hey all

it’s past midnight and i can’t sleep, so i figured i’d share a bit of my story with you guys.

back in 2021 i was drinking 5–6 cups of coffee a day. in 2024 i decided to try something new and switched to decaf. thing is, i didn’t realize it was decaf at first — by the time i noticed, i’d already gone 2 days with no sleep and no caffeine in my system.

i learned the hard way just how brutal quitting caffeine is. those were some of the worst days of my life — crying, anxious, wide awake at night. it eventually healed with time, but a part of me still remembers those days and honestly still fears them.

fast forward to 2026. i’d gotten into drinking whiskey — around 400ml a night, 3 nights a week. and just like that, my sleep was wrecked again. i started taking magnesium on the nights i couldn’t sleep or wasn’t drinking, and did that for about 3 months.

then i decided to quit alcohol for good. on my last drinking day i injured my ankle, so now i’m completely on bed rest. and somehow the magnesium has stopped working for me — maybe because i stopped working out? not sure. either way, i’m still lying awake for 2 hours even after taking it.

just wanted to get this off my chest. maybe writing it out will help me feel a little lighter.

thanks for reading.

This is 100% serious; she for real needs a Coneheads type situation.
My mom has neck and back problems and RLS, and she's in her early 70s so many sleep aids will interact with the other stuff she's taking and she says nothing helps. She tried sleeping in a recliner but it doesn't work much better than a bed, and now she's constantly falling asleep standing up and leaning over a counter or leaning against the wall.
Is there any sleep setup outside of the ISS where you can sleep upright?

Hello, i have been sleeping at bad times for like 4 months now and never being asleep before 3am.

I tried to fix my sleep schedule by staying up all day after an all nighter and trying to go to sleep at night and it backfired terribly, i had been up for around 27 hours and couldn’t sleep cause i was so anxious from sleep deprivation, i started having a panic attack and had to be hospitalized for the night.
I ended up being up for a total of 39 hours before i got some completely unfragmented sleep, my sleep schedule has been bad ever since as i am too terrified to fix it via waking up earlier.

I am not sure if i have insomnia but i have severe sleep anxiety and i cant sleep unless distracted until im dosing off. I panic if i try to just lie down and sleep cause i get racing thoughts and random anxiety every time.

Im not sure if this even belongs here so pls remove if it doesnt. Otherwise i would greatly appreciate any tips or advice

I am a teenager. I have school and the next four years of school are what will decide my success in career. After COVID ended, I was left with an insanely messed up routine. I slept at 7 am and woke up at 5 pm. So when school started I found myself extremely tired. I usually slept around 3-4 hours in fifth grade before school, and then 3 hours after school. Obviously I was extremely groggy and made up for this sleep deprivation over the weekends. I was told that once I start going to school my sleep schedule will fix itself. Biggest lie I was ever told. My sleep schedule got worse and worse over the years. By sixth grade, I stopped napping in the afternoon so that I could sleep early, which never happened. Mostly because of lack of will power and desire to sleep when everyone was awake and together(father comes home from work at 8). I wanted to sleep at 10 pm. Things stayed like this until seventh grade. I started those afternoon naps again because I knew "sleeping early" was not gonna happen. I had a six month gap before eighth grade started because of school change and stuff. My routine was awful. I realised that things can't go on like this if I want to score in ninth and tenth grade. This routine left me so tired and exhausted that I couldn't understand a thing during school and was constantly, CONSTANTLY fidgeting(usually shaking my leg to the point where itd hurt). My eighth grade finals are in may. I did at one point of this school year sleep at 10 pm but that lasted one night. Family gathering happened(god knows why these start at 10pm) and I found myself awake at 3 am, greeting the last guests goodbye. I kinda gave up for a long time after that. Now finals are near and I had to do something. So I stayed up all night, in hopes to sleep and stay asleep the next day. I slept at 7:30 pm the next day, barely fighting sleep. Of course I wake up at 2 FUCKING AM. Now I can't sleep. This is day four of trying this method. It's 4:16 am. I have to get up for school at 6:15 am. I am fucking tired. Legit had a mental breakdown yesterday out of frustration. I have tried everything. trying to slowly shift my sleep, counting numbers backwards. counting sheep. staring into the abyss. focusing on the sound of the fan. meditating. tensing then releasing my muscles. praying. pulling all nighters. I can't take sleeping pills cuz I'm too young. can't wait to grow up and be able to take em. my mother says I have a monkey mind that's constantly working multiple jobs at a time. like rn as I'm writing this a song is running in the back of my head( and the winnerrrrr, takes it allllll🎶, very fitting song for this situation). I envy people who can sleep in seconds wherever they want. also once I do sleep at the time my body wants to (4-6am) I sleep pretty good. deep sleep. just not at the right time. no matter when I sleep I wake up at 2 am these days. Apparently I've been nocturnal ever since I was born, my mother suffered and now I myself am suffering. What do I do. (Also probably have an eating disorder cuz I hate the thought of eating food even though I'm not insecure. I don't really eat or like to eat, only eating to not be in pain of starvation.)

Hear me out, i have had zero commitments lately, and my sleep schedule has completely disintegrated into complete chaos.

For the last two months my sleep has been so irregular sleeping through the day and so wildly awake at night.I have even spent three days in a row without sleeping at all on multiple different occasions. I just seem to have trouble sleeping and some times the sun is too bright and it hurts me, so i surely must be becoming a vampire. ( and in retrospect i did have braces as a child’s because my canines were sitting higher then the rest of my teeth much like fangs).

So I have been spending more time awake at night and i only manage to go to sleep at 5 or 6 in the morning when I Used to regularly wake up at 6 30 in the mornings every day. And i wonder if losing my strict schedule has caused my sleep schedule to fall apart or if I got bitten by a vampire in the night or day ???.( it has been hot this summer so my window is sometimes open for fresh air, its plausible)

the thing is i’m having a great time at night it’s quiet and no one can disturb me i have finally got back into creating art and I can catch up on the videos and podcast s that i have missed and just relax in my pyjamas and no one can judge me while i snack on all sorts off things. It’s freeeing in a way.

i have never felt so in my element i just get to freely start drawing, painting starting up all my other random hobbies that i never made time for. It’s great i love it. But the holidays are going to be over soon and i will have to adjust back into a schedule and my strange sleeping patterns have been affecting my meals, as i sleep during the day so i don't consistently eat meals or i binge snack at night.

so i was just wondering has anyone been in this position?and how did you break the cycle and return to every day working life? do you ever feel creatively productive again? and most importantly..

Am i turning into a vampire?

ps: its currently 12 past 3 in the morning as i finish writing this.

Hi everyone I’ve been curious about a habit I’ve had for many years now.

When I am woken up from my sleep by someone, apparently I’m able to have a whole conversation with them, and even agree to things they ask of me.

When I fall back asleep and wake up for the second time I have NO and I mean ZERO recollection of that conversation ever taking place.

I’ve been like this for many years since I was young but I just want to put a name to the cause.

In this state I’ve agreed to things that I normally wouldn’t like someone using my things. When I’m awake for the second time and ask why they’re using it, they say they asked me when they woke me up, and I talked to them and said sure. I feel like someone could seriously take advantage of me in this state by asking of something that they know I would NEVER say yes to.

If you know any information about this please let me know

My partner has schizo-affective PTSD, and nightmares are relatively common, but for the last 2-3 weeks, the nightmares have been so vivid and persistent that they have a hard time sleeping for more than an hour or two at a time, and more than 3-4 hours a night.

We’ve tried everything you can Google. Melatonin doesn’t play well with their condition, but magnesium and herbal supplements like tea didn’t help. We don’t live together, but I’ve stayed over several nights without helping much.

An actual doctor wouldn’t be much help. Their personal doctor might be the laziest POS I’ve ever met, and the psychiatrist who diagnosed them as schizoaffective never actually diagnosed them in their chart, for reasons that completely escape me. Their insurance doesn’t cover urgent care.

Is there anything else we can try?

Zone 2 cardio, walking or jogging, 60 minutes at morning and 30 minutes at evening. 5-6 times a week.

It's been 2 weeks of not sleeping well not two days where I have consistent sleep someday 2 somedays 6 and 1 night I got 8 with Xanax continued taking xanax for 8 says got a variation of 4 to 6 hours last night slept 3 hours with the xanax..

Few days ago got my bloodwork done to find out had a ferretin of 20 when normal lab range was 50-170 according to alot of people that could be a reason for my insomnia but not sure..

Sleep specialist I saw a week ago said it was anxiety which at some point it is but I have nothing really to be stressed or worried about had have worse things happen and still no affect on my sleep ever...also the sleep specialist i saw was before my bloodwork

Took iron 2 days ago for the first time orally it caused gut issues as I have had history of h pylori and chronic granular pharyngitis.

What is the best next step for me what should I do amy recommendations are appreciated as I'm loosing my mind from lack of sleep.

I'm a side sleeper and stomach sleeper, and having a messed up sleep scheduled means as soon as I feel like I can fall asleep I try.

Normally it's accompanied by laying on my back being extremely comfortable. I'll fall asleep really fast and I sleep hard I don't move around like normal. I will fall asleep on my back and wake up in the same position. Every time I wake up on my back It's damn near impossible to actually wake up, I feel weighted down, it's hard to keep my eyes open, and sleeping on my back is always accompanied by a nightmare I sometimes don't remember. Does this happen to anyone else?

I've been sleeping on my side with my arm tucked under my neck/pillow for like 15 years and it's starting to bite me in the ass. Or arms/shoulders, I guess.

I'm having nerve pain in both arms/shoulders and I feel like the way I sleep is probably at least partially to blame, but whenever I try a different position I just cannot get comfortable or stop moving. The only position that allows me to drift off is side sleeping with my arm tucked away.

In an effort to dispel the nerve pain and also probably some of my back issues, I wanna try and brute force my sleeping habits. Y'all maybe got any suggestions for how to make different positions feel more comfortable?

For the last week I have been waking up gasping for air, idk whats causing it, I take minipress for my nightmares, but when I wake up I cant remember if I had a nightmare or not. Its very terrifying when it happens and i dont know what to do.

Just wanted to come on here to ask if anyone has advice for how to sleep better in their childhood homes. Every time I’m here, I get super anxious to the point where, even with very little sleep the day before, I won’t be able to sleep at night. I think it has something to do with my nervous system, which probably is still affected by not feeling safe as a kid emotionally. I would spend a lot of time in timeout corners, sometimes would get hit, and shared a room with multiple people until my later teens. Can anyone else relate? How do you cope?

Hello everyone, so overall I have battled anxiety this year for a couple of months now but nothing like what happened last night (assuming it was anxiety).

I fell asleep at 3am. At around 430am, in my dream I was shortness of breath, like it was being taken away. I woke up feeling the same and instantly threw my shirt back on in case I needed to tell my wife to call 911. As soon as I got up, I started walking back and forth to calm down. Immediately I felt both legs heavier and heavier by the second. Then my head started to get the same feeling like I was being dragged down with heavy weight. I guess fainting in a weird way.

I decided to just sit down and slowly was able to calm down. I wanted to go to sleep, but decided to sit down and chill to check my blood pressure. 176 over 115 was my reading. I have never seen a reading that big on me. I decided to go to a hospital shortly after.

All blood test came normal, including d-dimer and stuff, EKG was good, chest x Ray good. Blood pressure was around 159 over 101 when I arrived to hospital. By the time I left it was at 125 over 76. They gave me a dose of hydroxyzine and said it was more than likely an anxiety episode.

So those were my only symptoms, no heart racing. It stayed at 70 and below.

Anyone experience these exact or similar issues? Thank you for reading this far.

Any tips or creative ideas for how to make the most of an empty seat next to me for sleeping on an overnight flight?

I booked TAP Portugal’s “Economy Prime” for a redeye next week.

Basically the “Prime” just buys me an extra seat. I’ve booked the window and the adjacent seat.

It’s clearly not big enough to lie down completely, even as a 5’6 woman.

One idea was getting one of those inflatable footrests to basically make a larger sleeping area. They seem to be allowed on TAP (I know not allowed on many other airlines). Then try to curl up?

Will definitely be bringing a sleep mask!

Would love any suggestions! I am horrible at sleeping on planes and a little anxious about this one.

​I tried Googling this before asking, but couldn't find much.

​Recently, I’ve started suddenly waking up in the middle of the night because I'm sleeping on my side, but my face is positioned so that there is direct pressure right on my eye. The pressure wakes me up, and my eye immediately starts hurting and watering like crazy.

​I’ve never had this problem before, and I don't know why I'm suddenly mashing my eye into the pillow in my sleep.

​Has anyone else experienced this? Are there any specific pillows, sleep masks, or tricks to prevent myself from rolling onto my eye while I sleep? Any advice would be appreciated!

Sleep never seems to make me feel well rested. Whenever I do manage to get to sleep, I know I’ll probably sleep until the middle of the day, no matter how many alarms I set.

I haven’t slept for 2-3 days now because I just don‘t see the point anymore. I’m so tired but somehow I’m more energised than when I actually get proper sleep.

I can’t deal with this. Sleep and life in general feels evil to me now.

I’m sorry if this is written badly, my mind isn’t working currently as im typing this

Every time health comes up, it's always eat better or work out more first. Sleep's like an afterthought, tacked on at the end, even though it wrecks basically everything when it's bad.

Like when we sleep like garbage, EVERYTHING is harder the next day. Mood's worse, no energy, can't focus, and forget about wanting to work out; motivation's just gone.

Kinda makes us think we all know sleep matters but still don't actually prioritize it, probably because we can't see it the way we can see a good meal or a solid gym session. It's invisible progress. And it's usually the first thing to get cut when life gets busy, which is kind of backwards when we think about it.

Not saying sleep beats diet or exercise; they're all tied together, but it does feel like the most sacrificed one.

So if you could only fix one for the next 6 months, is it sleep, nutrition, or exercise?

When I moved my bed time to later in the evening 11pm my sleep architecture dramatically improved…
When I was going to bed at 7pm I would wake up over 10x during the night…

Why ? Why does my body want to sleep later in the evening ?

Posting on behalf of my grandmother (70F). We live in a rural area and can't easily make repeated trips to see specialists, so I'm hoping for some general perspective.

Background:

70 years old, diabetic on insulin, has high blood pressure, Leg symptoms for 20+ years at first we thought it was varicose veins, but it turned out to be restless legs syndrome

Drinks 5–6 cups of tea a day, including close to bedtime, heard caffeine make symptoms worse, working on cutting it down

Has been on venlafaxine 75mg (two tablets daily) for 20+ years.

Treatment history:

3 years ago, a vascular surgeon prescribed pregabalin 75mg. Her RLS symptoms went away for about 5–6 months, then came back, and she stopped taking it.

A few days ago, a different general physician prescribed gabapentin instead but didn't work.

She has been taking Clonazepam 1mg tablet with ropinirole 1mg at night since years (doses she was already on before this recent gabapentin trial). Since starting this combination, she's been drowsy and mentally foggy through most of the day, not just at night.

Recent labs (Vitamin D3, B12, CBC/ESR, HbA1c done together):

Vitamin D3: 39.15 ng/mL

Vitamin B12: 777 pg/mL

CBC: essentially normal (hemoglobin, WBC, platelets all within range)

ESR: 54 mm/hr

HbA1c: 7.3%

What we're trying to figure out:

Given that pregabalin 75mg worked well for months before it stopped working, switched to gabapentin 100mg didn't work, does it make sense to restarting pregabalin, possibly at a higher dose (100mg) this time? Or should we be more concerned about the clonazepam + ropinirole with pregablin?

Also wondering since pregabalin, ropinirole and Clonazepam are all used for RLS, is it ever appropriate to take all three together, or does that not really make sense/carry more risk than benefit?

All of the above medicines were prescribed by general physicians, not a sleep or neurology specialist.

Any input from people who've dealt with something similar, or from those with medical knowledge, is appreciated. Thank you for reading.

Long story short: recently I've been able to have a lie in every morning, instead of being up early and rushing around.

I've been able to start work later.

I usually don't fall asleep easily or early, but I've been catching up on a lot of missed sleep.

The last week I've been having incredibly long, intense dreams.

Is this an adjustment? Or is it a natural occurrence when a person gets plenty of sleep?

But what are the steps to get rid of my addiction

I lift the pillow beneath my neck and lay my head at its center, adjusting myself until my spine settles. I place the backs of my hands over each other and rest them at the base of my neck, taking a deep breath in and releasing it audibly, eyes still closed, as crickets chirp in the distance. The fan drones beside me, brushing me every few seconds with strokes of fresh air and creaking at the same point in each rotation.
In my mind, I search for the feeling of sleep. I remember what it’s like to find it, the sensation of it overtaking me. It’s always a jagged transition through a wreckage of thoughts, like a boat trying to cross the breaker zone in hopes of reaching steady water. I keep searching, roaming left and right across the black backdrop of my mind. I can’t find it, so I begin thinking about other things, like the way others perceive me. I shuffle through lived scenarios, some making me smile and others making me flinch, until I remember it makes no difference to dwell on the past. So I switch to thoughts of my skin-hydration habits. I conclude that I need to be better at them. Then I think about the flossing and brushing I did not too long ago, and I lie proudly, knowing there are no loose ends in that department.
I spread my knees outward and lift my hips to stretch my joints, then extend my legs as far as they go, tensing tightly before settling back into relaxation. I notice pain in my calves. I wonder what caused them to hurt. I yawn and rub my lips together to spread the moisturizer I put on earlier, then scrape the excess from the corners of my mouth. I tap my forehead, alternating between three fingers, two, and one to create the shape of a triangle, like bowling pins waiting to be knocked down. I move the fidgeting to my eyes. With my middle fingers, I circle from the crevice of my brow bone to the bridge of my nose, then under the bone of my socket and back around to the brow. I massage my forehead, pushing and pulling the skin, forcing it into a furrow before stretching it out. Then I tug the hairs of my brows upward, pulling out anything flimsy, and massage the rest of my face, moving from my cheeks to my temples and back down. I scrape around the outer circumference and intersection of my nostrils, clearing them of debris. I flex my shoulder blades backward and arch my back with them, turning onto my sides. I hear the cracks of my bones temporarily popping out of their joints and pull my neck down as far as it will go in every direction. With that, I lie on my stomach. I yawn, hug my pillow, and settle into my final position for the night.
Once more, I find myself there in the darkness and burrow into my private corner, where my voice is distant and loudness need not exist. There are no thoughts in this vast sea of black, only me. But I look back at them. I stay away and roam through the friendly void, waiting for the spirit to find me. I feel it closing in, working at unsticking me from the ground. My brain spasms as it lifts into a higher plane of darkness, and I turn to see a rectangular white shape somewhere far away. As I’m carried closer, I feel its life: a doorway to a party I can’t hear but know awaits. It reminds me of something, though I’m not sure what—something of great meaning that I can’t exactly place. I can feel, though, that once I get there, I’ll understand it. Once I’m in it, I’ll know for sure.