Sleep onset problems. My sleep has completely changed over the past 6 months. Has anybody been through something similar? Any advice is greatly appreciated.

27M here. My sleep has completely changed over the last 6 months or so. Trying to piece together what’s going on.

Back in the spring, things were totally normal. I was traveling a lot (LA → Malta → East Coast → back to LA) and actually sleeping pretty well through all of it (one night where I barely slept but that happens to me with traveling sometimes). Then one night in LA I had the random thought, “what if I don’t fall asleep?” and it threw me off more than I expected. I struggled that night (2 hours or so to fall asleep) and ended up avoiding my own bed for a while after, sleeping on the couch or in my roommate’s room (he was gone for a little while), where I slept pretty well.

Over the summer, sleep got a little inconsistent but never felt like a real problem. Sometimes I’d take longer to fall asleep (45 mins-1.5 hours), sometimes not. Was sleeping 7-8 hours per night. Once a week I'd get 6. In the fall, I moved to Miami and things shifted in a subtle but noticeable way. I’d go out on weekends (once or twice a week) and get to bed at 3–4 AM, but on normal weekday nights I’d be tired and ready for bed and my body just wouldn’t sleep. This resulted in several nights staying up until 4-7 AM. And on the days after short sleep, I could still get through work and function, but I was clearly brain foggy, slower, and not as productive. Weird part was daytime tiredness wasn’t showing up the way it used to at all. Overall had way more energy.

Then in early November I had a single really bad panic attack on a night when I just couldn’t fall asleep. That one night kind of “broke” my system. For most of November I was extremely sensitive. Really, really anxious during the day, sleep onset jolts, surges when drifting off, intrusive thoughts, waking up too early, morning spikes, the whole thing. I didn’t always sleep terribly, but my body felt unstable and jumpy in a way I’d never experienced.

The good news is that part actually healed. The panic went away. The jolts stopped. My mornings calmed down. I had stretches in the second half of November of sleeping 6-7 hours/night but often getting only 4-5, sometimes falling asleep right away, sometimes not falling asleep for 4-5 hours.

Some nights I fall asleep quickly. Other nights I’ll get very tired around midnight, doze off on the couch or in bed (hovering in that half-asleep, time-flies-by state) but I never fully drop into real sleep. No dreams, no unconsciousness. I just drift for hours. Then around 4–5 AM I finally crash for 2–3 hours. I wake up foggy but not too anxious, just discouraged, depressed, confused.

During the day I often don't feel tired or sleepy, which is strange. Even on 3–4 hours of sleep I can function, but I’m mentally dulled and much less productive. It feels like my sleepiness mechanism is out of sync. Some nights everything works, and other nights it doesn’t, and I don’t fully understand why.

Right now my routine is pretty solid: morning light, earlier workouts, no caffeine at all, consistent bedtime window, magnesium and glycine (have tried melatonin, valerian, minimal alcohol, leaving bed if I can’t sleep. But the unpredictability is wearing me down.

So my questions are basically:

• Has anyone experienced being tired but unable to actually fall asleep for hours?
• Why would I be able to doze for long stretches without transitioning into deeper sleep?
• Why do I rarely feel sleepy during the day, even when I’m clearly under-slept?
• Could this all be circadian timing + sleep pressure issues lingering after the panic phase?
• And if so, how did you reset it?

If you’ve dealt with something like this I’d really appreciate any perspective on what finally helped things stabilize.