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The following is a visitor-submitted question or story. For more, you can submit your own sleep story here, or browse the collection of experiences and questions other visitors have shared here.
Can't Fall Asleep Before 5am, Stay Up Thinking Bad Thoughts
by Whitney
(Virginia)
Hi, My name Whitney and I am a 25 year old full-time student. I noticed my problem sleeping last week. I found myself falling asleep at 5am but mostly 9am.
However, the past two days have been worse and emotionally taxing. My inability to sleep causes me to overthink not being able to go to sleep and that I may never be able to sleep as I did before. I then begin to think of death - the death of my mom, sister, brothers. I begin to think of how alone I will feel and that I will probably go crazy. If these particular thoughts aren't invading my mind, then there are thoughts of hurting myself and the fear of death, of the unknown. I want to make clear that I am not going to actually hurt myself. However, in the darkness of the night, these thoughts will not go away and the fear makes me feel like I'm drowning. I'm afraid that one night I may reach my breaking point and do something I will later regret.
Once the sunlight starts coming through the windows I regain hope and I feel better. This is usually around 5am. And then I am able to sleep if only for 5 hours or less.
I dread the night like I never did before. As soon as 6pm or 8pm comes around so does the anxiety and the crying. Sometimes I don't even know why I'm crying, it's just an overwhelming feeling of sadness and despair.
I also want to mention that I've always been a night owl. I've slept around 12am or later and was able to sleep without feeling anxious or wary. Now I can't. I'm afraid I will never be able to sleep as I use to and I don't know if this is just insomnia or something else. There have been no changes in my life that may have caused this.
Well, that's all. Tomorrow, I begin school at 7.30am, wish me luck in being able to have a good night sleep tomorrow and go back to normalcy.
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Sleep Paralysis: A Dreamer's Guide
Ever woken up paralyzed? A surprising number of us have, believe it or not. But few know the actual causes of this phenomenon, and fewer still how to exert control over it. Dream researcher and sleep paralysis expert Ryan Hurd shares breakthrough insights into how to do just that.
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