53 replies to this topic

[Heliotrope]

Have you ever slept through fire alarms??

I slept through 3 or 4 fire alarms, last night!?!??!!

I'm a senior (22 yo) in college and live in regular college dorm, and of course the dorms have fire drills and microwave accidents sometimes. I know from plenty of experience that the college alarms tend to be very loud, tho the building is old (built in mid 20th century), the alarms work.

Was inside the building the whole day yesterday. I ate a moderate dinner, drank some milk, regular chilling out and reading for Sat night. The only stimulant I took was one 300mg adrafinil pill at 9 pm or so. I took a hot shower around 10 and did some other things, lying around, listening to the radio and getting ready to fall asleep.

I took the 1 adrafinil pill to test its effectiveness at low dosage, to also acclimatize myself for possible need during the next school week(s). 300 mg adrafinil metabolizes to a small amt of modafinil, assuming around the effectiveness of 75mg modafinil, so 1 tiny pill didn't do much for me, and I had a hard previous week. I couldn't even tell if a single pill had any effect at all. A couple of days earlier in the week, I took 10 * 300mg Olmifon pills (around 10 pills worth in 12 to 15 hour period), so 3,000mg adrafinil over Thur night and Fri (but also defecated and vomited a bit, so I think my body absorbed 2,000-2,500mg adrafinil). I napped 2 hours later Fri, but the 2 hour nap felt like 8 hours worth of sleep. I slept 5 or 6 more hours later, past noon on Sat.

BUT Sat night, I slept from around midnight to 9am this morning.

I slept very deeply, i think. It was a dream-less type of sleep. When I woke up, felt my eyes were not dry, itchy, and droopy anymore so I knew I slept, not bloodshot, clear-eyed and bushy-tailed, felt awake. I almost did not know how long it's been but after checking clock, i know i slept 8 to 9 hours, not my usual 10-12 hours of weekend night catchup, but very well rested sleep. BUT I had no sense of the passage of time so surprised I slept ~9 hours

The horror is hearing some people talking about the several fire alarms last night when I brushed teeth this morning. I thought they heard other alarms due to sensitive hearing or were joking around. if i really slept through those ear-piercing loud sounds (tolerable but loud sounds) , then it's amazing but dangerous. I'm confident i can survive a fire , but not hearing the alarms or a warning is weird. It's not my ears' problem, b/c my hearing is good. From experience, I know i can even hear other buildings' alarms if they sound. .

Could I have suffered backlash/backfire from adrafinil?
unlike caffiene, i find I can still fall asleep on adrafinil if I want to. Could any sleep debt be masked so THOROUGHLY that I felt 100% awake but then proceed to sleep like a baby?

It was a deep , dreamless sleep like under anesthesia. I went under anesthesia once in my life, for wisdom teetch extraction (removed all 4 of my wisdom teeth), so I know that type of sleep.

Edited by HYP86, 21 September 2008 - 07:35 PM.

[Heliotrope]

I talked to four sources separately (each source being 1-2 people). The 4 sources all agree on the fire alarm happened ~3 am in the dead of the night , 3 to 4am is the most sleepy time of human's circadian rhythm but they all got up and got to roads beyong dorm except me, leaving me in empty building. (their accounts vary from at least "a couple of times" to "4 times," probably due to intervals of alarm sounding , then nothing, then sound for another interval of ear-piercing shrieks).

So it really happened although I did NOT perceive anything at all. That's the weird part. Usually I can wake up to the sound level of door knocking , radio-clock, or alarm. I've heard fire alarms before and they're loud, gotta be at least over 100 decibels, loud and piercing , and wailing for a seemingly long time.


How the hell I can sleep through a series of them, I dunno


I'd experiment a similar situation. I'd go through the allnighter situations again, maybe a couple days w/ little sleep, with aid of stimulant (likely adrafinil). I can certainly sleep on adrafinil , a very nice sleep indeed

I'd try to do a lot of work to keep me busy, tiring my brain and body, until reaching an exhausted breaking point, be tired and sleepy and just safely let go on my bed

Synchronize 3 or 4 alarm clocks/radios to make sure they turn on within a minute of each other or sound off simultaneously, trying to recreate the condition of 3 or 4 alarms sounding and see if i can perceive any sound OR SLEEP THROUGH all alarms like i'm dead...

Edited by HYP86, 22 September 2008 - 04:01 AM.

[Mixter]

2,500mg adrafinil

Don't take it personally, but this is almost as scary for me I'd never exceed dosage
of anything which has proven liver toxicity. Perhaps you were totally exhausted? I'm
sure, if you overdose, you can over"stimulate" yourself with the *finils, without even
feeling any stimulation, but your body still exhausting itself at a much higher rate...

[Heliotrope]

2,500mg adrafinil

Don't take it personally, but this is almost as scary for me I'd never exceed dosage
of anything which has proven liver toxicity. Perhaps you were totally exhausted? I'm
sure, if you overdose, you can over"stimulate" yourself with the *finils, without even
feeling any stimulation, but your body still exhausting itself at a much higher rate...

yeah adrafinil metabolizes to modafinil within an hour, but the modafinil's half-life is fairly long: 10-18 hours

My body must have absorbed the over 2 g adrafinil within the relatively short time of 12 hours, they could have kept masking the true exhaustion of body. I figure the amt I took must have metabolized to ~600 to 1,000 mg moda.

I kinda liked the deep sleep feeling. I should try melatonin or some other more natural way to get better quality sleep in the time i sleep. Better quality should help decrease total sleep time, or if getting 8 hours, getting much more rest in the same 8 hours than w/o supplementation

[bio123]

"I'm confident i can survive a fire , but not hearing the alarms or a warning is weird."

What makes you so confident? Do you have fire-resistant skin or something?

[Heliotrope]

"I'm confident i can survive a fire , but not hearing the alarms or a warning is weird."

What makes you so confident? Do you have fire-resistant skin or something?

i guess i'm only fairly confident , not 100% guaranteed to live through a college dorm fire, especially if I don't respond to alarms in deep sleep, crazy.

of course i have no fire resistant skin, but the heat and fire should provide greater warning than sound. I live only one floor above ground floor, but the exit and stairwell is also across from my room, a few steps away. In an emergency like that, i'd do everything right, and escape like the hounds of hell are chasing me, quick and methodical, leaving all my valuables behind w/o a thought. The danger is in the smoke tho, i'd stop, drop, and roll, and get low to breath clean air. i'd hold breath against the toxic smoke. Safety outside should only be a seconds away anyway , w/ healthy lung capacity, i can hold it at least that long,


i believe i've enough fire drill training to get out in time, unless my skin senses the alarming heat too late also and fire starts licking up on my body, completely trapping me in the room, but wrapping fire-retardent material and make a run is worth it. I'm willing to suffer a bad burn just to rush through. I'd even be willing to jump out window and risk sprains and bone injures, but i've got a rope ready to be anchored in the room and for me to push out window screen to climb down. I'll have to tie some knots along the rope as rope-ladder, or just learn some rappling.

Dogs have saved ppl in emergencies like this, maybe in the future i ought to avoid fire traps and get a loyal dog that's trained to dial 911 , but i'm not good w/ animals , lazy to take care of pets, afraid of attacks

i think any life extensionist would be pissed to die in a stupid fire

Edited by HYP86, 22 September 2008 - 09:45 AM.

[bio123]

You say you've had fire drilling - you must have missed the part where they tell you that when asleep you
won't smell smoke and it will in fact put you into a deeper sleep. Nobody with any fire training would share
your confidence of survival - more likely they'd be confident you WOULDN'T survive. Just tell your fire marshal
(or whatever) that you slept through the last alarm and could they please send someone to wake you up...

[lunarsolarpower]

I had a similar experience sleeping through a fire alarm in a dorm too. Actually I did hear it and got up but as I was making my way toward my door a guy in the basement kicked his alarm off the wall and the whole system went silent. I was so sleep deprived I decided it must have been a false alarm and rolled back into bed.

Also the chances of fire killing you before smoke are almost nonexistent unless you are physically trapped. The smoke makes sure you're quite dead before the fire reaches you.

[Heliotrope]

hey guys thanks for the great advice! keep them rolling in!

I'll address the 2 posts above, by bio123 and lunar, respectively.

After serious consideration, i'm not confident anymore. i knew that it's the toxic smoke that usually kills first , rather than purely being burned alive unless being so thoroughly trapped that it's ~impossible to escape. The sounds radiate from alarms in hallways and my room only has a smoke detector and sprinkler/pipes that can pour gallons of water if they sense fire. the smoke detector sound is very low compared to "ear-piercing" fire-alarm wails. my room may be farther away from those sound sources but they should be so loud that i knew from past experience i can hear from far away.

do you think the fire marshal or whoever will care to put me on a list and make sure to check in on me , to rescue me if i'm knocked out by smoke and sank deeper? would the pain of burning alive and scorching skin jolt me back to consciousness? Or would I be "anesthesized" and killed ?

[cyborgdreamer]

Here's a thought; maybe you didn't sleep through the fire alarm. Maybe you responded to the fire alarm and went back to bed without remembering. You said that you didn't sense the amount of time that passed, and amnesia can cause that. That would also explain why you felt like you were under general anaesthetic (they give you a chemical to induce amnesia). Did your friends say whether or not they saw you outside during the alarms?

[Heliotrope]

Here's a thought; maybe you didn't sleep through the fire alarm. Maybe you responded to the fire alarm and went back to bed without remembering. You said that you didn't sense the amount of time that passed, and amnesia can cause that. That would also explain why you felt like you were under general anaesthetic (they give you a chemical to induce amnesia). Did your friends say whether or not they saw you outside during the alarms?

Wow that sounds just as scary, almost like sleep-walking there and back and forgot everything

BUT I'm almost certain I slept through the alarm. I did not have anesthetic drugs or amnesia causing substances, ONLY under some adrafinil and possibly trace caffeine. I described in the previous posts that it sort felt like i slept deeply , but i guess it's wrong to compare to anesthesia as I was under anesthesia only once in my life when all 4 wisdom teeth were extracted, so i don't have good basis for comparison. I think it's better described as deep dreamless sleep, which i experienced enough in the past.

I don't know how my brain tuned out the loud sounds. btw, how would deaf ppl deal in these situations? what if they were sleeping and fire-alarm sounded, then what?

[Ghostrider]

hey guys thanks for the great advice! keep them rolling in!

I'll address the 2 posts above, by bio123 and lunar, respectively.

After serious consideration, i'm not confident anymore. i knew that it's the toxic smoke that usually kills first , rather than purely being burned alive unless being so thoroughly trapped that it's ~impossible to escape. The sounds radiate from alarms in hallways and my room only has a smoke detector and sprinkler/pipes that can pour gallons of water if they sense fire. the smoke detector sound is very low compared to "ear-piercing" fire-alarm wails. my room may be farther away from those sound sources but they should be so loud that i knew from past experience i can hear from far away.

do you think the fire marshal or whoever will care to put me on a list and make sure to check in on me , to rescue me if i'm knocked out by smoke and sank deeper? would the pain of burning alive and scorching skin jolt me back to consciousness? Or would I be "anesthesized" and killed ?

First, you could make a copy of your room key and give it to a neighbor who you trust and tell him / her to open your room in case of a fire drill. But how far is your room above the ground? In worst case, could you smash a window and jump out? If your room started filling with smoke, I don't think you could sleep through that.

[Heliotrope]

hey guys thanks for the great advice! keep them rolling in!

I'll address the 2 posts above, by bio123 and lunar, respectively.

After serious consideration, i'm not confident anymore. i knew that it's the toxic smoke that usually kills first , rather than purely being burned alive unless being so thoroughly trapped that it's ~impossible to escape. The sounds radiate from alarms in hallways and my room only has a smoke detector and sprinkler/pipes that can pour gallons of water if they sense fire. the smoke detector sound is very low compared to "ear-piercing" fire-alarm wails. my room may be farther away from those sound sources but they should be so loud that i knew from past experience i can hear from far away.

do you think the fire marshal or whoever will care to put me on a list and make sure to check in on me , to rescue me if i'm knocked out by smoke and sank deeper? would the pain of burning alive and scorching skin jolt me back to consciousness? Or would I be "anesthesized" and killed ?

First, you could make a copy of your room key and give it to a neighbor who you trust and tell him / her to open your room in case of a fire drill. But how far is your room above the ground? In worst case, could you smash a window and jump out? If your room started filling with smoke, I don't think you could sleep through that.

Making a copy of room key is NOT an option here. It's against school policy and kinda illegal. It says on the key: "DO NOT DUPLICATE" Also, I've got too many valuables and stuff in my room. I'd be worried all the time.

Like I said in a previous post on this topic, my room is not ground level (~2 floors above ground level) but survivable in free fall though likely resulting in serious sprains and broken bones if I just jump. I can tie a rope ladder or rappeling off the building w/ anchored rope, or parachute down. Stair-way is still the best escape if I'm conscious and awake. The stairwell is built solidly and a few steps from my room. I'm a good runner. I can dash out in seconds.

The issue is sleeping through the fire and the potential of smoke making me unconscious. I hope this was a one-time thing due to sleep deprivation, but you never know...

There were some building manager and fire inspector who checked sound level and the nearest fire horn from my room. From instrument readings, it's sufficiently loud.

Edited by HYP86, 01 October 2008 - 02:30 AM.

[lunarsolarpower]

my room is not ground level (~2 floors above ground level)

or parachute down.

What?

I think there's a minimum height for parachutes. Better stick with the rope idea and tie it to something fixed. Don't try to use a grappling hook with it to look like a cartoon character

[bio123]

"would the pain of burning alive and scorching skin jolt me back to consciousness? Or would I be "anesthesized" and killed ? "

Answer B is probably correct.

"do you think the fire marshal or whoever will care to put me on a list and make sure to check in on me , to rescue me if i'm knocked out by smoke and sank deeper? "

Depends how nicely you ask him/her

Other ideas, maybe buy a dog (one with a loud bark), or even a parrot.

[Heliotrope]

"would the pain of burning alive and scorching skin jolt me back to consciousness? Or would I be "anesthesized" and killed ? "

Answer B is probably correct.

"do you think the fire marshal or whoever will care to put me on a list and make sure to check in on me , to rescue me if i'm knocked out by smoke and sank deeper? "

Depends how nicely you ask him/her

Other ideas, maybe buy a dog (one with a loud bark), or even a parrot.

Dorm forbids pets, so pet is not an option for near future. There are other reasons of me not preferring a pet mentioned earlier in this very thread, mostly due to being busy and lazy of taking good care of pets. and Also have to check up on them, and afraid of them contracting diseases outside and then bite/infect me.

I can wake up to alarms, at least aware of them sounding off and remember simply hitting the snooze bar. Of course, I've slept through alarm clocks occasionally in the past too with no memory of hearing them, mostly sleeping thru the cell-phone type of alarm, which are generally weaker than clock-radios. I can hear those loud alarms fine. Heck, even could wake up to the beeping of smoke detectors as their batteries run low.

I guess these all depend on circumstances like whether I'm sleep deprived.

In researching this, I've came across bed shakers or pillow movers and stuff that mechanically vibrate the bed. Not sure if those mechanical devices are worth it. Sometimes I wake up early to do work and those shakers could be better in also not waking up neighbors and annoy them.

Edited by HYP86, 01 October 2008 - 05:27 PM.

[cyborgdreamer]

Like I said in a previous post on this topic, my room is not ground level (~2 floors above ground level) but survivable in free fall though likely resulting in serious sprains and broken bones if I just jump. I can tie a rope ladder or rappeling off the building w/ anchored rope, or parachute down. Stair-way is still the best escape if I'm conscious and awake. The stairwell is built solidly and a few steps from my room. I'm a good runner. I can dash out in seconds.

If you absolutely have to jump, you can try to hang out the window by your arms. That way, the distance between your feet and the ground will only be around 1 1/2 floors. Of course, it's best to avoid that situation entirely.

[Heliotrope]

I got the report and it says the fire horn sound in my room is actually in the 70 to 73 decibel range depending on where I lay my head on the bed.

70 dB isn't that much. Even normal talking has a sound intensity of 50-60 decibel.

But the fire people say that hey they've met the standards, they were looking for the 70-75 ranger. The building director said a similar thing. I heard the testing, it's about the level of my cellphone alarm

[Heliotrope]

Hey Guys! thanks for staying w/ me for the past 2 months, but it happened again! HELP! I slept through a fire-alarm again! They said it was a 10 to 15 min long alarm, and the last 3 or 4 alarms might have been "an hour" long!! I have just got woken up by the fire officer/"police" (i thought i might be thrown into jail/campus judicial administrations) and what's more, it was more due to loud knocking of door that woke me, and not the alarm!! It was like a deep sleep again, except I might have been in REM sleep???! I remember a vague dream-like experience, and think I heard a brief alarm sounding, for maybe ~1 min or way less, and when I got dressed , was ready, i thought it must have been a dream or burnt food again.

I respect your opinions and views at this Life-extension community and want to live long too, and not die in a stupid fire.

I am so screwed. I forgot to mention in my original September 21 post that I am an RA (Resident Adivsor ) too, but I might have mentioned it in reply posts, hope all my residents made it out alright. It was my residents and good neighbors that asked the fire-officials and police about alarms, and only then on the morning of September 20 like mentioned in my Original Post. I asked other RAs and RHD if there really was 3 or 4 fire alarms in emails and other program events. I have already set up a rope system, and hope to escape then, even willing to jump two to two-and-a-half story height to suffer injury as the backup plan. This is like caught between a rock and a hard place, sleeping through and getting burned in a fire or have to jump off 2 stories. I really hope the old building stands and I don't get anathesized and killed.

Edited by HYP86, 13 November 2008 - 10:19 AM.

[Heliotrope]

Plans to Survive Fire, from the institute's member help and my Thread Brainstorming

I originally made this using a Word.doc chart format, but it's lost its formating in a post , the possible #s are 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10. The first # indicates my willingness to attempt. Second # indicates feasibility.

Any other plans to survive when sleeping?

Plan My Willingness to attempt (1-10, 10 being high) Feasibility
(1-10, 10 being high)
Dash out when smoke/heat stimulates tactile sense (skin) 10 5
Bed/Pillow Shaker Mechanical Vibration Alarming Device 8 8
Parachuting 5 0
Rappelling/Rope System 7 3
Key Duplication/Neighbor check-up 2 0
Fire Marshall/Police Checkup 1 0 9
Alarm Horn/Alerting Device above 73 Decibel sound level 10 6
RHD/RA/Resident Emergency call, projectile on window pane 8 5
Scaling down building (bare-hands, Arm-hang maneuver suggested by Cyborgdreamer) 7 2
Pet Alert (ex. Purchasing Dog) 10 0
Fire-resistant/Fire-retardant Pajamas, facial mask 8 3

Edited by HYP86, 13 November 2008 - 12:15 PM.

[Heliotrope]

there MUST be some good ways for me to deal with this. I mean, what would deaf people do in this situation? i'm sure deaf people wouldn't hear fire alarms either. they must have some pressure, vibration, or other mechanical means of waking up in this emergency

I'm certainly nowhere near deaf. i've normal hearing. I'm looking for what deaf ppl would use. My room's fire-alarm is at 71-73 decibels.



Here's a list of decibel levels from Wikipedia. Maybe there is a way to amplify the alarm to my ear at say 100-110 decibels for a brief burst? Or somehow hooking mechanical devices to my bed/pillow?

http://en.wikipedia...._pressure_level



Source of sound Sound pressure Sound pressure level
pascal dB re 20 μPa
Krakatoa explosion at 100 miles (160 km) in air 20,000 Pa 180 dB
Simple open-ended thermoacoustic device [6] 12,000 Pa 176 dB
M1 Garand being fired at 1 m 5,000 Pa 168 dB
Jet engine at 30 m 630 Pa 150 dB
Rifle being fired at 1 m 200 Pa 140 dB
Threshold of pain 100 Pa 130 dB
Hearing damage (due to short-term exposure) 20 Pa approx. 120 dB
Jet at 100 m 6 – 200 Pa 110 – 140 dB
Jack hammer at 1 m 2 Pa approx. 100 dB
Hearing damage (due to long-term exposure) 6×10−1 Pa approx. 85 dB
Major road at 10 m 2×10−1 – 6×10−1 Pa 80 – 90 dB
Passenger car at 10 m 2×10−2 – 2×10−1 Pa 60 – 80 dB
TV (set at home level) at 1 m 2×10−2 Pa approx. 60 dB
Normal talking at 1 m 2×10−3 – 2×10−2 Pa 40 – 60 dB
Very calm room 2×10−4 – 6×10−4 Pa 20 – 30 dB
Leaves rustling, calm breathing 6×10−5 Pa 10 dB
Auditory threshold at 1 kHz 2×10−5 Pa 0 dB

Edited by HYP86, 14 November 2008 - 04:07 AM.

[Heliotrope]

Any recommendations? I'm thinking about repeating the experiment I did before.

[Wandering Jew]

A similar thing actually happened to me. I live in my parents' house, and then suddenly the smoke detector sounds off in a high-shrill, beeping, annoying, yet continuously beeping noise. It basically indicates the battery's about to die. I have slept through that many times, what seemed like weeks, so I guess the battery's lasting for quite long. Now it goes on and off intermittently. I simply never got it changed. I sleep through it all the time, but my parents say they're tired of it and why don't I just rip it off the ceiling?!? Or at least replace the beeping with new batteries.

The fire alarm level/sudden smoke detector ring sometimes is just above my threshold of hearing. I suggest a new fire alarm be installed. Make sure the decibel level is up there.

[edward]

How much modafinil/adrafinil are you taking, dose and frequency? What else are you taking including caffeine.... You might consider giving stimulants a break say during the winter holidays while you arent at school so you don't screw up school work etc. Then re-evaluate things.

[Heliotrope]

How much modafinil/adrafinil are you taking, dose and frequency? What else are you taking including caffeine.... You might consider giving stimulants a break say during the winter holidays while you arent at school so you don't screw up school work etc. Then re-evaluate things.

It's weird, because I haven't taken any adra/moda recently. It was back in the end of September that I cut them completely, 100% off. They help, but I wouldn't want to experiment with these expensive "meds", and who knows if any dependency could result from long-term. They're expensive and I operate on a college guy's budget, so I try to seek natural means.

However, the 2nd "sleeping-through-fire-alarm" happened when I did not have any adra/moda for 4-5 weeks! Only caffeine occasionally, now and then, but very sparingly. What's more, I think I may have been better with the adrafinil that I took in September! I seriously think I have shift-work sleep disorder and that's expressing itself into a form of excessive sleepiness now. It seems like I have no choice but sleep half a weekend on top of my other duties, and just yesterday... just yesterday I slept 15-16 hours in a 24 hour period. Luckily I didn't have many important classes that day but still missed a homework that I will turn in late now.

I've pretty much made the appt with my school's clinic's GP , not a sleep specialist, but hopefully he's sympathetic enough to let me try the 7-Day Provigil Trial (free, 1,400mg of potential Provigil that I'll cut into half, even quarter-pills, and experiment). If my result under adra's any suggestion, I think they'll help. I will need anything like it to help me finish through.

Btw, I love your suggestion of not taking anything during Winter Break, since my winter is a month long (semester system at my college). I'm willing to try it now. Hopefully the doc I'll be seeing is knowledgeable enough so that he will just let me try the 7-Day Provigil prescription to get me through these SWSD/Excessive Sleepiness disorders, I certainly have a lot of the symptoms. This is not normal. I don't know why, but in my past 3 years, I never remember slept through half-a-dozen fire-alarms!! Or did I??! The 2nd realization could be scarier.

[Heliotrope]

i'll likely do the intensively healings, treatments, and experiments during winter, since i've only got a month of school left for Fall Semester. I doubt there'll be a really fire that actually gets me now and kill me, as I'm on the police's list definitely, if not fire guys' lists , and my coworkers/neighbors will help to watch out for me.

but i intend this be straightened out and never be under any life-risk like this , and any suggestions, keep on adding to this topic

[Heliotrope]

I'm gonna do the whole full-scale Sleep Study during winter break near my home in Chicago and see my GP there , and I just thought of another test to do: hearing. Subjectively, my hearing is ok, maybe not as sensitive as in childhood but I never really had problem. But then again, I haven't had a Hearing/Ear exam since in mid of high school, when I started to listen to a lot of music , radio, book-on-tape etc.

I wonder if my ears might have betrayed me and contributed partly to this. I tried to be careful and never into the loud music (no rock, heavy metal etc) and I usually use speaker, and when privacy's needed, i prefer the headphone over the earbuds directly in ears to send waves.


I wonder if lots of ear-use over the years , even at seemingly constant low to medium levels can lead to hearing loss. I use computer a lot since middle school and had gone mild to moderate myopic/nearsighted due to the internet/TV/bad-reading-habit, though had 20/20 vision as child. I wonder if a similar degradation happened w/ hearing? Sounds scary, but my computer's fan's on often, my house had TV on ~24/7 (background noise), and just general background noises! Maybe it's so gradual that I haven't noticed, like with myopia, only when it reached 20/30 - 20/40 till I realized, didn't confront it until checked 8-9th grade school phsical/health exam.

[Heliotrope]

How much modafinil/adrafinil are you taking, dose and frequency? What else are you taking including caffeine.... You might consider giving stimulants a break say during the winter holidays while you arent at school so you don't screw up school work etc. Then re-evaluate things.

ordered adra from www.nubrain.com again. sadly, an almost necessary evil. it's okay for short term. does more good than bad anyway. in my ~2-month break from it, i may have gotten worse than better. need the adra --> moda to help my condition.

[Heliotrope]

the condition seems to fluctuate, slept through the hustle of airport and missed flight before and also the high decibel of a roaring jet taking off/ landing. there is definitely ES ans SWSD, could also be depression/SAD related (they could contribute). still looking to get hearing checked and ways to restore the senses

I've yet to find a good way to help it besides adra/moda or be prepared to have an unsuitable/wack schedule dominated by sleep needs

[Heliotrope]

It really sucks. I'm trying to find a good and convenient sleep journal too, any suggestion? In the meantime, i'd use this thread as a journal and note down important details so I can show my doctor back home, in Illinois and Arizona etc, to help the treatment process. Though adrafinil is legal and many here and elsewhere obtain modafinil plus other things, but I've decided to get the name-brand read deal (Provigil) plus other meds my doctor may recommend.

I've been trying to get into a sleep study and some grad student's sleep lab at college, been turned down a couple of times for the free sleep labs (my school, C.U., has some top sleep researchers and Ive read materials and tried to help myself but they're busy and I'd prefer own doc back home anyway). full sleep things cost too much and there is a long list ( come on , why long list, this isnt like waiting for organ donation).