Sleepless Nights?

Soo....

Anyone else have sleepless nights?

I don't think it's caused by DID, but, since I've become more aware, it's as if my insomnia nights have tripled. I think this is the fifth time in three weeks or so where I won't be getting ANY sleep at all. Normally, I'll get two to four hours during my insomnia periods; now I'll be lucky to get ANY sleep. And I'm not 'manic' in the least. Heck, I'd give my right arm to feel like I had energy today! I just can't sleep. Unusually, it also seems to happen on Mondays; you know, the crappiest day of the week, lol!

Anywho, just wondering if anyone else experienced this as they were delving deeper into themselves. And I'm ranting, just a little.

I know I do, or at least, when I try to sleep it either takes me forever to get to sleep or I wake up a lot during the night. For me the insomnia periods increase when I'm under stress, especially if an alter is under stress. If an alter of mine stays up thinking about something or talking to another alter about something, I might be able to get to sleep but I'll wake up almost every half hour during the night. If an alter is upset, like if my little is being fussy or has a nightmare, I'll probably get no sleep. If it's mainly myself that's under stress, then I'll usually be able to sleep, but not until like 4 or 5am. So no, you're definitely not alone in this situation. It's like since I've become more aware of my alters, their voices and feelings are much clearer, so it's harder for me to block them out to be able to either not hear their voices or to not feel what they're feeling in order to be calm enough to sleep.

tomboy24 wrote:I know I do, or at least, when I try to sleep it either takes me forever to get to sleep or I wake up a lot during the night. For me the insomnia periods increase when I'm under stress, especially if an alter is under stress. If an alter of mine stays up thinking about something or talking to another alter about something, I might be able to get to sleep but I'll wake up almost every half hour during the night. If an alter is upset, like if my little is being fussy or has a nightmare, I'll probably get no sleep. If it's mainly myself that's under stress, then I'll usually be able to sleep, but not until like 4 or 5am. So no, you're definitely not alone in this situation. It's like since I've become more aware of my alters, their voices and feelings are much clearer, so it's harder for me to block them out to be able to either not hear their voices or to not feel what they're feeling in order to be calm enough to sleep.

Normally I will be kept awake for awhile 'daydreaming' at night or listening to someone ramble on. They aren't very clear yet, still a lot of 'white noise', but I'll catch odd sentences and weird remarks every so often. Usually, that will keep me awake. Tonight, though, they are pretty quiet. I do feel on edge and a little stressed (extended family problems...bleh), but I didn't think it would be enough stress to keep me awake. These aren't new problems.

I do know, however, that Eve can't wait to see our new T this week, and I am feeling anxious. Perhaps it's her anticipation that's keeping me up this time.

I have a question for you about your Little's nightmares. Do you experience their nightmares, or do they wake up and tell you about them? I'm having an issue with dreams right now that SHOULD be nightmares to me, but I feel no fear until someone else 'wakes' and starts freaking out.

Try asking them to give you some rest/quietness?

I know that helped me. I could still "hear" everybody in the background, but I was able to shut it out and "black out" into sleep.

Owly has a lot of trouble sleeping at night, and I know that has to do with us talking. I have been lately, but that's more related to some current internal worries than anything usual. There's almost always someone awake. Snow is often up late at night doing "guard duty" so to speak and sometimes one of us will wake up with her at the computer, or doing some menial cleaning task such as cleaning the refrigerator. The T suggested that we make an agreement where those who are awake must either be quiet or wait until the majority are awake to make noise. Owly was unaware of the nocturnal risings for a long time, so perhaps that's what happening to you and causing you to be so tired?

My lack of sleep is definitely caused by me having DID. I simply often don't want to go sleep because I cannot know when I'll be back, sunday? monday? next week?! Sometimes my body is so tired that I simply don't care and can't handle anymore! so I just go to sleep

I realize that insomnia can be a burden but do you just don't get tired? But I understand that hearing some guys in your head can be annoying

My lack of sleep is due to the fact that I tend to force myself to stay up. I don't know why I do this. Sometimes I manage to go to bed earlier, but after a couple of nights it makes me more energetic and then I just start postponing my bedtime.

By the way, I found a nice page with beautiful ambient music on the theme of sleeplessness.
http://if-youcantsleep.tumblr.com/post/3673981819

Edit: there's many kinds of music there, it's really very soothing

LinaeveWorkman wrote:I have a question for you about your Little's nightmares. Do you experience their nightmares, or do they wake up and tell you about them? I'm having an issue with dreams right now that SHOULD be nightmares to me, but I feel no fear until someone else 'wakes' and starts freaking out.

*possible trigger, talk of nightmares/flashbacks*

It depends. Often, all of us share the same dreams. Which can be very traumatizing. Older alters and myself can have nightmares of being raped. Unfortunately, sometimes, my little Cassie can have the same dream. It doesn't seem to be as clear to her, all she'll remember is a boy was doing things that hurt her, so thankfully she doesn't remember details/exactly what happened in the dream. But it'll still scare her a lot, and I wish there was a way for her to not have those types of dreams. Likewise, when Cassie has a nightmare, we all usually experience it. She usually has nightmares about dad being drunk or mom dying. The nightmare won't be as clear to me, but I'll still wake up sharing her fear and often crying because she's crying.

Other times, we'll have different dreams. Cassie will have a nightmare and I'll wake up, but not know why I'm awake until she comes crying to me. Or Kat will have a dream and I'll wake up from a dreamless sleep, my brain trying to make sense of the dream I didn't even have and I'll wonder why I'm thinking so hard and why I'm awake.

What I've noticed makes a difference in if we have different dreams or the same dream, is how we're all sleeping. If an alter is awake or having trouble sleeping because they're thinking about something, then we'll usually have different dreams. If we're all tired and all asleep, we'll have the same dream. It doesn't always happen that way, but 9 times out of 10 it does.

hmmm I have the problem of waking up over and over and over. Or only being half asleep with random thoughts going through my head, that I don't really feel in total control of. Then one thought will "wake me up" and I'll not be able to remember the thoughts before that. Like last night I went to bed and was half asleep for what felt like hours, but only 20 minutes had passed. Then I wake up like every hour after that. It takes a lot of discipline to force myself to stay in bed and to just keep on going back to sleep. A lot of times I get so sick of waking up that I just get up even though I've only had like 4 hours. Last night I forced myself to stay in bed until 8. That was HUGE for me!!! Now I don't really remember how many times I forced myself to go back to sleep, but I'm pretty sure it was like at least 10 times.