[AnnaN]

So glad to find this forum. New here – going on 2 months of nightly issues. I am not even comfortable yet saying it is in fact insomnia because it just feels like there is something horribly wrong. And I guess that is what brings me here, to understand if what I am experiencing is unique to me, whether others also have odd symptoms, and what to do about it!

It started for me one night early in January – I awoke, heart racing, from a dream – thought I needed to go to the ER for heart related issues. Fast forward a week later happened again. Not nightmares, just waking up mid-dream. Since then, it is a constant battle – seemingly waking up every time I am dreaming, which means multiple times every night (like every hour and sometimes more, especially in the early morning hours, always mid dream. It feels like I just can’t get through a REM cycle without waking up. I also can’t fall asleep, at all, even though I am super tired. My doc prescribed Klonopin about a month ago and it has helped get me to sleep but hasn’t stopped the waking up. And, in the wee early hours of lighter sleep, I sometimes feel as if I am between sleep/dream – hallucinating/dream – sometimes hard to tell which!

Anyone else experienced something similar? Anyone have any tips? I do all the right things – sleep hygiene, no caffeine, etc, etc. I feel like my body got shocked by that first awakening and conditioned itself to wake up mid-dream.

[Chee2308]

Hello Anna!
It is very very normal to have multiple awakenings in a night. Even normal sleepers have it, in fact it’d be abnormal to not wake up during the night at all, otherwise you’d be in a coma! X isn’t the problem, your reaction to X is! You have simply conditioned your mind to perceive waking up during the night and dreaming as a threat, that something’s wrong and needs to be “fixed” when they are a normal occurrence and nothing to fix at all. You become hyperaroused when this happens, and confusion between asleep and awake states often occurs when you have hyperarousal and sleep drive happening at the same time. It is kinda like driving a car with the emergency brakes on. For normal sleepers who are not hyperaroused, they typically wake up then fall back asleep right away, frequently forgetting they even woke. Try to accept these awakenings as much you can, realise it’s not abnormal and in fact very common, especially in the early mornings when REM sleep is more prevalent. Deep sleep tend to occur early during the night when your sleep drive is very strong then progresses to lighter and REM sleep towards early morning, where dreams and awakenings become more pronounced. Another reason for this is you could be going through menopause or are pregnant or just given birth as hormonal changes during these periods affect sleep too. Otherwise, what you are going through is normal and not reacting vigorously to them will give you the best chance of reverting to normal restful sleep again. Good luck!

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