I Can't Get My Sessions To Work Right

[eluser]ShoeLace1291[/eluser]
I am having loads of trouble getting my sessions to work right with my CodeIgniter application. I can log in once, but then after 5 minutes I get logged out. When I go to log back in again, my script says I am already logged into a member account and only on the login page, my account toolbar displays that I am logged in. Then I go back to the home page and I'm "logged out" again. I cannot access any "member only" content.

Through a core extension of the controller class that gets the current user's information I use $this->user throughout the app controllers to display the user's information. It could also be something with my config but I thought I got that straightened out... maybe not... who knows. So here's my code: