[SirFozzie]

dola:

I used to only be able to sleep if a game was on. It would distract my mind from the process of actually falling asleep.

Over the last few years, I somehow transitioned to needing complete silence/dark around me to fall asleep. The problem is that my mind still wants to run during that time, and when you're fighting off recent/vivid dreams/nightmares it's got a lot of fuel to run on.

To use a nautical example, I need a calm placid sea to fall asleep. What I was dealing with was the after effects of a virtual hurricane (the nightmare) still causing choppy waters)