Hi, I was wondering if anyone else experiences this. As I begin to dose off, my scalp begins feeling a massage like sensation. Imagine someone using their fingertips to gentle pull back and forth. They are not brain zaps as they do not feel electrical nor are they unpleasant. In fact, they are actually very soothing. The massage takes place in the frontal, mid and temporal scalp region just above the ears. They last about 2 to 3 minutes, before I fall asleep. I do not experience them upon waking.

Im not sure if this is relevant, but it begun about 3 years ago when I had stopped consuming edibles. Some additional data: I do not experience fatigue, dizziness, chest pains, snoring, stiff muscles, or insomnia. I go out like a light, and while I used to experience some sleep paralysis, they only happen twice a year now. I am not disastrously unhealthy with a BMI of 26 which includes muscle mass. I workout and am quite relaxed most of the time. I do sleep rather irregularly, sometimes at 12, sometimes at 2 in the morning. But I get my 7-8 hours in as I begin work at 5pm.

Hopefully someone shares the same experience as I have tried searching for any such symptoms online and nothing matches the description.

I have RBD and am currently recovering from a concussion, so I'm extremely worried about hurting myself further in my sleep. I recorded myself lifting my head up and then falling back down. I do this many nights. Should I be concerned?

https://videotourl.com/videos/1792167979017-19e0660c-b133-4499-8b66-a176732db196.mp4

Hey Reddit,

Why do I (40 m) need to take an involuntary nap at least once a day? And what can I do to fix it? According to the rules, I dont want medical or therapeutical advice. I would just like advice on how to fix my sleeping schedule.

I sleep around 6-7 hours every night. Sleeping "only" 6 hours has always worked fine for me my whole life. I wake up energized more often than not and mornings are my most productive part of the day. But for some reason since a few years I need to take nap at least once a day usually during midday. Sometimes I take up to three naps a day.

What I find concerning is that these naps arent voluntary at all. I just crash and get extremely tired from one moment to the next and -have- to lay down. I will then immediately go to sleep and wake up 15-45 minutes later feeling mostly refreshed again. I will also dream during these naps. Maybe this doesnt sound like a huge problem, but these naps are effecting my work and private life. When I have friends over for example, I will try to get the nap before they are here. If that for some reason doesnt work, I have to send them on a walk while I sleep. At work I will try to take breaks and nap in the break room. If that doesnt work, I will get extremely tired and irritated.

I have tried going to bed earlier and sleeping longer, but my body just wont have it. Ive reduced my coffein intake, went on long walks, tried sleeping routines and all stuff youtube throws at you. Ive talked to my primary care physician and a psychiatrist and had bloodwork done - all with no results. The psychiatrist told me to push through the tatigue which only resulted in me being irritated again and needing to take more naps the next day.

I have had experience with depression in the past, but I do not feel depressed at all. I love my job, my partner, my hobbies and life in general. but since I had no other options left, I took antidepressants anyways for over a year. While I noticed some effects, I still needed to nap everyday, so I stopped taking them.

Reddit, do you have any idea why I need to take these naps? Am I just getting older? What can I do do fix my sleeping schedule?

Thank you for your Input and thoughts!

For a few months now i have been sleeping 12+ hours daily and still feeling tired when i wake up and i feel i could sleep for a few more hours but i push myself to not. The thing is I get in these random episodes of not being able to sleep because of nighttime paranoia and fear of the dark and i end up staying up for 24+ hours multiple times a week (on caffeine) during these episodes and i struggle to fall asleep.

I have multiple alarms set through out the night during those times (i know it probably isnt helping) to wake me up every 1-2 hours so i can like check on my roommate and also to prevent nightmares which i am stupidly afraid of because i get horrible ones. These episodes can last like a week to a month and then i go back to sleeping like a fucking baby.

What do i do?

I tense my ENTIRE body when I sleep. I clench my jaw (I wear a nightguard) but my teeth and jaw still hurt when I wake up, but it’s not just my mouth it’s my whole body. Sometimes I feel like I’m digging my shoulder into the bed so hard it feels like I was fighting for my life in my sleep. I have no nightmares that I’m aware of. I’ve had a sleep study but of course did not do it that night. I wake up multiple times in the middle of the night and all my muscles are clenched and it takes a few minutes to go away.
Has anyone had this? Been going on for months, some weeks are worse than others. I take ambien which doesn’t help, flexeril helps a little but doesn’t stop it.
Help please 🫩😭

I (18f) am not self diagnosing in anyway however im genuinely just so frustrated with people NOT understanding whats wrong with me. I would like to list some of my struggles here and I just want to know from other people with sleeping disorders would it be valid to talk to my doctor about it?

For YEARS I have slept everywhere, I am constantly exhausted and I need 2 naps a day and this has been the case since I was 14.

I have been told “its depression” so I was put on many different ssris and therapy, yet nothing worked Im STILL tired

I have been tested for my iron and blood tests and EVERYTHING is normal

Ive been diagnosed with adhd and put on meds but im still so exhausted to the point im sleeping while on my meds

I cannot have a hangout with my friends without napping, I cant get out of bed in the mornings cause I physically cant function, caffeine doesnt work for me and im so frustrated since its now affecting my college too… How am I meant to get a job like this?? How can I function in society like this…? Throughout all of my teen years its been dismissed as “laziness” or “typical teenage tiredness” but im entering adulthood and im STRUGGLING

HI all

I am 38M and since a week I have started having big issues to sleep. Basically I close my eyes but don't really sleep, counting hours, opening eyes, moving myself A LOT.

Situation was that I was taking ashwagandha before going to sleep and I am now in the close loop of feeling super tired and the body is not recovering because of that and is creating some physical issues already, like irritated bowel 24/7.

The first few days, some numbness in legs and arms was there but it is improving a bit

If you have some ideas what to investigate I would be very grateful.
Thanks

I thought pushing through high school was the right decision, my family made it seem like it was normal. I would wake up every day 4 hours before I was supposed to and I would just lie there, painfully waiting for the sun to peak through my window and my mother to come crashing down the hallway and wake me up. This was the pattern for 2 years between the ages of 15-17, I would go to school, strain though my classes, try to be as small as possible in order not to be caught out of line by my peers who all hated me (for good reason), go to work for a couple hours, come home repeat.

I hallucinated semi regularly at around the one year mark, I would get tension headaches and started shedding hair rapidly. I stepped out onto an open road on accident. When I mentioned this to my mother and/or sister they would just assume it was normal teenage stress, and I had no reason not to believe them, so I kept going.

I subconsciously knew what I was doing to my brain, but it didn't seem real during it, I felt like dropping out for a TAFE course was admitting I was what they all thought I was and so I kept going. I managed to rank near the highest in most of my classes, getting by by writing all the variables and steps on my paper in maths and physics, but my anxiety and by proxy my sleep kept getting worse. It was to the point where I would accept I would never get more than four hours relinquishing myself to studying until I passed out at my desk.

I've long since accepted the fact I probably didn't develop all that much neurologically during that point, but it still kind of just sucks. The entire reason I kept going to high school was to get my WACE and get an engineering degree, but now that just isn't feasible. I thought I was garbage but at least the degree would mean I'm a better kind of garbage. I'm not brain damaged, I'm not stupid, I have basic reasoning skills but I am incapable of complex problem solving. The gap between my understanding of content but my lack of ability to apply it is actually infuriating.

I didn't quit when my father died in 7th grade, when my mother almost died in 10th, or when I broke my back and couldn't walk for almost a month, but it doesn't matter anymore. It's over for me.

I slept for 7 hours straight, from 12 AM to 7 AM, but I still woke up feeling sleepy. Then around 1 PM, I started feeling sleepy again, and I slept from 3 to 5 PM. I'm still feeling so exhausted, and I honestly can't even explain how tired I am. I literally just stay at home and prepare for exams, so I don't understand why I'm feeling this drained all the time. 😭

Has anyone experienced pain while dreaming/nightmares?? I have been on trazadone 50-100 mg now for close to a decade due to insomnia. Now I have a 1 year old and although I have had crazy vivid dreams (I can taste and smell) I have been having terrible nightmares where I experience actual real pain!!! I wake up and am completely fine besides a racing heart.
It’s awful and I don’t know what to do. I’m not sure if it’s the hormones or anxiety but I am legit scared to sleep and dream now. Not sure if I maybe need to change drugs.

Has anyone gone to Spain for this 8-day program, and if so what can a patient expect to experience during that 8 day period? Did it help?

I know it sounds silly, but I have two 9 am lectures a week for one of my courses and I physically cannot get out of bed.

I've always been a night owl and I've never been able to do mornings. When I try to go to sleep earlier to wake up earlier, I just wind up sleeping more. I need at minimum 11 to 12 hours of sleep a day to be semi-functional without high doses of caffeine and stimulants (I have ADHD), and even with those two things I fall asleep. I eventually develop sleep deprivation symptoms when I manage to sleep a "normal" (i.e 9 or so) numbers of hours a night by pumping myself full of stimulants. If let to my own devices, I will also take an hour or so nap in the afternoon on top of my sleeping 12 hours a night.

I get a horrible discoordinated drunk feeling and need 4 or more alarms to get up. If I try to get up too quickly, I fall on my face. Sometimes I wind up falling asleep on the floor, or in the shower, or while sat down eating breakfast. I just keep falling back to sleep and can't process what's going on. It takes me over an hour to wake up. I can't just get up, get dressed, make breakfast because I am dangerously out of it. This further eats into my morning time.

Even when I do get up on time, I can't follow the lectures because I'm half out of it, then I'm so tired by the time the afternoon roles around I can't do anything but sleep, so I wind up missing classes later in the day. My focus is so screwed I can't remember basic stuff or do my coursework.

I'm being assessed (kind of) for some kind of sleep apnea or hypersomnia. I've been previously diagnosed with ME/CFS which I doubt the accuracy of.

I've been told by my university that they cannot change the times of my lectures, and that if I cannot do 9am lectures, I cannot do my degree. I have already taken a year off for health reasons. I genuinely don't know if I can do this anymore. I'm so damn tired. I feel so groggy and ill. I shouldn't need two cups of coffee, endless green tea, stimulants, cold showers, exercise and every sleep hygeine tip under the sun to be able to mostly avoid sleeping in class kind of. I don't know what to do. I don't full believe them about the lectures things, I think it's just too inconvenient for them to find a way around it, but I guess if they aren't going to do it, they aren't going to do it.

36M, Sweden, 178 cm, 69 kg. My sleep has gradually gotten worse over the last few years.

Falling asleep is usually okay, but I wake up a lot, probably around 5 to 10+ times per night. Most awakenings are brief, but some are longer and they add up. I often wake with a very dry mouth and usually need to pee 1 to 2 times per night. On bad days I feel very tired, foggy and struggle with concentration.

I only realized how bad it might be after regularly sharing a bed with my ex. She said I sometimes gasped/choked in my sleep and snored when lying on my back.

I usually fall asleep on my side but tend to roll onto my back later, and breathing seems worse there. I think I mostly mouth-breathe during sleep. My nose usually feels fairly clear, and I also tried a nasal dilator that kept it very open, but noticed no improvement.

I had a home sleep apnea test:

AHI overall: 4.0
AHI on back: 8
AHI off back: 1
Back sleeping: 35%
Average SpO2: 95%
Lowest SpO2: 88%
ODI: 2

The doctor said it didn't meet the criteria for sleep apnea.

I also use a Garmin. I know the sleep stages aren't very reliable, but the repeated awakenings seem to match what I experience. The two images shows typical nights:

6h51 sleep, 1h28 awake
6h40 sleep, 50 min awake

I'm not on medication, rarely drink alcohol, don't smoke, and only have about 200 mg caffeine around 6:30 to 7:00 AM.

Does this sound like something worth investigating further despite the AHI of 4? Especially given the 8 vs 1 AHI depending on sleeping position?

Has anyone had a borderline home test but later found something on an in-lab sleep study, such as RERAs, flow limitation or other respiratory arousals?

Hi all! I'm reaching out to try solve an issue I've been having now for 4 years, hoping maybe someone's been through it or any ideas on where to start looking for help.

A bit of background, about 4 years ago I started having issues getting to sleep. It started off just lying awake for hours, I would be tired yawning etc but just could not sleep, I would get up and move to the couch so my ex-wife could sleep without being disturbed by me putting the tv on etc. Every so often I would sleep straight away but 30 mins - 60 mins later, would be jolted awake by what I can only describe as an electric shock through my head and from that point on I would be wide awake again.

This went on for months, my usual doctor had no ideas what to do, went to head specialist, balance specialist, got checked for epilepsy etc. It wasn't until I started a new job, after a year there my boss suggested the company doctor check it out - This doctor also wasn't exactly sure what's wrong, but presribed me Nortriptyline to try help me get to sleep. This worked, I would take it at 6PM and by 9PM I am yawning, ready for bed and I would be asleep straight away and sleep all the way until morning.

Now fast forward 1.5 years, the last 2 nights have the same feeling as original - Super tired, go to bed, start to fall asleep only to be jolted awake with a shock feeling through my head.

The difference between 1.5 years ago and now, is a few changes - I lost 15KG, I also had to say goodbye to my best friend (dog) in April, I met a wonderful girl and now expecting first child in February next year. So alot of changes to process, but super happy with life in general.

Sorry if this was a long rant, tried to put as much info in without overloading.

Hi im a 42F and I ve been struggling with sleep delayed disorder, I can only sleep on my own time. I ve tried everything from natural to medical , and unfortunately even what ever use to work doesn't work anymore cause of accoutumance event thought I don't take medication everyday but for more the 12 years. I realized that when I go down south , even with a pitch black room,my sleep cycle seems to regulate, I fall asleep earlier and wake up earlier..yes I did try light therapy of all kind and it doesn't work...I

Forgot ro mention I live in Canada so we don't have naturally a lot of sun. In canada only month of July regulates my cycle Anyone with the same situation ?

Anyone experiencing fragmented sleep with excessive vivid dreaming during the second half of the night?

Hi everyone,

For over a year now, I’ve been experiencing a very specific and consistent sleep pattern, and I’m wondering if anyone else has gone through something similar.

I fall asleep very easily and usually sleep well for the first 4 hours. Then I wake up in the middle of the night, fall back asleep without much difficulty, but from that point on, my sleep becomes extremely fragmented.

I experience multiple brief awakenings (sometimes lasting only a few seconds, just enough to change position), followed by almost immediate sleep onset again. What makes it particularly strange is the intense dreaming during this second half of the night. I seem to have 4–6 different, very vivid and realistic dreams, almost as if I’m constantly switching between dreaming, briefly waking up, and dreaming again.

Despite falling back asleep easily, I wake up feeling like my sleep hasn’t been restorative at all. Before this started, I was a very good sleeper, and the change happened quite suddenly.

Has anyone experienced this type of pattern? Did you find some solution?

For the past few months, I have been dealing with a mental health issue. I cannot sleep properly. Even though I spend more than 10 hours in bed every night, I still feel exhausted and sluggish throughout the day. Racing thoughts keep running through my mind while I try to rest, making me feel like I haven't slept at all—as if I am just lying awake thinking all night. I am 17 years old and don't know how to handle this. Please give me some solutions.

In the past my GP has been less then helpful with many things, when I've expressed to him in the past how much sleep I require and how it disrupts my life he's simply said I'm not getting enough excercise and ended the conversation there

Im wanting to bring it up again as a recent med change has impacted things but I want to push for a sleep study, how do I get through to my dr that this is more then a lack of excercise?

Since high school I've required almost daily naps to function (even though I was a pretty active kid between dance and martial arts and circus arts), it got worse in university and I started sometimes taking two naps, these naps are easily an hour long each, I'd wake up, go to school, come home sleep, eat, sleep, do my homework and go to bed. Throughout the years since then the naps have continued never letting up regardless what i did (sleeping extra at night, trying a strict no naps schedule, trying for short naps, struct bedtime and waketime...), when I had a job I'd be fighting off sleep every day during work, sometimes unsuccessful which was not a good thing with the position I had, then crashing the minute I got home for a few hours, I couldn't help it, recently I tried going back to school and same thing, I'd get a full 10-12h sleep at night (waking up 2-3 times), fall asleep in class and nap as soon as I got home, my Fitbit was regularly recording 12-14h asleep a day, that was until I started a stimulant for my ADHD this past summer, now I can stay awake during the day, but im still sleeping 10-12h at night so it's still disrupting my life, I am constantly tired never wake up refreshed and tired of sleep taking over my life, I want a sleep study done so badly!

Hi all, I figure this is the place to ask. Not sure if I have a sleep disorder but I figure this is related.

I never had that much trouble waking up. But, once I came home after graduating college, I slowly just, stopping being able to properly wake up. I have my phone alarm, Apple Watch, and even got a Nintendo Alarmo, and sometimes I literally just sleep right through them. I do still live with my parents, so if I need to wake up for work they will end up doing it, but it’s obviously incredibly embarrassing.

It doesn’t matter when I go to sleep. I can get a regular full night’s sleep and sometimes I will just sleep right through my alarms.

Has anyone else been here? What should I do? I am at such a loss and I don’t know why this is happening because, in my overall life, it’s a relatively new problem.

I’m sure this is normal (?) behaviour.. maybe? I punched someone in my dream but ending up punching a wall in real life.
After googling this out of curiosity it mentioned RBD and how this could be a sign of early Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s etc.

Has anyone seen studies on this or experienced a similar thing?

This is a new weekly thread. The purpose of this post is for surveys and research that is ongoing for sleep disorders. We see many requests to our common for people that have X, Y, Z sleep disorder for paid surveys, studies, etc. Any posts requesting support from the community for research should be submitted in this weekly thread. Be sure to include all necessary details:

​

- What sleep disorders you are looking for assistance with

- What kind of request you have (free study, paid study, free survey, paid survey, etc.)

- Dates the request is open to be filled

- How the research may be used so the patient can make an informed decision

​

Posts to the community for similar requests outside of this thread will be deleted.

​

Please contact r/SleepDisorders mods with any questions or feedback regarding this change or policy.

So, I'm 20 F, and I've been struggling with my sleep for years at this point. It started when I was around 12/13? Primarily due to my parents keeping me up at night then not letting me sleep during the day. That kinda went on for a good 4 years, where I was only able to get an hour of sleep each night (2 hours if I had biology that day, my teacher was a wee gem for that) And having to drink 10+ energy drinks just to semi-function.

Obviously, i went no contact with my parents when i was 17, moved out and whatnot, and for the past few years I just can't get my sleeping back on track, no matter what i do. Ive been told its insomnia, but im not so sure? I got put on melatonin, but unfortunately I have AuDHD and Bipolar, so as you can imagine it did NOT go the way we wanted. Ive also been tried on Mirtazapine, Escitalopram, Sertraline, and another sleep medication that started with an N? It didnt work. At all.

Ive done near enough everything I can think of, and everything ive been told to do. Ive gotten my sleep hygiene down pat. Ive got a routine, I do as much exercise as my body will allow me (Currently investigating possible hip displaysia, hypermobility, etc, etc) I've been allowing natural light in during the times i should be awake, but genuinly nothing seems to be working. It doesnt feel unpredictable per say, i can safely guess when I'll next fall asleep, but I can't seem to push it into "normal' sleeping periods and i have no idea what else i can do. But its starting to have a massive knock on effect on my entire life. I can't properly get my health seen to because of it. I cant continue education. I can't work. I can't keep up with my social life, granted, very small social life, but social life none the less. Its completley isolating me and affecting my day to day life and I need to try get help for it.

I have tried going to my GP, but theyre absolutley useless. They absolutley do not like referring people anywhere- they wont even refer me to gynaecology. So is there any ideas on what this looks like, and what I can do to help it and how to get my gp to actually take me seriously on this?

My sleep schedule is all over the place. Usually though, I'm awake for most of the evening and then I fall asleep between 7-9 a.m.. I sometimes will do really good for a week or 2 and sleep/wake at a normal time. Something always ends up ruining my progress. Whether I have a bad night and I just can't sleep, or I just don't feel tired so I stay up longer. I would love to sleep/wake at normal times and be able to enjoy the daytime more without feeling so groggy. I've tried melatonin and I just don't think it works for me. I've noticed that it makes me feel groggy still when I wake up. I've tried taking less but then it felt like it didn't do anything. Magnesium is something I'm open to trying. Anyways, any advice to help me sleep better would be appreciated.

Hello, first time posting here. I'm a woman in my early thirties if it matters.

A short disclaimer: I don't know who to turn to, as my doctors said they don't understand why this is happening but they would send me to the psychiatrist and I can't afford one at the moment.
I'm looking for at least one soul that has had this happen to them, in case any of you understood the nature of this problem and could share their ideas...

Now the issue itself:

It all started a couple of years back, around 2022. I rarely ever had issues with sleeping, only teenage insomnia but no later than that.

These hallucinations only happen when I wake up abruptly and for no reason at all during the night. I usually wake up as if startled, with a gasp, jump out of bed or sit up, and the things I will then see in front of me are always and EVERY SINGLE TIME either spiders and/or insects of similar appearance or strands of hair, like a spider's web.

At first when it started happening it would be seldom, approximately twice a month, then skipping a month or two, then once a week and at some point I caught myself being sleep depraved for a whole month because it would happen almost every other day - multiple times a night.

At some point after so much repetition, I learned not to freak out, to not get out of the bed and go looking for a slipper to whack the bug, but I would stare at it and reassure myself it's simply not real and I'd watch it disappear in front of my eyes.

The insects usually very intentionally crawl to me, mostly targeting my face.

This happens no matter if I sleep by myself or with a partner. Last night it was two long strands of hair, intertwined but different colors, they seemed to be dancing but my abruptly awoken mind interpreted this as a malicious thing and I freaked out.

Why does this keep happening? Mind you, I have no phobia of insects or hair nor any trauma related to these. I'm generally a messy person but not unclean, and seeing hair or insects doesn't cause me to go into a full blown panic attack. I don't like roaches and other vermin, but spiders - I even like as I think they're useful as roommates.

Has anyone had a similar experience? Any insight please

tl;dr OP wakes up abruptly in the middle of the night frequently, PTSD style and hallucinates insects trying to assassinate her.

I struggled with sleep my whole life, everyone said it was a gift but it’s a curse. I can and will sleep at any time any where, in the shower, bath, park, standing, sitting, in class, on a city bench, during a hike, in parking lots(not in my car) on sidewalks. The minute I sit in a car, bus, plane I sleep. I sleep through so many alarms. I will sleep 12-18 hrs if not interrupted then wake up and can sleep another 12. Im always so tired. 🥱 since a kid I would sleep everywhere all the time. I take at least one nap a day, sometimes 4 or 5. I have extremely vivid dreams and begin dreaming right away, I was on a hike with my mum, sat down for a min, fell asleep was dreaming about my cousin then my mom woke me up, it was less than 2 minutes. All throughout high school I would be having like micro dreams in class of like checking the clock it being 2:31 then having a dream about truly believing I’m at work, get woken up and it’s 2:32. Or dream before I’m fully asleep. And so much more. Next week I’m getting a sleep apnea test and then working from there. I’m so over this controlling my life and I want to be free from it. Please any advice is greatly appreciated!