yeah, i can relate to the feeling. the thing that seems to haunt me is the dread of sleeping only to have disturbing dreams and waking up to terrible mood while not being rested. my pattern is to stay awake for 3-5 days at a time and then sleep nightly for a week or so, then repeat. drugs help although not if i know i'm not going to sleep anyway, so i dont even bother wasting them. guess it's the way it is, has always been like this with some variance in pattern. definately exacerbates isolating and i avoid discussing with extended family, since i live alone. physicians are not especially sympathetic other than the ambien script and advising the obvious, 'avoid caffeine after 6 pm' so it's whatev for reporting symptoms to them.