Ever since I was a child, I never needed much sleep. When I entered the teenage years, sleeping became a problem and the term insomnia entered my life and it never left. Not being able to sleep every once in a while is something different than having insomnia. It is a mistake often made.
The definition:
Insomnia is a sleep disorder that is characterized by difficulty falling and/or staying asleep.
I have difficulties to fall a sleep and when I am able to sleep, I sleep so light that I wake up easily. Once I am up, it is difficult for me to fall a sleep again. A goodnights rest for me is to get four till five hours of sleep. This rarely happens, once or twice a week at the most.
I have learned to live with my disorder and have accepted that it will forever be a part of me. People around me always try to give advice on how to sleep. Although they all mean well, I have tried everything that I can so I just politely listen to their advice and basically do nothing with it. Sleep therapy, counseling sessions and sleep medication are all things that I have tried, but it does not work unfortunately.
Throughout the years, I have put my disorder into good use. Not being able to sleep much means that I have more hours in a day. I can get a lot done in those 'spare' hours, which is beneficial for a workaholic like myself. I also get to look up (sometimes rather useless) information about things that I am curious about. Perhaps this is why my general knowledge is so random.
As I get older, I do notice that I get more tired physically, but I am still able to maintain a (somewhat) healthy balance. The only thing that bothers me every now and then is that people seem to think that having insomnia is a blessing. Let me be clear: it is not! Sometimes people just assume that I can (and should) take on more work because I do not need sleep anyway. There is a difference in not needing to sleep and not being able to sleep. It is an ongoing battle every night and I still get frustrated at times, but then a brand new day starts and I know that I will have a new chance to win the fight at night.
On to the next fight that I am determine to win!
Love,
Bao-Nhi
