HGG Community Forums

@Bambi207 I completely understand! I'm so sorry :(( The best sleep I've gotten is on sleeping gas (Who didn't have the best sleep on that haha), and I've considered OTC sleep meds but theres family complications with addiction and etc. so I'd rather stay away from then until it's a last resort.
I love watching The Office as a late night relaxing show, or I'll just lay and listen to music, it's the most relaxing thing to me but I guess not relaxing enough to sleep.

I'm the exact same! Im such a night owl that my family calls me vampire and they make jokes about it all the time. :)) Although getting on and off the "schedule" is something for me. I can be up for the night and the whole day and SOMEHOW still be up for the next whole night! But getting back into sleeping at night is another story...it takes me a good WEEK to get back into it. Sadly only to get back out of it the next night or two...huh.

Although when I did sleep, everything was somehow paradise whether it be a dream or nightmare.
I remember when I was really little (like 5-7) that I went through multiple dreams/ nightmares every night. A good 50+ or so I know for sure cause this lasted for years. And it wasn't really different dreams every time, most were the same like the night before, although a few new dreams or nightmares popped up every now and then. The two I remember the most are these...

I wake up sitting in a wooden chair, in a small one room log cabin with a little hallway in front of me. Its completely dark except for the light coming from the doors edges at the end of the hallway on the left at the very end. I suddenly see two shadows, a boy on the left and and girl on the right. Their standing at the edges of the hallway looking at me. But, I'm not scared. I'm curious. They then both point to the end of the hallway in synchronization. I calmly get up and walk to the end of the hallway and stop. They followed right by me and stopped as well. I then start looking back and forth between the two a couple of times before they open the door. Outside, the sky. A pretty bright blue sky with white fluffy clouds and some decent wind is blowing. I look back and forth between them once more before leaning out to take a look at the ground. I'm no expert on how high I was but I could barely see the ground so maybe 20,000 feet? Maybe more...idk. But, I'm looking down and then all of a sudden the two push me out. I've never been skydiving nor in any aircraft. (I still haven't to this day) But I could physically feel my heart drop into the pit of my stomach and the wind blowing on me. I could FEEL myself falling. I fall for a good 30 seconds thinking I might fall all the way and hit the ground up until I just black out and go into the next dream. But, this one time which only happened once, it lasted for a minute. After the 30 seconds passed and I thought I might hit the ground again I managed to turn around and look back up at the tiny house. The two were just staring. Nothing but that. I turned back around and fell through a cloud (let me tell you it felt amazing! Nothing like I've ever felt before still to this day.) and came out the other side of it with a view of the ground once again. But for some reason I remember that I don't remember this and wish it to continue to the last moment only because a dream or nightmare makes me feel free and complete. It didn't sadly and I went into the next dream.

The next I actually got woken up by my dad cause I was screaming in my sleep. Which has only ever happened once in my life. It's weird. So I have arachnophobia, a fear of spiders. This nightmare has only happened once so its pretty bizarre I remember it so well. Well, I was at my house for the first and last time in the daytime. My two dogs (outside) we used to have were out back on separate leashes that were on a really strong wire (because they always broke them somehow...surprisingly) that ran between the two big strong trees they both had. And we had a common wire fence surrounding our house. And behind it was lots of vegetation and big bushes and trees. I woke up I guess? Well, I was standing their on my porch watching them play, when all of a sudden I see a blanket of something as far as the eye could see approaching us. It got to us in a few seconds and I realized it was nothing but spiders. Big and small and maybe possibly every species. They got to my dogs and my dogs just fell like cardboard and were stiff like statues. Because they WERE cardboard. The spiders just went over them in a second. I then tried to move but I couldn't moved, I tried so hard but to no avail. They reached me in a couple more seconds and I fell on my back. They then covered me completely in webs until it went pitch black. Its then that my dad manages to wake me up and ask me what happened. I also got my mom's attention...she was in the kitchen which was on the other side of the house past our living room, bathroom, and hallway. Other than my dad who was sleeping in their bedroom right next to mine. Just gives you an idea that I really screamed. This was the only dream that actually even scared me. No other dream has done so.

I'm actually sad that I don't have those dreams and nightmares anymore as I miss the freedom the gave me. But I do get a dream or nightmare every 6 or so months. The last one was weird.

I woke up in a world that was dark, it's only real colors where pink and purple. I realized then that I was on a bike with a dude and we where driving down a road at full speed. Apparently I knew the dude and started a conversation that had something to do with something that happened previously before I "got there". Then out of the blue some people came out from the side of a building we were passing by. They were fast, I'm talking could be right there on your tail. But we had a bike that was faster so they couldn't catch up. But they weren't people, they were...zombies? But, they were very different. They wore completely black, um green screen suits? And they had white emotionless masks. They all for some reason had purple knives with black grips. Out of nowhere our bike flipped us and we went flying onto the ground. I somehow instantly get up as well as the dude, we both see a pubilc bus and make a mad dash for it. Hes gets there first and I'm right behind him. We try closing the door but the things were right behind us as well. He try's to hit them out but they pull him out onto the street. I followed to try to get him but I'm soon surrounded myself. They push me down to the ground...then all of a sudden they just run over to him. I thought he was going to be eaten. But, they were playing with him...teasing him. They kept grabbing and letting go of him and pushing him down if he got up. They also kept slashing their knives in the air...and were growing as well? They did this for 20 seconds or so until they finally dived for him and started tearing into him like zombies. Meanwhile I'm motionless and not able to move. It then goes black and I actually wake up. As weird and really bizarre as it was I really wanted it to continue and was upset I woke up from it. I'm actually hoping I get another dream or nightmare this month. I do miss them, there so freeing for some really weird reason.

But maybe its because I just can't seem to sleep at night anymore, lol. Sleeping at night is just really hard to do for some reason. I wish it wasn't as it would make my life easier. But eh, one day that might change whi knows.

I'm not an expert, but studies have shown that looking at a screen stimulates the brain and stops you going to sleep. I think you are supposed to stop watching TV/computer screens etc for at least half an hour before going to bed. Gentle exercise (like a walk) is also supposed to help and, surprisingly for an old wives' tale, warm milk apparently helps just before bedtime.

I have suffered for over a decade now with hot flushes, at least three a night, which wake me up. Mostly I can get back to sleep once they have passed, but sometimes it can take a while. I use different strategies to get off again: working out number patterns such as square numbers or cubes (I'm really bad at mental arithmetic), word groups such as what one word could go before flower, screen, spot and shine (the answer is sun), and my latest project is seeing if I can name all 50 of the United States of America (as I am not American I never learned them) and this usually works pretty well, although I now know all of them so I'll probably have to think of something new.

Not being able to sleep is very debilitating so I hope you all find something that helps soon.

I have been insomniac for as long as I can remember. I have tried it all ... Then after my two oldest were in the accident where I almost lost both of them and then we had some border issues with my husband (thanks Canadian border guard for that ... ) we just throw on a little PTSD just to smooth the edges out. Then my thyroid started to go ... and that led to huge amounts of all sorts of weird crap ... (I should have seen a doc long before I did, but our wait times are months for an appointment unless you want to sit in walk in for five to six hours ) I just gave up sleeping.

I have noticed that now with my new job my stress is way down (went from a Educational Assistant in a public school to working in a Liquor Store) way more active now and I tend to be way more tired. I also, and its weird, got my dogs ... if I'm in bed cuddled up with them I tend to fall asleep faster ... but staying asleep is the issue now. I have a few movies that I think I've trained myself to sleep too, so as soon as I put them on I am out like a light.

As for dreams I have one weird one, that I have had for years ... and I should really one of these days write it down as it would make a hell of a survival novel. Long before the Walking Dead was introduced I had a dream where some pathogen was release and it plays out from discovery to collecting of my family and setting up my house for the oncoming onslaught. And yes i remember a good portion of it. Am I crazy ... probably ... my husband seems to think its a cute aspect, my craziness, says that why he loves me.

As for the other one ... I'm driving down a familiar highway in a black car, when I head on with a black rig. Sometimes I avoid the rig, sometimes I wake up before I hit. Thing is I drive that highway at least four times a week for the last 20+years. I know the spot where the collision happens ... and I've own three black vehicles in those 20 years that I've been driving it. I've never been in a head on accident ... one roll over 30+ years ago and a few ditch slides, nothing serious.

Its kinda interesting how our brains work to download and process the information that we intake on a daily basis.

@White Valley I've definitely tried ro cut back on screen time but it never helped so I figured if I'll be up I might as well do something that is productive rather then staring at the ceiling :))

@Sharayah I'm so glad you found something that works! If it continues to stay so bad I might go get checked out

@Wolvevenfrost It was interesting to read thanks for sharing!!

(Edit: I finally fell asleep at 4am! thankfully I only work at 2pm today)

@PersianPenName I usually do that every night, for some reason I can take naps throughout the day, just short cat naps and I think that's why I still function like a normal human being.

@Bambi207 I do that so much! I recently went through my barns and changed up their colors on the tack and boots :)) It's fun

@Bambi207 I change much more often since my herd isn't that big. I like to change it up but I find the more time I spend changing tack the less time I spend buying pretty ponies I don't necessarily need haha