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Hi everybody, a very close friend stopped by on Friday night. He is one of the few who I have have complete confidence with. We haven't spoken in several weeks so a lot of stuff came up. But to be brief I was explaining my sleep problems and patterns and mentioned Armee's suggestion to try and go to sleep later and the fact that I was actually doing the reverse, going to sleep earlier, and my friend kinda "jumped" and said, No, you're right. The brain's healing time is before and up until midnight. That's why it's important to go to bed early... Can anyone confirm this with outside studies or whatever? Or their own experience? Thanks 🙏

Hello everyone, boy am I glad to be here. Have started reading and relating and already am feeling a wonderful connection... I am not alone... thank you all. I am sorry we are suffering, but the realization that all this is not just me helps beyond words. I have tears coming as I write. I am 55, born and raised in the US but living in France for the past 22 years. I have struggled with CPTSD since my conception. My biological father was a violent man who abused me, my mother and my sister until my mother finally left him when I was four. I received my first punch while still in the womb. I have lived in fear my whole life. Everyday I wake up with a ball of stress in my stomach. It has always been this way. Six months ago I had a major flashback and broke up with my girlfried in a crisis of anger and indignation. Four days later I crashed back down to earth in realization that I was now completely alone, getting older, struggling with my work and health, and no one I could connect with or receive understanding from. I felt guilt, shame and most of all an overwhelming fear of the precarity of my future. I laid in bed for three weeks. I tried finding a therapist. I did research on the internet. I discovered CPTSD for the first time, and the pieces of the puzzle began to fall into place. Christmas was a *. I have three kids and spent the whole time trying to maintain my composure and not constantly cry. Somehow I made it through but am still struggling horribly. The pain and depression are constant. My mother once told me she hid under my bed when I was one or two years old to escape a beating from my father. I have no direct memories of this period of my life, but I know from my mother and sister that the house was an inferno of screaming and yelling and violence. During this period I was mostly horizontal being an infant in his crib, and this is why I think I wake up every morning, my entire life, with a ball of terror in my gut. Like a switch, instantaneously, when I get up on my feet, the fear dissapears, lingering only as a queer souvenir of something I cannot fully remember. I have much more to say and tell but I will leave it there for the moment. I need help, but also hope to give as well as receive here. I thank you all in advance. It's time for bed in France and it's back to work tomorrow morning. But I hope to see you all again soon. Thank you again for this forum and this opportunity to connect. It means so very much to me.