Bad sleeping issues

Whenever I know I have to go somewhere the next day, I sleep terribly. It could be something small like an appointment or just meeting someone. I fall asleep just fine and pretty quickly, but then I keep waking up through the night. My dreams are stressful and feel too real. By the time morning comes, I’m tense and exhausted.

When that happens, I wake up with a migraine and feel sick and weak all day. My eyelids twitch, my scalp feels itchy in a way I can’t really scratch, and my ears pop and ring a lot. If I try to stay up and push through it, I usually end up having a panic attack. My heart pounds, my body shakes, and I feel like I might pass out. The only thing that helps is going back to bed and sleeping again. When I finally get proper rest, the next day I usually feel a lot better, but by then I’ve already had to cancel whatever I was supposed to do. This makes finding work impossible...

This has been going on for a while now.. I’m still living with my parents and I keep telling myself I’ll find work or try studying again, but the sleep problems keep getting in the way. It feels like my body shuts down whenever I try to do something normal.

I’m seeing a psychologist, but it hasn’t helped much so far. I think a lot of this comes from past trauma, though I still can’t bring myself to talk about it properly.

Writing, reading and playing videogames is the only thing that helps me calm down. It’s the one thing that makes me feel like myself again. I can let everything out for a while and feel a bit lighter.

I wanted to ask if anyone else has sleep problems like this because of anxiety. Falling asleep fine, but having nightmares all night and feeling awful the entire day after. It’s starting to take over my life and I don’t know how to stop it.