Anyone with insomnia bemused at how people are reacting to having to go to work after watching the England match?

Thank you ❤️

Yes, insomniac here and I struggle to have sympathy when I can average 3/4 hours broken sleep a night. However I’ve been a little better recently and am noticing how much worse I feel when I’ve had a bad night so do get it really.

Well exactly! I would've expected "my god how do you cope with broken sleep and being awake hours in the night, it was just a one off for me and I'm knackered!"

Insomniacs ask for a smidge of understanding on a day when others might be able to open their eyes to how they feel, and get called “bitter” 🙄

For some reason these things never do!

I don’t have insomnia but I have a skin condition that keeps me awake and so also spend most of my life incredibly tired. It becomes a way of life but it’s not pleasant at all!

And those who are just tired for one day won’t be massively into sleep deficit from the start so will be feeling a good deal better than those who are.

I can’t imagine what it’s like to spend a day feeling refreshed now.

I’m tired today. It’s a one-off to be watching football until 4am. So worth it though

Perhaps it will increase understanding from non-insomniacs.

It's horrific, mate. It permanently damages your mental health - and you're calling us "bitter"?

If the majority of men were doing night feeds for babies at the same level women do something would be done to help them for sure.

I had to survive on about 2-3 hours a nights sleep with both my kids for over a year, as I was bf. They wouldn’t take a bottle and both woke for a feed multiple times a night. I just had to get on with it (working full time too) but it was hell and I didn’t feel safe to drive.

There are plenty of SEND parents giving others the side eye over their fussing about the kids being up at 1am or too wired to sleep. Welcome to our world.

@Whiski you made me feel a bit better for reading your post. And not alone.
Wimps! Can’t do it after one day.
I am so jealous of them.

I think pretend-moaning about the tiredness is all part of the shared experience. I’ve watched F1 for years and as any fan will tell you we often have to watch it at odd times - part of the fun.

I’m bitter, yes. I’ve had over 20 years of broken sleep, over 20 years of feeling horrific over 20 years of sleep-related health issues. I’m broken, it’s horrific. So yeah, I’m fucking bitter about having insomnia. I’m not bitter about people staying up for the football that’s their choice, but I’m fucking bitter that this is the hand I was dealt in life. If you haven’t experienced decades of insomnia, please bugger off, you have no idea of its impacts.

You're simply noticing that people take something you don't have for granted. I'm effectively housebound and live with a health condition that means I've got constant health uncertainty. I found the pandemic and lockdown basically the same as my real life. Easier in many ways as more was 'open' to me. But, understandably, for many people it was a huge deviation. It's hard to imagine someone else's lived experience, although people can try. I'm sorry you've got insomnia. That must be tough.

Not the slightest bit bitter. I just live with insomnia and as with anything that affects my life, it is encouraging to talk with others who struggle with the same problem.
Not sure why that is bitter

Lots of bitter insomniacs on this thread.

Fellow insomniac here. All moaning they're tired. But it was a choice to stay up!

God YES! You describe exactly what it feels like and how amazing that one-off, astonishingly rare good night feels.

My insomnia does not involve "lying quietly in bed, trying to do something relaxing..." I cannot relax. I cannot - because It's so tortuous - turn my brain to anything at all.

This, both of mine woke 8-10 times a night until each was 2 (except the rare occasion they’d only wake once but that wake would be from 1-4am). I went back to work at 6 months with each of them, so a cumulative 3 years of working on a couple of hours broken sleep max. I just internally rolled my eyes when colleagues said they’d be in late because they wouldn’t be able to cope on such little sleep!

I think it's this - in some way it's all part of the experience!

I don't have insomnia exactly, but I do have a nearly 6 year old who has only started sleeping through the night consistently in the past 6 months, likewise only recently started reliably sleeping past 5am. So I did not stay up for the match because I cannot imagine ever voluntarily putting myself in that position again now we finally have relatively un-disturbed nights at last. DH slept for a couple of hours, got up for the match, and then slept maybe another hour after - to be fair that's not hugely unusual for him as he's a terrible sleeper anyway, it's definitely his genes I blame for DD's awful sleep!

No insomnia but really severe sleep apnea undiagnosed for years overlapping with a child in and out of hospital for 18 months (you can imagine my sleep quality sleeping next to him!) then twins. It's only now they all sleep through and I'm having my sleep apnea treated that I fully understand how exhausted I was for so long. It amazes me I functioned so well, even when I didn't function that well it was still impressive under the circs. One random night of no sleep won't kill anyone will a good usual sleep but it is hard. Just like being in pain one day is still shit even though others live with chronic pain.

And the alcohol.
My morning commuter train was empty this morning, it was bliss.

My thoughts are that it’s probably mostly men going on about it as all over the world, women are routinely going to work on fuck all sleep after being up all night with sick babies/kids or just bad sleepers Just another day for many of us! (Although you do get rapidly unaccustomed it, DD2 was a terrible sleeper for the first 9 months and I carried on with very little sleep, but now on the very odd occasion I get woken up, it feels way harder!)