Today’s Buzzzzzzzzzz

When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep... and you're never really awake.

Okay, so it’s a line from that goofy pre-Ange Brad Pitt movie Fight Club -- remember it? – but it’s also really true! Not getting enough sleep can transform your whole day. Me? I seem to lose my memory for certain things altogether, hemorrhaging numbers like no one’s business. If I haven’t gotten enough sleep and you ask me my phone number, I will blink idiotically at you, shrugging. And that’s just after one sleepless night! I can’t imagine the pain of chronic insomnia.

So I was interested to learn that tk Americans have serious problems with insomnia. Is it our stressful lives? Our unhealthy habits? Is it that our secret identities are out marauding all night starting fight clubs? Hm.

Luckily my genius neighbors over on our Health & Wellbeing channel have started this Get Your Zzzs Community Challenge , and Harvard Sleep Doctors are on call to answer your questions and help you sleep better on the Get Your Zzzs Boards.

The stories on the boards are, well, eye-opening. acrafty1 writes: “…no matter whether I get 8 or 18 hours of sleep I always wake up in an unrefreshed, groggy, exhausted state & remain that way throughout the day…I have also been diagnosed with depression a number of times in the past, so my fatigue is generally always written off as a result of depression. This bothers me... The thing is, there are many other instances where I feel I've developed mild depression AS A RESULT of my chronic insomnia & fatigue. (rather than the other way around). Do doctors EVER consider this as a possibility?”

Apparently insomnia is often written off as depression, when it might be that the reverse is true. And this, happening to tired and cranky people! Seems unfair, doesn’t it? mrich03 agrees. “When I get enough sleep everything looks rosey. I get a lot done and am happy. Without the 7 hours a night I am depressed and moody. I too would be interested in which comes first, depression or not enough sleep.”

sandra_2dogs_artist says, “The one thing I want to pass along is that your description sounds so very much like a friend of mine. She ended up sharing a hotel room on a trip to Europe with a medical professional who on the way home told her that she thought she had sleep apnea and she should go to a sleep clinic. Sure enough this was true and on getting the right equipment for sleep she began to improve virtually overnight. Years and years of fatigue and depression began lifting as well as many associated medical problems. The change in her was immediate and nothing short of remarkable in my mind.”

I’ve heard anecdotally of sleep studies doing great things for people, though it sounds scary! (Sleeping in a lab with a bunch of electrodes stuck to you? So futuristic.)

What would help you sleep better? What’s worked (or not worked) for you in the past? Tell us below, or check in with the Community Challenge boards!