Chixe

I'll trade you the hours between 1 and 4am for the answer to that question.

I sleep really, really easily, so when I can't sleep the cause will always be anxiety. There's probably some family or relationship crisis or something going on.

I'm waaay not in that age group but I think I have had and still do have the same occasional problem. I sometimes can't sleep because something is very much on my mind, like estarla said.

If I cannot sleep, it is because I have too many ideas going thorough my mind. For that reason alone, I write everything down. Even if I throw the piece of paper away in the morning, I have to write it down to get it out of my head.

I've learned a lot about (my personal) sleep the last year or so. Through bi-phasic sleep, mostly.

It seems that the more sleep you give yourself, the more your body will expect.

So, when I sleep only 5 or 6 hours a night, that's all I need. I think a lot of people our age do this, too. Since we sleep less, our body demands less.

Long term who knows what will happen. I'll probably die in my mid 30s.

"If I cannot sleep, it is because I have too many ideas going thorough my mind."
This seems to work for me.

Other than that I think it's habit.

I have had to try to get into a different sleep pattern since graduating and starting a job which requires regular daytime hours. The old pattern of coming back from classes sleeping for a few hours and going out at midnight, or staying up until three studying or scrolling the internet dies hard though.

It probably also helps to not have any caffeine after a certain time of day.

Too many thoughts in my head.
Too many things I want to do.
Too many projects left incomplete.

I have a very hard time "turning off" my brain enough to sleep.

If I can't sleep it is usually due to stress and having too much on my mind, and therefore I can't fall asleep.

Some people have health issues which interrupts their sleep.

Sometimes, I'm sooo tired I can't help but falling asleep on my desktop, I wake up 10 minutes after (because it's not really comfortable), and I tell myself I should set the computer's alarm (awaken for Mac) before going to my bed, 2 hours after I'm still on my computer navigating through the WWW...

I sleep very poorly myself thanks to sleep apnea. I wish that it was just because there was too much fun to be had staying awake. I had surgery to correct the problems, while it helped I still have trouble getting rest.

I think alot of people think insomnia is purely about the night, aswell. Alot of people get insomnia because they have no reason to/or don't particuarly want to get up in the morning. I know alot of freelancers and those who work from home get caught in this trap - if what you're doing in the morning is no different from what you're doing at night, where is the motivation to sleep?

I sleep much better when I have a busy schedule - even if my sleep pattern is erratic, than when I have nothing to do at all.

Indeed I hate sleeping. I feel I'm growing up too fast (it might look ridiculous because I'm only 27) and I don't want to spend my life sleeping, so I try to make the max things a day.
Study, internet, music, read, have a coffee, play pool, watch/read the news, have sex, go to a club etc.. everyday!

I think people who don't sleep are worried, they have problems.

PS: I sleep 1 day/2 approx. for about 10 hours, so 10 hours of sleep every 48 hours...

Between side projects, a 6 month old, and a 3 year old with diabetes that needs to have her glucose tested several times through the night, I usually end with 3 hours of sleep between 3am and 6am.

Good luck for that MangoFalls, the reason why you suffer from "insomnia" at least is a noble one.

Well, speaking of insomnia, I'll be participating in this year's Blogathon 2007 which means I'll be blogging straight for 24 hours, posting a post every 30 minutes to raise money for the charity I chose.

Way to put insomnia to work. :)

Very nice initiative Kamigoroshi!

I think it has to do with being born in the wrong timezone.

I was born in the right timezone.

Then I moved to the wrong one. :P

I'm a night person, but I don't have the insomnia problem. When I do have too much on my mind, I simply sleep with a lot of dreams, like having a movie marathon in the sleep.