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How a Good Night’s Sleep Fuels Bad Nightmares

Eight hours of sleep should feel like winning a jackpot. But it doesn’t work for me.

Diane Egan
4 min readDec 31, 2021
scary man who probably causes insomnia
Image by Sammy-Sander from Pixabay

My friend, the nurse, told me that I should be sleeping more. She said sleeping just two to three hours at a time isn’t healthy. Adding up those hours in one day doesn’t count when you’re looking for seven to eight hours of sleep a day. I’ve been sleeping in spurts for months, and I’m pretty darn sure my body is used to it by now.

My friend’s advice is probably spot on. Not sleeping enough screws up more things than I care to admit. Weight gain is the #1 issue for me. Also, both of my parents had forms of dementia. The REM sleep cycle cleans plaque in your brain attributed to dementia. No REM cycle — no wash cycle.

There’s another reason I don’t want to sleep all night. Nightmares. I dream nightmares that would make Stephen King proud. If he ever needs material for a book, he’s welcome to contact me for ideas.

My husband isn’t in the best of health. I’m a military caregiver. It’s my job to take care of his health issues and keep him safe. I also stay in touch with his VA care team to keep them updated and involved. You haven’t seen anything until you’ve watched a helicopter wife in action. I watch him like a hawk from a distance. His dementia keeps me…

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Diane Egan
Diane Egan

Written by Diane Egan

Writer | Wife | Caregiver | Need Therapy | In Therapy | Warped Sense of Humor | Joke and Storyteller | I Love Coffee 💕 https://paypal.me/DianeEganCom

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