Do You Have Sleep Questions?

Ask us your sleep questions using the brief form below. When you submit it, your question will have its own page published on our site where we, the students of Stanford Sleep and Dreams, and our visitors can give you reliable answers. (You can find out more about us and our experience here.)

If you have a question that you want to explore, that we maybe haven't covered in great detail otherwise on the site, we'd be happy to give it a go here.

Once you submit your sleep question it will go straight to us, and we'll do our best to get back to you in a timely matter. Questions are usually answered within a few days; however, due to a high submission rate, some questions may go considerably longer without being answered, or may be published without a response.

Note: Try to include as many details about your question as possible, so we can be fully equipped to answer it well. You also have the option of uploading a picture, if that is at all relevant to what you're asking. If that isn't relevant to your question, feel free to include a picture of yourself instead if you want! We love getting to know our visitors :-)

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Read More Sleep Questions and Answers!

Click on the links below to read other questions that have already been submitted using the form above, as well as responses to many of them. All of the questions were contributed by other visitors to this page, just like you.

General Sleep Questions - (Ask your own!)

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome - (Ask your own DSPS question!)

Asleep 3-4 AM to 11-12 AM If I'm Lucky & Nothing To Do In Morning  Wow, I can't believe I didn't see this before. I was surfing Wikipedia this morning when I came across this by accident. It may as well have been written ...

Difference Between Delayed Sleep Phase (DSP) & Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS)  An informative article, but it falls into the usual "daywalker" trap that DSPS is caused by poor sleep hygiene and bad habits. It can be, but for a ...

Can DSPS Ever Really Be "Cured"?  My question is, can someone with DSPS ( delayed sleep phase syndrome ) ever really change their schedule successfully? IÕm 38 years old, and have been ...

I can tell the author of this article does not suffer from DSPS  I have done all of the above many times as I have tried to be in sync with the daytime world. By getting up early and depriving myself of sleep, I find ...

I Have It  (This visitor-submitted comment refers to this page on delayed sleep phase syndrome)
Things that don't work for it: -Sleep Debt
Forget it. Your ...

Slept Debt Doesn't Work With DSPS  See the paper "Poor Compensatory Function for Sleep Loss as a Pathogenic Factor in Patients with Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome" Uchiyama, et al. (2000) Sleep....

Good 'Nights' Sleep is 3/4am til Midday  Or it would be if I didn't have to get up for work at 6 am. After a day of this I'm whacked, never mind a whole working week. Get home from work, eat, chill ...

I Sleep From 2-4am and 11-3pm  I want to cure this so bad. Kevin's Answer: Ah, the segmented sleep schedule that's even more unorthodox than the typical delayed sleep phase syndrome ...

Problems Sleeping - (Ask your own problems sleeping question!)

I Can't Sleep  I am not able to just fall asleep naturally anymore. I am exhausted and I am able to sleep only with a sleeping pill (restoril) every night. I sleep only ...

Night Waking With Internal Intense Body Heat?  I have been waking in the night with intense body heat at about 12 or 1 AM every night. This is not night sweats, as I am not sweating and have had night ...

How To Get Restful Sleep  I am a 51 year old woman who has had sleep issues for awhile. I can fall asleep after reading, but I don't sleep restfully. I have gotten into the terrible ...

Effects of Sleep Deprivation - (Ask your own sleep deprivation question!)

Interstitial Cystitis - A Disease So Horrible You Can't Sleep  I have a disease called interstitial cystitis (IC). This is a bladder condition which is not only painful but causes urinary frequency and urgency which ...

Sleep Paralysis - (Ask your own sleep paralysis question!)

Scared to Sleep   I consider myself a normal 42 yr. old female, other than my lack of healthy and restful sleep. I have suffered from Sleep Paralysis since I was 15 yrs....

Is Sleep Paralysis Linked To Sleep Apnoea?  What a great site!! I've just been reading about Sleep Paralysis and it mentions Narcolepsy . I'll have a look at that, but it's actually Sleep Apnoea ...

Confused and Paralyzed During Dreams While Waking Up  I don't know how to explain it, but a few times I have dreamt that I am laying there awake and paralyzed or keep going in and out of dreams, but I don'...

SP - It's So Scary  Hello, My name is Gloria and I'm 17. When I first experienced SP I was 15 and I was sleeping next to my mother due to family staying at my house. As ...

Knowing What Causes Sleep Paralysis Helps Me Get Out Of It Faster  I have never been to a doctor or anything for sleep paralysis but I know that I have it because it has happened to me plenty of times. I usually have music ...

What Do You Hear During Sleep Paralysis?  Kevin's Response: Hey Hue, thanks for the question. What people hear during an episode of sleep paralysis varies completely, from nothing at all to terrifying,...

My Experiences With Sleep Paralysis  I have been having problems with Sleep Paralysis as long as I can remember. I am 29 years old, in good health, with low stress, and a good sleep pattern....

Mortal Fear  A Sleep Paralysis Story
I woke up...and I heard a witch who was repeating that: "You can't wake up, I'm going to kill you..". I was trying to move,...

Two Sleep Paralysis Experiences In The Same Night  It was a normal day and this was the first time it ever happened to me. I didn't do anything out of routine. I went to sleep that night at about 10:30 ...

Sleep Paralysis: ALL OF MY LIFE!!!  I am a 26 year old male. I have been fighting with sleep paralysis since I was 5 years old. In my search for answers I began researching the web. I ...

I Thought I Was Dead  In my dream there was a set up to my being frozen; it's like my body knew I was about to experience sleep paralysis . The events aren't relevant until ...

Dream Ebullition and Sleep Paralysis - What Happens?  Hello, I'm 21 years old and I am Brazilian. After much searching on the internet I came to this Stanford University website (I read in Brazilian Wikipedia ...

Sleep Apnea - (Ask your own sleep apnea question!)

Sleep Aponea - Still Sleepy And Sluggish  I'm a loud snorer and despite having laser on the palette it has failed. I still continue to feel sleepy and sluggish during the day. I thought it was ...

More Apneas With CPAP Than When Sleeping On Side - What Should I Do?  I'm 36 years-old with a normal BMI that was recently diagnosed with Sleep Apnea after having a Sleep Study done. It seems I may have had this condition ...

Sleepwalking - (Ask your own sleepwalking question!)

Fully Awake To Somnambulism In Seconds?  Is it possible to enter a somnambulistic state directly from a fully awakened state, in a time of only several seconds? The subject, a 14-year-old male ...

Sleepwalking Husband  We recently found out that my husband is a sleepwalker. My sister caught him watching TV with shorts on. (He went to bed and woke up in boxers.) He can'...

My Sleepwalking Experience - (Or Retrograde Amnesia?)  I think I was in 3rd or 4th grade. My mom told me I feel asleep onto the couch in the living room. She told me to get up and go to bed. She said I got ...

Is This Sleepwalking?  Why is it that when I fell asleep last night, I woke up without realizing it while I was consecutively breathing hard and shaking with my eyes bright red?...

Sleep Talking - (Ask your own sleep talking question!)

Asleep Conversation  My cousin and I went on holiday together twice. Each time we slept in the same room. On our first holiday together I woke up one night, as my cousin asked ...

Hilarious Sleep Talking - Is It Harmful to Converse?  I have a friend who says hilarious things while sleep talking. We found this out at camp when she sleep talked every night! She sang songs and our favorite ...

Sleep Terrors - (Ask your own sleep terror question!)

Severe Sleep Terrors At Irregular Intervals And Increasing Intensity  Hi I am Simon, My first night terror occurred in my early teens. The previous night I was sharing a bunk bed with my brothers and they all decided ...

Sleep Abnormalities & Terrors Since I Was A Child!!  Hi, I have suffered with night terrors for as long as I can remember (I am 33 now). The abnormalities range from sleepwalking, sleep talking/shouting, actual ...

Sleep Terrors: 14 And Still Going On...   I had sleep terrors quite frequently when I was a kid but I have them less often now, so what is the chance they will go away into adult hood? And also ...

My Son Has Sleep Terrors Every Couple Days  My son is 6 years old. About 4 weeks ago he started doing weird things in his sleep. The first night he got out of bed, went to his bathroom and was trying ...

Narcolepsy - (Ask your own narcolepsy question!)

From An Active Life To The Back Seat  I had never heard of Narcolepsy , and was just enjoying my life and my work in all kinds of places all over the world and have been doing this for the ...

I Think I May Have Narcolepsy  I being a student also have excessive sleepiness during day time. I thought it is due to the classes I am attending the whole day. But then when I suffered ...

Childhood Sleep Disorders - (Ask your own childhood sleep question!)

My Three-Year-Old Son Has Never Slept Through The Night  My son has always been a light sleeper and has always woken up at least 2-4 times a night. He is three years old. As a result of his lack of sleep he is ...

My Son's Mild Sleep Apnea  My son had a sleep study that showed 16 episodes in one hour. After removing his tonsil & adenoids and a new sleep study, we are down to 2-5 episodes an ...

My Son Claims That He Has Nightmares - What To Do  This began 2 years ago, after we transitioned him to a toddler bed. At first, he would walk to our room and wake me up to ask for juice or water. I then ...

6 Year Old Wakes Up Between 4 & 5:30am EVERY DAY - Normal?  Hello, My 6 year old son is a very bright and active child. However, he has struggled with sleep since he was an infant, and now at the age of 6, he ...

SIx-Plus Years Of Sleep Apnea And Surgeries  My son has had sleep apnea since 3 months old. He has had five surgeries on adenoids that keep growing back. The most recent ENT we saw a few months ago ...

My Son Can't Sleep Through The Night  My husband and I are having a hard time with our 21 month old. He had a traumatic birth but has been healthy since then with the exception of sleep. Even ...

All Nighters For My 7-Year-Old Child  Hello, hope you are well. My child every couple of weeks will have one to two all nighters where he can't sleep and sometimes acts very hyper. There was ...

My Daughter's Inability to Sleep Through the Night  I truly appreciate reading about other families' experiences on this site to simply know we are not alone. Our daughter, now nearly 8 yrs. old, is still ...

My Son's Sleep Problem Sent Him To The Hospital  My 7 year old son talks, screams, and sits up in his sleep. Last week in the middle of the night he fell into the wood frame on his bed and was rushed ...

My Son's Sleeping At School Problems  I have a 7 year old son, who for years now, just will not go to sleep at bedtime. He finds it extremely hard to even stay still, let alone relax in his ...

My Child Simply Will Not Sleep!!  My son who just turned 4 was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. He refuses to sleep! It takes several hours for him to settle down enough to go to ...

Last One Asleep, First One Awake  My 5yr old son is so "wired" at bedtime and can't seem to relax enough to fall asleep until nearly midnight every night. My husband and I are exhausted ...

My Daughter's Nightime Distress  I am trying to determine if my 5-year-old is having night terrors or some other middle of the night issue. Her problem is similar to what I have read about ...

My Son's Excessive Daytime Sleepiness  My son is seven years old. He has difficulty falling asleep at night and gets very "wound up" at bed time. We have tried being very consistent with bedtime ...

My Daughter Doesn't Sleep  My 5-year-old daughter has been having sleep issues since the day she was born. I accredit part of her difficulty sleeping to the fact that she was in ...

My Daughter Snores Loudly  Not only does she snore loudly though, she also sometimes stops breathing for a second. I'm worried. What should I do? Kevin's Answer Hi there, I'm ...

My Son Has Sleep Terrors Every Couple Days  My son is 6 years old. About 4 weeks ago he started doing weird things in his sleep. The first night he got out of bed, went to his bathroom and was trying ...