My sleep hygiene has been poor this month, and as a result I’ve had three nightmares and one bad dream. Some of the nightmares were very one-to-one with current events (I dreamt I was in my car and got shot in the face!) and some are the more familiar family-related nightmares.
“Sleep hygiene” refers to good habits like getting out of bed right away, only going to be when you’re actually going to sleep, consistent sleep and wake times, and basically only being in bed to sleep. I’m still not great about getting up right away and going to sleep right away, but my real problem is being in bed:
I did something to my back. Sitting hurts. Laying down doesn’t hurt as much. I’ve been in bed the past few days, playing games and reading news. All the things I shouldn’t do.
How do I balance the needs of my body and my brain? I can’t keep having these nightmares.
I had a similar crisis a little over a year ago, when I got shingles. I had asked my CBT-I doctor what to do if I was sick, and he said stay in bed as little as possible. Shingles does not want to be sitting up in the living room. And currently my back isn’t thrilled about being in the living room, either.
Sometimes it really does feel like the different parts of me are at war: my sleeping brain, my awake brain, my divided bipolar brain, my thoughts, my physical body. Like c’mon, aren’t we all in this together?!
Bad Sleeper 
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