Uphill battle part 2

Finally got around to scanning articles related to the one I talked about in my earlier post. This was the next in line.

"'Night Owls' Report More Insomnia-related Symptoms" Basically there is a severe rise in insomnia-related symptoms in night owls.

Another for the "no duh" department, but it's nice to have a personal assumption proven.

Compared to the morning and intermediate types, people with insomnia who prefer evening activities (i.e., "night owls") reported the most sleep/wake irregularities and waking distress, even after adjusting for severity of sleep disturbance.

I'm a night owl, and actually don't have that much problem sleeping. I sleep like a log. I used to have "confusional arousals," where I wake up confused, but that hasn't happened in years. Once, 9 years ago, I fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 2 am thinking I was late for work (at 10am). My roommate, who was still up, gave me the strangest look as I frantically ran around the apartment.

I wonder if "waking distress" is the same as a confusional arousal. Regardless, This has all reminded me that I actually own a book on sleep, written fairly recently by a sleep specialist. I should get to reading that.

Oh, one more thing, a pet peeve of mine, this article said if you are a night owl having insomnia symptoms, talk to your doctor and he'll refer you to a sleep specialist. I really hate that if you know what the problem is, insomnia, you should go to a doctor (and pay him) first before going to a sleep specialist. True, it's a referral, so hopefully you're being sent to a good specialist, but how much research do you think your doctor really did on sleep specialists, unless he had his own sleep problems? Mini-rant over.

David