What type of sleep disorder(s) could this be?

Perhaps you are overwhelmed with your life. Sounds like you need a vacation. I wouldn’t be so quick as to label it as a ‘disorder’ yet.

By lately @Sampson, I mean the past 3 or 4 months :-/

I don’t know, that sounds terrible! Some parts of what you described happen to me sometimes. I’m really accustomed to sleeping with my SO and when we’re apart, I get really anxious around bedtime, and suffer from the same need to exhaust myself. I’ll often go to sleep at 7 or 8 am when he’s not around, just because I can’t sleep before then. I’ll have weird dreams, sometimes sleep for 4 hours and get up, sometimes sleep the whole day. It’s miserable. I’ve started taking sleeping pills when it starts to happen. Luckily, we’re usually not apart for more than a few weeks per year.

@La_chica_gomela, that sounds remarkably similar to what I’m dealing with.

Have you stopped exercising? It’s now much too late and I’m back on my crappy late night sleep schedule.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Take a week off for your self. Read a book. Play that eponymous violin. Smoke a joint and drink a glass of scotch.

did these dreams start when you started a new medication?

@andrew, I’ve been keeping up with my PT.

@Sampson, not a fan of pot, but scotch and violin sounds good. I’ve been working on relaxation lately, but it’s that time of the year, ya know?

@YCLYHO, I’m not on any type of medication. Not since nearly two years ago.

Oh know bestfran on fluther! Your brain might be recollecting you with something of your past or your REM stage is just off the charts. I’m sure it’ll clear up in time. If not.. maybe try a power nap of something to channel out your sleeping. :3

[sorry if that didn’t help <3]

@Shuichi, thanks darlin’, I know I’ve got crazy REM. I’m pretty sure I enter REM as soon as I fall asleep!

Sounds like these could possibly be stress-driven effects; in some cases, sleep issues have more to deal with your waking life than your physical sleep patterns, and I’m wondering if this might be the case since it’s only been relatively recent for you.

The point about exercise that Andrew brought up is good; have you evaluated your stress load now versus before this started? Have you taken on a new job, workload, or additional personal burdens? Any other traumatic events or life-changing situations in this period?

If not, then maybe the issue may be more environmental or physiological; or, perhaps a sleep study or referral to a sleep specialist may be in order, at least to rule out any physical issues like sleep apnea or breathing/hyopnea (oxygen deprivation) issues.

The feeling of suffocation is thought by some to be an artifact of the paralyzation we experience during REM sleep to protect us from falling (out of trees when we were in an arboreal state.) If you are in REM sleep and simultaneously aware, you feel the dreaded “someone is sitting on my chest” sensation of a coche-mar.

I think you may be able to get help from a sleep-disorder clinic.

You may want to read this article in the New Yorker. If you can’t open that, this abstract may be available to you.

@daloon thanks for the useful links.

Interesting stuff, @pdworkin.

I can’t see either link on my mobile browser, @daloon, but I’ll check them out when I have traditional internet access again (which may be a while). Thank you.

This from Wikipedia:

A lucid dream is a dream in which the sleeper is aware that he or she is dreaming. When the dreamer is lucid, he or she can actively participate in and often manipulate the imaginary experiences in the dream environment. Lucid dreams can seem extremely real and vivid depending on a person’s level of self-awareness during the lucid dream.

You say, you are a lucid dreamer, but it sounds like you don’t have control over your dreams. Do you mean VIVID instead of lucid?

Regarding your state, a lot of things could be going on. The pre-sleep state you describe sounds manic, to me. You could be experiencing the onset of bipolar disorder, or even monopolar mania. If you are, you need to get help before you ruin your life.

Your state of mind and sleep problems could also come from too much alcohol (or other drugs). If you drink alcohol, stop drinking for a week and see if sleep returns to normal. If you can’t stop for a week, you have a problem and we all know what it’s called.

12 hours sleep a day is a lot. Is it possible, that you’re not actually sleeping? If you have sleep apnea, you could find it difficult to sleep and impossible to be refreshed by sleep. You’d wake under that dark cloud and your cognitive functions would experience decline. Is there anyone around you who can tell you if you snore? That could be an indication of sleep apnea, although not everyone with sleep apnea snores. But to be diagnosed, you’ll need to see your doctor and undergo a sleep test.

It’s easy to see sleep disorders as minor fluctuations that we can out wait. But they more often get worse, not better over time. And meanwhile they can ruin our health, our relationships, and out self image. If this continues, get help; and don’t let your doctor take it lightly either.

Go! Now! To see a psychiatrist. This is just more of a piece with what we discussed the other day. I rushed through the question, so I missed the inability to sleep and the rushing thoughts.

You’re a smart guy. Read up on it first. Just google bipolar. There are a million pages of information about it. Forewarned is forearmed. You’ll be able to have a much more helpful conversation with your shrink.

Just think about this. It is estimated that half the homeless population is bipolar. And 20% of bipolar folk (according to my shrink) commit suicide successfully. This is not something to play with. You’ll need a lot more experience before you can use it to your advantage without destroying everything else.

Hi Fiddle. We talked about sleep disorders before, specifically, paralysis and hallucinations. Your narrative really sounds like stress, fear, or depression. Why don’t you talk to a counselor.

@6rant6, I should have mentioned that I’m partially lucid. I have control over everything I do in my dreams, just not the environments themselves. And this is starting to get ridiculous. I went to sleep last night at 10, woke up at 5am, fell asleep again unintentionally at 3pm and didn’t wake up until 7pm… The whole time I was having my typical, acid-trippy, narrative dreams.

@thriftymaid and @daloon, I’m making a doctor’s appointment this week. Thanks guys.

I used to have various tricks to get to sleep. One I used for years is to design and build a house. Sounds different I know but it worked for me.
I’d start by picking a location then design the house for that location. Room by room until I fell asleep then pick it up the next night and continue. If I didn’t like it or had finished the building, I’d start another one. lol I quit doing that, when, after years I became stuck on one house. Could not get it out of my mind. Moved on to something else.

@Open_Your_Mind, I actually used to do something similar to that. I would imagine that I was building a tower and each floor represented a different part of my psyche.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard, hummm I’ll have to give that some thought, no pun intended. Thanks