Im, so, yes, stuff

i throw in there is miconic jerks. I've seen like an, you know, where you ou sort of have that jerk where you, like, youre fault, you're starting to fall asleep, and then you jerk awake, and then, ye,

yes, yes. I think that's actually pretty normal. Am, unless they happen like a lot or superintensely. B

oh rigto ye, i meant like, a like, an increase in frequency and the shore yet i've heard people ak about that now. So, i mean, first of all, i think this is important to get out there. And i appreciate you being willing to talk about your own experiences, ecause i think it's very validating. I think it's very normalizing to let people know. Because this stuff, if you didn't know, you think, ike hav shet, like, i, um, like seeing things and li hearing things that aren't there, like, i i going to rase out what's going on. So to know that's relatively normal. But i also think this is really important as an anxiety therapist, y iave reen, so many cases of new mombs who are, you know, six months, a year out, whatever, who have developed a lot of anxiety that started at and around a pregnancy in birth. And so much of it i can trace back to, they had experiences during pregnancy or post partem that were very unusual and scare for them. A they started, they sort of developed these beliefs, but like, there is something really wrong with me that i had, you know, i had this hallucination about, youknow, falling on top of my kid when i was like, does that mean, like, i'm not like cut out to be a good mom? Something must be wrong with me that just like bins into, like, can spin into really bad cases of anxiety. So i think this is so portant for people to hear that som ye anyway, is really perceve being one of tte

and i think that's a really good point, because we do hear these horror stories of a ppos partum psychosis, which is extremely rare, a where some one might have delusions or hallucinations regarding the baby, where they end up accidentally, or sort of delusionaly, harming the baby. Im, and that, i think, really freeks people out, rightfully. So, im and am somewhat more commonly. A post partum o c d. Is actually, you know, not super rare. Im, and so when we have experiences like hallucinating having smothered the baby, we get very anxious about, you know, doing things exactly the same way, or like not letting ourselves hold the baby, or not letting ourselves, you know, sleep, just in case we fall asleep an something goes wrong. A that can be very, very anxiety provoking, very scary. So so just to shed a light on these bizarre sleepi sleep related experiences. So what's going on is, in part, ah, your circatian disruption and the sleep deprivation that you're going through duriing, especially during those first few weeks, that's probably the main culprit for why these bizarre sleep things are happening. Just like if a college student pulled enough all night ers in a row, they would all start having sleep paralysis and, you know, sleep hallucinations and all that a. But this is temporary. It's not that once you start having these you're going to down a path of psychosis. That's not how that works. I'm especially if you ah get yourself back on track with the circadian unorithms and get back on tract with getting enough sleep. And really, really, i highly highly encourage, you know, getting as much social support as you can to help you get back on track. You know, it's you don't need to be super scared about it or ied about it. Im another thing is hormolo changes. So so this, these kinds ofa symptoms can actually start happening during pregnancy, like they did for me with am, night nightmares and night terrors. Well, not not so much night nightters, just nightmares am, because when your progeston levels go up, especially when they shoot up as quickly as they do during pregnancy. A your you have decreased rem sleep. So rem sleep is where most dreaming happens. And what tends to happen is when you suddenly don't have enough rem sleep, when your rem deprived, something happens called the rem rebound, where your brain, oh, shoot, suddenly we don't have enough rem. Let's get into rem quicker, it earlier in the night. Intense bou to rem. And that can really throw off your rain and sort of give you more intense, more vivid dreams that you're more likely to remember. And that, coupled with higher anxiety, coupled with harder times breathing because of anatomical changes and hormotal changes, all that, coupled together, can sort of set off about of nightmares. And the more you worry about nightmares and rehearsels nightmares and get into those nightmares, the more you then perpetuate those nightmares. So sometimes people get into the cycle of nightmares during pregnancy, like i did, a that they can sort of try to get out of by making sure they get enough sleep, making sure they do lots of rest and relaxation during the day, and also just not spending too much time dwelling on the nightmares

themselves.