Has anyone experienced this?

Thank you for replying. To a nswer your questions:

are you over 30?

I'm 20

Drugs, have you taken any illicit drugs or new prescription medications?

No prior this, I've also stopped taking sleeping meds supposedly for this cuz they weren't producing any effect.

New dosages? New supplements?

No

Alcohol consumption changes?

I don't drink alcohol

Are you experiencing any paranoia unrelated to sleep? Sense of someone following you, etc.?

No

These temporal anomalies happen only at night, or any other time?

The time I blacked out, which was two hours before my sleep schedule, and the time I deeply felt like I suffered a loss of time, happened only once. I've adjusted, but it remained a stuck thought in my head. I don't if that's directly related to why I still can't sleep properly to this day.

Do you ever feel flushed? Tightness in your chest or throat? Woken up feeling you need to catch your breath?

No.

How is your health otherwise? Do you have any chronic conditions that may have progressed over time?

I couldn't relate it to any, I'm fairly healthy.

Have you travelled to foreign areas in the last six months?

No.

Just to rectify, in my last reply I said the black out happened only once. No, it has been continuing. I just associate everything to when it first happened, because it brought an unprecedented change to my sleep and perception.

Hi,

I remembered your name from a conversation we had just a few days ago, and took the liberty of looking it up. I wouldn't want you to think I was stalking you, but you haven't taken steps to hide your history on this site. (Neither have I, so you are quite free to investigate my posting history too!)

At one point in that conversation (six days ago) you stated:

Partial quote:

"...What I forgot to add here (as I would like to present it first as a sleep problem) is that I have been enduring a condition for eight months now; I am incapable of forming affective memories and creative narrative about life or having real feelings; "I" doesn't feel like the me, I have acquired persistent psychogenic fever and an altered perception of surroundings.

"Psychosocial trauma: unlike a scarring or emotional trauma, psychosocial trauma is resolved with an explanation that makes psychosocial sense.

"The thought that I forcibly incorporated in my sleep is the resolution of my trauma. I have tried getting past this incorporated thought and managed a sound sleep, leading to the untraumatized, full brain functioning, that I felt."

End quote.

I admit I was somewhat confused when reading this the first time round as to what the trauma was that you were referring to. I'm wondering whether this is the trauma of these sleep-related experiences you've been having for eight months now (as per your original post) or whether there's been some other specific trauma.

Since you also said in our original conversation that the psychiatrist you saw had mentioned ECT (electroconvulsive therapy) as a treatment option, I can't help wondering whether this all might be part of a deeper psychiatric problem. As a former neuro nurse, I'm pretty sure that no present-day psychiatrist would consider ECT except as a very last resort, when all other options had been exhausted.

I would advise going back to the psychiatrist, and also perhaps getting yourself checked by a neurologist. Lesions in the temporal lobes of the brain can sometimes cause feelings of depersonalisation etc. I hasten to add, however, that this is a very rare cause of feelings like yours, the most likely cause being suppressed anxiety - which is very common in males your age. (Females are more likely to acknowledge their anxiety and bring it to the surface.) But it still wouldn't hurt to cover all bases.

I can't help feeling that endless discussions on forums are likely to make this problem worse, whatever the cause might be. I really would urge you to go back to your medical practitioners and talk to them about it.

Hi. I just came home from a neuropsych visit. The sleep problem I had just created is separate from the trauma that I have for eight months now. I have had CT scan last March, and other blood tests; they did not find any abnormality. Anyway, I hold this position because I have already read a case of sleep problem exactly like mine in another sleep forum. The person didn't mention if they have a trauma or something similar to mine, which I would be surprised if they do. Sadly, they also didn't post what made them recover or if they ever recovered from the sleep problem. I treat this as a sleep problem not yet openly discussed or at least discussed in my terms; which is why, I'm desperate for an explanation.

I was the one who cued ECT after finding a study online that indicates its efficacy in selectively treating pseudoinsomnia. My specialist didn't bat a no about that, and that gave me a slight anxiety. What if they actually have no solution for my sleep problem, and that they're considering ECT? I followed your advise, (thanks btw) and went to a neuropsychiatrist for second opinion. I was given a new set of sleeping meds again, and was advised to exercise. To my frustration, I had forgotten to ask the neuropsychiatrist for an explanation of my sleeping problem. I feel like they're treating it as a minor case tho.

Update:

My sleeping pattern has been changed again. Yesterday, I tried to consciously experience the transition from wakefulness to sleep but by thinking of other things than by messing with my phone. It was difficult because I actually did still feel awake anyway, even though technically speaking I was already starting to sleep. I realized I was already mind-wandering/dreaming, but then I notice that I noticed, and this woke me up. It's as if I acquired a less existentially dreary perception; I carried this into my actual sleep but would wake up after minutes again. What is this? How is this reversible?

I'm glad you've had this fully investigated, and several opinions plus the CT scan have confirmed there's no neurological problem. Just a question: if your doctors are treating it as a minor case, could you not take comfort from that?

I know from personal experience that sleep problems don't seem in the least "minor" to the sufferer, but I also know from my own experience that we can sometimes over-think these things, which makes everything worse.

Frankly I think it's unwise to make your own diagnosis based solely on something you read in a forum. You're only 20, still at an age where health anxiety can cause problems.

Hi. May I ask if you still remember how you recovered from pseudoinsomnia? Did it happen overnight? I'm curious because of the potential of anterograde amnesia in perhaps clearing signs of pseudoinsomia. You know those moments when one minute you're stressing about about a task, the next you're finding yourself from a sleep, not knowing when you got in the bed in the first place. When you were still having pseudoinsomnia, did you maybe experience anterograde amnesia, prompting a sound sleep afterwards?

No, I certainly didn't have anterograde amnesia at any time. My only memory problem, throughout life and increasingly now, in old age, has been a frequent confusion between real events and dreams. (I've always had vivid dreams, with good recall.) During periods of extreme stress, especially during my working life, this often became quite a serious problem.

As to how I recovered from pseudoinsomnia, I guess it just faded away on its own. I know it happened much more often when I was your age, and I suspect it rarely happens now (aged 74) but I don't remember how or when it disappeared. I am, however, conscious that it was associated with stress, as was my real insomnia. Since retiring from paid employment eight years ago, I rarely suffer from insomnia or sleep anxiety, only getting it on "nervous nights", e.g. before a journey or a presentation in my voluntary job.

Once again, I think this is something you need to discuss with your medical practitioners. As far as I'm aware, anterograde amnesia isn't part of any known sleep disorder. It's more likely to be a psychiatric or even a neurological problem and should be addressed as such. It would probably be better to get checked initially by a neurologist rather than a neuropsychiatrist.

If I may offer a word of advice (speaking as a former nurse familiar with the attitudes of doctors) I'd suggest simply describing your feelings and symptoms when talking to any medical practitioner. Most doctors (in any speciality) really don't take kindly to patients spouting technical terms and concepts, and even less so to those who try to interpret them! I recently fell foul of an ophthalmologist when I forgot myself and referred to a persistent muscular twitching of my eyelid by its correct name of blepharospasm. His reaction was extreme, to say the least.

I think you need professional help, but try and keep it simple if you want to be taken seriously. Doctors like to show off their knowledge, and will often dismiss out of hand patients who appear to know "too much" about their symptoms.