I need to sleep, why won't I let me?

I love sleeping, for a lot of reasons, not least of which because dreaming is highly entertaining and usually something that I enjoy.

This past week though, my subconscious has been super overactive, and I've been having vivid, intense, recurring dreams about stressful things like murderers and weddings and have been waking up in a panic sometime in the morning while its still dark out, where I then lay in bed in a stage of semi-consciousness until my alarm goes off and I have to get up for, you know, the day.

It's Thursday now, and I am exhausted.

I don't know what's behind the dreaming. I've been running about the same, which is to say, A LOT, which usually causes me to sleep like a big rock.  I try not to use my computer right before I go to sleep. I haven't been eating anything weird.

I have been reading a murder-mystery novel. This could explain the murderer dream. Hopefully I will finish it tonight, and it will provide my brain some kind of closure, and I can go back to sleeping through the night.

I mentioned this to my coworkers today, and Jenna immediately responds with, "Yea,  I know the feeling. That's what having a small child who won't sleep through the night feels like."

Except, I don't have a small child! In fact, I am in the single/childless stage of my life that should be met with as much sleep as I selfishly want while I can still get it.

Here's hoping for a less active REM cycle tonight.