Ralf Pfeiffer

I m 61 and have been an aphant all my life. Although I just discovered the word Aphantasia last month! My dreams are quite sporadic, but they often feel like "anxiety dreams", like one I had last week was of about my daughter being lost and I'm calling to her and following her in various scenarios. The last ended with her treading water in a rapidly moving river and heading to a waterfall and I'm trying to save her. Recently she has not returned my calls in months, so that made sense. I'm flying in some dreams which happened before and after I learned paragliding. I have had dreams of being chased, a few were quite the bond thriller, inducing fear. They feel real until the cut scenes get super weird. Sometimes I wake up sweating. More often in the past months I "wake up" simply thinking about some issues, and realizing I've been thinking pretty coherently for what seems like a half-hour... and I may just stay in bed with my eyes open and continue to ponder it for a while. I have had severe insomnia since I was about 27, so I think this happens when I'm not getting REM sleep and I use medication. Perhaps I am not really sleeping.