since." A little 12-step action?
Mount some 747 landing lights to the ceiling in the bedroom and put 'em on a timer that can't be overridden? (Pretty sure Karen wouldn't like that.)
Anyway... Thoughts? Any other secret night-owls out there in PoA land? Anyone ever beat it for a significant period of time, say... at least a year where you were in bed every night before midnight?
To throw some levity in here, dad is the opposite. If you try to reach him after 9PM you'll never get him. He's usually up at 04:30 at the latest. Pin drops wake him up.
Oh... And on the very few occasions I've had where I had no job or vacation for extended periods of time (weeks), the cycle doesn't really change.
There's a reason there's a lot more than average number of night hours logged in my logbook.
What say you? Night owl? Early bird?
I snore. My wife snores. About every person in both our families as far back as we can remember, snores.
Now lets throw in here that I've never been a good sleeper. Once I'm out, I'm out and nothing but WWIII will wake me. I even have an extra loud alarm clock that's only marginally effective if I haven't gotten enough sleep.
If I get eight hours, no problem. We all know what a challenge that can be. I'll wake easily on my own.
I'm also a big time night owl. Ever since I can remember I'd much rather be awake at night than during the day. Obviously this is inconvenient at best.
None of this is "changing". The experts always say if you're seeing differences in your sleep patterns or whatever, they can be a sign of underlying medical conditions. This stuff is life-long for me.
One of the crazy things about working with Jesse in Nebraska this year on my IR was that due to his work schedule, we flew almost exclusively in the afternoon and well into the night. I thought this was GREAT! The joke that "no prop should turn before noon" by Jeb Burnside on the Uncontrolled Airspace podcast, hits me just right.
So I cope. Early mornings and I rarely get along, but can be tolerated for brief bursts. In one job many years ago, I was required to be there in time for a 5AM start. During that year, I was continually drained and found myself with little brainpower and no energy for weeks on end. The sleep cycle never really adjusted forward on the clock. I ran on 4-5 hours of sleep for a year with 12+ hour weekend catch-ups that would make things worse.
When I was a kid, no one had ever heard of sleep apnea. Now it seems every fourth person I meet is using a CPAP machine.
Since this is about aviation medical issues, I'll stare that I never fly "tired" and I've cancelled flights for fatigue. Not a lot, but I've read how well the poor girl who was in the right seat of the Colgan flight slept in the days leading up to her and her passenger's deaths.
So naturally, my mind wanders to thinking about whether or not one should do a sleep study. The Internet has a way of convincing you that you have every disease on the planet.
I know a number of people here use a CPAP and have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea. I've also read that many of you "always felt tired" or had other symptoms. I don't. My body just doesn't like sleeping at what most others would call "normal" times.
Before someone jumps on the "exercise more" bandwagon, I'll say that heavy exercise has an effect. I can utilize it to make myself more tired for short periods of time. Maybe even a month. But the cycle rebounds and I'm up at 2AM again in short order.
I've had jobs my whole life where being alert at 2-4AM is often useful. Bosses seem to figure out I'm not so useful at say, 6-7AM most days, but they can call me at midnight and know I will be fine with a request to fix something at 2AM, without even batting an eye. So they usually have a love-hate relationship with my natural rhythm.
I guess what I'm wondering is this... My GP has no answers. He'd probably order a sleep study for me if I asked. He's a screwball marathon runner who believes what works for him, works for all of his patients and recommends his neurotic non-stop motion as the fix for everyone. Heck, he may be right. I would certainly drop where I stood into a deep sleep if I ran as much as he does. Or my body would condition itself and I'd be a wide-awake night-owl with an emaciated body, slamming in 5000 calories a day just to exist. Haha.
So I'll ask. What would you do? Get a sleep study? Ask someone to hit you over the head with a frying pan at "bed time"? Become a midnight novel writer? (Oh wait, I already do that on PoA! Grin...) Take up a new line of work where graveyard shifts are commonplace?
Let's throw another one out there... If something is going on in a few days that's so damn cool I *must* be a morning glory, I can always fake it for a few days. I've even done the trick of getting a nap in, waking up at 2AM and starting the "day" from there.
Is there a "night-owls anonymous" group? Should I be standing up front saying, "Hi, I'm Nate and I'm a night owl. The last time I went to bed after midnight was three weeks ago. I've been sleeping ever since." A little 12-step action?
Mount some 747 landing lights to the ceiling in the bedroom and put 'em on a timer that can't be overridden? (Pretty sure Karen wouldn't like that.)
Anyway... Thoughts? Any other secret night-owls out there in PoA land? Anyone ever beat it for a significant period of time, say... at least a year where you were in bed every night before midnight?
To throw some levity in here, dad is the opposite. If you try to reach him after 9PM you'll never get him. He's usually up at 04:30 at the latest. Pin drops wake him up.
Oh... And on the very few occasions I've had where I had no job or vacation for extended periods of time (weeks), the cycle doesn't really change.
There's a reason there's a lot more than average number of night hours logged in my logbook.
What say you? Night owl? Early bird?
