Does my dad have a sleeping disorder?

My dad is well-known for being a person who can fall asleep easily. And I mean, way too easily. He can sleep wherever and whenever he wants, even if he's napped a few hours beforehand. As soon as he lies down, literally and I mean LITERALLY, after TEN seconds he's fast asleep. I'm not kidding. He should be some kind of world record holder. This isn't normal, is it? Me on the other hand...Sometimes I'm really jealous of him, ya know, it takes me like an hour or two to fall asleep but when I think about it, he might have some kind of sleeping disorder. Thoughts?

^^ It sounds more like a valuable asset than a disorder to me, I think.

You didn't mention whether he also falls asleep when he does not wish to do so; if that isn't an issue, then he's probably just fine... perhaps even a bit lucky!

My dad is like that too! He just conks out so fast that it's almost unbelievable. He often does it while it's family movie night and all we can hear is the sound of his snoring.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tikhung01

My dad is well-known for being a person who can fall asleep easily. And I mean, way too easily. He can sleep wherever and whenever he wants, even if he's napped a few hours beforehand. As soon as he lies down, literally and I mean LITERALLY, after TEN seconds he's fast asleep. I'm not kidding. He should be some kind of world record holder. This isn't normal, is it? Me on the other hand...Sometimes I'm really jealous of him, ya know, it takes me like an hour or two to fall asleep but when I think about it, he might have some kind of sleeping disorder. Thoughts?

Falling asleep is my problem too. I can sleep for abnormally long periods of time given I have free time to sleep in that long (I'm talking 12-16 hours if I slept how I wanted). However, falling asleep usually takes up to 3 or 4 hours without the aid of medication (which I'm now prescribed) which doesn't so much put me to sleep, but rather makes so when I try to sleep, I'll be able to slip off within about an hour to an hour and a half. An hour to an hour and a half is quite manageable, I just have to lay down to go to bed earlier than I'd like to (back when I was a teenager and maybe on up to 22 I would've continued to stay up as long as I wanted anyway, effectively ruining my chances of more than 2-3 hours of sleep... or a day with sleep and a day without). Without adhering to a moderately rigid schedule or using medication, I wind up staying up 34-42 hours before finally wanting to, and being able to, fall asleep. That's if I have the day off or something. If I have work I just stay up the whole second day, which usually winds up being just over the figure I just previously stated. No matter if it's been 48 hours, 24 hours, or 16 hours awake though, I can still sleep 12-16 hrs easily.

Sorry for writing such a long post, I was just wondering if you perhaps experienced something similar? Having trouble actually going to sleep, but not much trouble sleeping for long periods of time. I hesitate to say I am able to stay asleep because on a typical night I will wake up 3 or 4 times (7 hr sleep), if it goes on into the morning that shoots up to about 5-9 times. But, luckily if I don't start thinking too much or get up and moving I can easily fall right back to sleep.

Slightly more relevant to your experience with your father, my roommate in college was just like your dad. He could go to sleep any time he felt like, and no matter what was going on in the room. Like, he would lay down to take a nap, and I'd be talking on skype with my friends and ask if he wanted me to type instead, and he'd just say "nah man I already told you, I can sleep through any thing." So I would go back to what I was doing and look over 2 or 3 minutes later and he'd be lightly snoring, fast asleep. It was one of the few times in my adult life I've been truly envious of something. To have that ability would be amazing.