Trouble Sleeping

[ayogreg]

I've had trouble sleeping my whole life as far back as I can remember. I'll come out from a dream and I will be half awake/half asleep and it will get extremely interactive. I'll see objects, people, insects, etc, in my room and I'll be either sitting up in bed or standing up and moving around. Most of the time it involves me waking up in a panic, throwing the sheets off the bed, rushing out of bed to turn the light on and inspect my surroundings. This happens at least 3 times a night, sometimes more. I live alone and therefore sleep alone, and the reason I know all of this happens is because sometimes I remember it happening the next morning, but mostly it's because I have a camera set up in my room to monitor sleeping and I'll review the footage the next day.

I feel it has something to do with anxiety or stresses and I've never been able to calm it down to get a better, full nights sleep.

I'm almost feeling as if I need to improve my feeling of security during the night. Maybe I'm feeling too vulnerable and it's causing issues? I used to sleep in the nude every night and that used to cause feelings of being overexposed in my dreams and feeling vulnerable. I overheat easily, which was the reason for doing so, but I've been wearing light clothing lately and it has helped a bit, but I still have problems.

Has anyone had anything similar and has managed to fix their sleep?
Thanks.

 

[Slime_Punk]

I've heard that sleeping with ASD is pretty tough, and I've encountered the same.

I thought mine was caused by caffeine, but over the course of a few months I weaned myself off of it entirely only to realize that for the most part, I just have the same issues I've always had -- falling asleep is incredibly difficult.

Some things help me, though; vigorous exercise, sobriety, no nicotine, no caffeine, eating plenty of protein and fat, etc. But all of those things can only go so far, in my experience.

 

[MNAus]

I can fully sympathise. I have similar, but not the same. There's a level of consciousness that's problematic. It's the half awake half asleep state. I my case I lose all knowledge. Everything. So I'll not recognise where I am, what's going on, what sort of creature I am, etc. My body feels utterly alien, like my feet and hands are on backwards.

For me, the triggers are definitely stress and exhaustion. It's like my body falls asleep without the brain finishing it's shut-down. While some functions head off to sleep, some parts don't shut down, like a laptop that keep humming away even when the lid is closed. The result is that the smallest sound can bring me around to the point where much of me is asleep, but some parts are wide awake. I also get the same if I nap on the couch. I'll wake up and keep asking "what's going on?" until I wake fully.

 

[Hotwire]

Have you had a sleep study? It could be sleep apnea.

 

[MNAus]

Have you had a sleep study? It could be sleep apnea.

Not sure if you're replying to me or OP. In case it's me, it's not sleep apnea. It's most likely to happen within the first 20 minutes of falling asleep. I also suffer from hypnic jerks often and other related bits and pieces that apparently fall under sleep–wake transition disorders.

 

[Rodafina]

@ayogreg

I was thinking of your post at 3:30 in the morning after my third round of upsetting nightmares. But they weren’t even the worst ones, so I wasn’t really afraid, just frustrated. I really hate how nightmares and bad dreams can linger for a long while after waking up and flashbacks can occur during the day.

Good sleep is so fundamental to our functioning, yet it is elusive for so many of us. I got enough hours of sleep in the night to feel recharged today, but it took a great deal of effort. Putting in a lot of effort to sleeping doesn’t make sense to most people that I know.

 

[betazoid]

I experienced a lot of what you're talking about when I was a kid. For me it was trauma related and I sort of grew out of it after a while. But it was really horrible while it was going on, so I really sympathise.

Even after I stopped experiencing the kind of sleep disturbances you're talking about, I was never really able to get good, consistent sleep until I started intermittent fasting last year. It seems that getting the day's eating over with earlier in the day and going to bed on an empty stomach leads to me being more sleepy at bed time, falling asleep much quicker and waking up after a full night's sleep, not feeling exhausted like I often used to. I suppose it makes sense when you consider that your body is able to focus on rest, rather than digesting freshly ingested food all night long. But my problem was more with being able to shut down and fall asleep in the first place and get enough hours of sleep. So I won't "recommend" intermittent fasting to you, but it may be something you'd like to do your own research into. I'm sure it's also not suitable for everyone, for health reasons or perhaps if you've had problems with eating disorders, etc.

Another thing that comes to mind that might be helpful if your sleep disturbance is trauma related is EMDR therapy. I've heard people say they found it immensely helpful for a myriad of symptoms, including disturbed sleep, even when they didn't have what most would consider to be "serious trauma". Of course, this may not be applicable to you and I won't ask you personal questions here. It would also greatly depend on where you live and what your personal situation is. It would be relatively easy to find and affordable in certain parts of Europe. I'm in the UK and I don't know what the current situation is here. It used to be available on the NHS but if it still is, I'm sure there would be long wait times involved. If you're in the US, it might be workable if you have good insurance or are in a good financial position in general.

Maybe none of this is applicable but I hope you find something that works for you. Good luck!