Honestly I sleep very little. One of the areas in my brain that got hit by the stroke is part of the limbic system that contains the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus is responsible for the regulation of certain metabolic processes and other activities of the autonomic nervous system. It synthesizes and secretes certain neurohormones, called releasing hormones or hypothalamic hormones, and these in turn stimulate or inhibit the secretion of pituitary hormones. The hypothalamus controls body temperature,
hunger, important aspects of parenting and attachment behaviors, thirst,
fatigue, sleep, and circadian rhythms. Also add to that the basal ganglia, and my parietal lobe was hit by the stroke as well and these control things such as complex behaviors, including all behavior involving the senses (e.g., vision, touch,
body awareness, spatial orientation).
So with that being said it is the reason why I do not sleep, I forget to eat because I do not get hungry. I have no perception of time. So for example even though I may have been up for 24 hours it only seems like 2 hours has went by for me. Also my body does not feel like it is my own. If you could imagine one sec you are in your own body and a split second later you are in a strange body that is not yours. I can not go no where by myself because of the spatial awareness. In other words I get lost. Last because part of my occipital lobe was hit hence the partial blindness.
My only three saving graces that keep me from going absolutely bat sh1t crazy is
One: Only short term memory was affected.
Two: Long term memory was not affected.
Three: My background in neuro science.
If I did not have the knowledge on why these things are happening or could not remember the knowledge on what controls these things then I would not be able to make any sense of it all and thus I would go insane. Now also, being able to remember at times is a curse as well. Reason being is I can remember what it was like to feel ,dare I say, "normal" so in a huge nut shell the best way I can explain it is really I miss being Me.
I apologize for the long winded explanation to your question when I could have just said "No I do not sleep often as most". I do not get the chance to use my knowledge much since the stroke and neuro science was my life.
