This text is written in the first person and draws on a reader's experience: name changed, details kept. It is a story, not a medical recommendation.
For six months I fell asleep at two in the morning. Not because I did not want to sleep — my head simply refused to switch off. By morning I was wrecked, by evening alert again, and so it went round.
I put it off because I thought: "there is nothing serious about me, why take up a doctor's time". When it started interfering with work, I went. It turned out not to be insomnia as an illness, but anxiety I had grown used to ignoring.
We were not handed magic pills. We went through what happens during the day: where I tense up, what I postpone, how I react to messages after work. Two months later I was falling asleep around midnight.
The most unexpected part: the conversation did not solve the problem for me. It gave me tools that I still use.
A useful question for tonight. What am I postponing because I consider it "not serious enough"?
When help is urgent. If thoughts of harming yourself appear, call someone close to you or the emergency service on 112. If life is at risk, call 103.