Verified answer

Your friend is lying. (probably)

There have been studies on insomnia, and generally after the third to fifth day you are a big hallucinating mess. I have insomnia (that's how I found your question, by searching for "insomnia") and get around 2 to 4 hours of sleep a night, and I am a very tired person.

It's stupid though because my insomnia started last May or April because I did what you're trying to do, I forced myself to have insomnia. Basically I had watched the movie Fight Club and was really into it and it has a lot to do with insomnia in the movie...I wanted to go through the process Fight Club's main narrator did, so I forced myself to have insomnia...at first I could barely stay up past 1am, but trust me, it gets easier, and soon your body is so used to it that you can go the whole night w/out sleep, and without trying any "stay awake" tactics.

If you REALLY want insomnia, which is VERY hard to get rid of once you want it, here are some things I did:

- Drink black coffee/energy drinks (this is an obvious thing)

- Listen to loud, obnoxious, or intriguing music to make your brain "interactive" and not shutting down/falling asleep (metal and rock is good for this...or d12/eminem type rap)

- Read, watch movies, write, do homework, go online....pass the time

- Stand or walk around. It's almost impossible to fall asleep while walking.

- Run for a few minute to wake yourself up

- Get really cold...cold shower, ice cubes, if it's winter no blankets or warm clothes

- WIDEN your eyes, keep blinking and moving them around

- Take deep breaths, get lots of oxygen

- Talk to yourself outloud (sounds weird but works)

- If you're desperate, inflict pain...slap or punch your face (aim for your cheek bones/the sides of your face), or your thighs, really anything....just make sure it hurts

- scare yourself...watch terrifying movies or clips on youtube, look up serial killer statistics, go to satanic websites like joyofsatan.org (or .com idk), whatever you find scary

Good luck I guess lol

3 Steps to Cure Insomnia Forever!

Has anything happened that you cannot stop thinking about (once my son smacked his little 18 month face on our coffee table and I had visions of this every night), or picturing? Is there anything creating anxiety that you do not recognise (does someone agitate you, are you in two minds about something?). Because of the fact that this has only just started happening to you, I am feeling as though something must have changed for you (unless you have just changed sleep pattern and your body clock will not go back to normal for you). Some people have this happen all of their lives from things like ADHD (their minds cannot stop racing), teenage insomnia (all of the teenage years, I saw a documentary and it has to do with Melatonin production being low in teens) etc etc But for someone who has no past of insomnia it sounds like something has changed for you. Is the light coming in a gap in the blinds that was not there before?Is your heater on higher than before etc etc They do say that technology is bad for sleep but I find it distracts me from my worries and therefore helps me fall asleep (at one stage I had it in my room on timer and this worked for me as I could not stop worrying about my job). This is why they tell you to count sheep (its purely to distract you from thinking). Unrelated to thoughts/worries, I'd say have a hot drink (herbal tea, hot milo etc) and a warm bath, make the room dark or dim (this makes our body realise we are preparing for sleep) and then lie down and try to sleep. If you still have trouble, get a soft/squishy ball (like a stress ball from reject shop $2 for pack of two) and play with it in your hands (I just did this with my toddler to replace his dummy) and I find it takes away the pressure to sleep by distracting your concentration. If you wake up and cannot go back to sleep, stay up and try to avoid napping in the day until your body learns to have more sleep (but don't do this if it is dangerous for you eg. driving home from work or falling alseep in public). see how you go, i really hope it helps

Trust me, insomnia will kill you, otherwise if you really want to then maybe ask her how she got insomnia...

lots and lots of caffine