That's great!
For me insomnia stems from a spine injury. I'm left with neurological pain in my legs that just doesn't go away. I'll be in a dream-like state, unable to think straight, slide into bed as tired as ####, practically asleep before my head hit the pillow, then the burning/freezing/electrocution pain in my legs just doesn't let me go to sleep. So I watch TV or take my dogs out or go online or play games.
Imagine standing up to your thighs in a barrel of ice water for 45 minutes, or imaginbg your legs in an 120 degree oven. That's what my legs would feel like: it feels so hot/cold that it hurts.
The pain in my legs isn't always there, it seems to have a mind of its own, and sometimes it goes into hiding or I'm able to distract myself to the point where it doesn't bother me. I also take medications for this, and they take the edge off the pain, they don't get rid of it.
Sometimes I am just a zombie all day. No emotion, move slow, hard time concentrating, and prone to little details. But I'm pretty good with faking my way through a day of work or school.
As someone said above, your body gets use to it. Five years ago, getting anything less than 7-8 hours meant I wasn't going to be functional the next day.
Now if I get 4-5 hours, it's enough or me. My fiancee knows if I don't wake up when she wakes up, which I usually do, to leave me if there are no firm commitments the next day. Last weekend or the one before I think I got 14 hours of continuous sleep. Funny enough, I didn't feel any more refreshed upon waking.
There are the odd nights when I get 1-2 hours. It's
depressing when it's 4:45am and you know you're alarm clock is going to go off in just over an hour. Following those nights, I am pretty slow. I find I get cold easier, and have little patience with people and situations that grind my gears. It's rare when I bark at someone--but they usually deserve it when I do.
Sometimes I have naps or doze off for a few mins, and they just hit me with no notice. Yesterday in Northland mall I was waiting for someone outside of the fabric store in those soft chairs. I was tweeting about something I saw happen at Winners, and the next thing I remember was being poked in the shoulder to wake up, unaware for a half second where I was, who I was with, what time it was, etc., etc. I've done this on my desk, on transit, at parties, in pubs. Luckily not while driving.
