Function better with less sleep?

[Guest guest]

Does anyone else function better with less sleep?

This has driven me crazy for years, this " sleep paradox. " If I get

too little sleep (5-6 hours), I'm often so tired it is mentally

debilitating. My only thoughts are of desiring to go to sleep, and

it's hard to think, remember, etc. However, if I get 8-9 or more

hours of sleep, the brain fog is almost always worse. I'm not tired,

but the brain fog is often so thick it's impossible to fight through

it and function.

Unfortunately, 7-8 hours of sleep usually results in blend of both

tiredness and brain fog.

Lately, this sleep paradox has gotten even more pronounced. And

surprisingly, I've been functioning fairly well on only 5 hours of

sleep, but on days I get 7 or so hours, I am worthless.

For two years, I intentionally got only 6-7 hours of sleep. Wouldn't

let myself sleep any more, to avoid the horrible brain fog. So I

existed in a tired state constantly, probably running on adrenaline

all the time. But I ended up crashing last year and could no longer

function at all (cognitively) and had to stop working for a while.

The mercury had become too much, plus my adrenals pretty much crashed.

And I think getting " only " 6-7 hours of sleep each night for two

years was probably a contributing factor to the adrenal crash.

Last week, the three nights when I got only 5 hours of sleep led to

days where I could actually function reasonably well at work -- still

a struggle, but it was tiredness and brain fog that I could manage and

fight through, and I was even a bit social. The two night when I got

7+ hours of sleep led to horrible days -- worthless, anti-social,

depressed, very hard to function mentally.

Anyone else have similar experiences?

I've had full sleep studies done, tried CPAP (made me worse), and

extensive consultations with a reknowned sleep expert. But I believe

that avenue is a dead end since sleep docs don't seem to make the

mercury/toxicity connection -- they just look for physiological

obstructions (e.g., sleep apnea/UARS) and promote mechanical fixes

(e.g., CPAP or mouthpieces).

I think the best thing for me may be to sleep in on the weekends --

though I hate being super brain foggy on Saturdays and Sundays -- and

intentionally get only 5-6 hours of sleep during the week. But I

worry that doing this for too long will eventually crash my adrenals,

especially while chelating.

Any advice out there?

Many thanks...

Darren