The Effect of Sleep on Happiness
I&#x27;m both an insomniac and I have delayed sleep syndrome.   When my parents brought me home from the hospital I was only sleeping 2-3 hours a day.  I was a planned baby, but with two teenagers, and parents who were nearing 40 having a baby that didn&#x27;t sleep, almost destroyed the family, so I&#x27;m told.  When I did sleep it was usually from 7am to 9am.  If you have children let that sink in for a minute.<p>My insomnia was awful from 14 to 19, I was operating with on average 3 or 4 days of no sleep, a couple of days of 2-3 hours of sleep a day, and back to 3 -4 days of no sleep, wash rinse repeat.   I had lots of 6,7,8 days of no sleep and once went 10 days.  For me, then, I was just awake, I didn&#x27;t force anything, I was just not sleepy, and I couldn&#x27;t force myself to sleep.<p>During my junior and senor year of college I started smoking pot, and I started sleeping on a regular basis, going to bed about 1-1:30 and getting 6&#x2F;7 hours of sleep. I&#x27;m not really sure if I was happier, or more productive, I was definitely more relaxed, it was probably the pot not the sleep.   Of course once I graduated and started getting drug tested I needed to give up smoking pot.  I hope soon my state will legalize and maybe I can find a strain that helps.<p>I did a couple of sleep studies two which lasted 5 days and for one I went sleepless for the study, they said I never once displayed any indication that my body wanted to sleep during those 5 days.  They wanted to study me but sitting in a room hooked up to machines for days on end was not my idea of fun, since I didn&#x27;t sleep they wanted to know what was going on with me during my constant &quot;up&quot; times and they wanted to see if they could understand what triggered my sleep when it did happen.<p>As I got into my 30&#x27;s my insomnia became less of an issue, but the delayed sleep issue went back to when I was a baby, my body wanted to sleep from 7am until 9&#x2F;10am, putting a real kink in my life.  While I didn&#x27;t technically have insomnia, I usually wasn&#x27;t getting any sleep during the work week, luckily I was wired for not sleeping much so it wasn&#x27;t a career killer, it was tough on my wife and children, and still is.<p>As I got into my late 40&#x27;s my delayed sleep time move to back to about 4am, and my sleeping needs have increased, I now usually get 3-4 hours of sleep a day.  So far things have remained the same into my mid 50&#x27;s.<p>If I want to I can still go a few day without sleep, I&#x27;ve worked on big projects and it can be wonderful to just knock out 72 hours of work in 3 days.  When I get &quot;sleepy&quot; it&#x27;s more like my body suggesting that it would accommodate sleeping if I so choose, if I ignore the offer the opportunity passes and I&#x27;m just awake.  From talking to others the feeling of sleep comes over them and they have no choice but to succumb<p>As a side note I don&#x27;t take drugs prescription or otherwise, nor do I drink