I was exhausted in a way that felt cellular — the kind of tired that makes your body ache for rest.

And yet, every night, the same thing happened.

My body wouldn’t let go.

As soon as I lay down, my heart felt alert. My mind felt wired. My nervous system felt like it had missed the memo that the day was over.

When exhaustion and sleep stop lining up, the problem usually isn’t discipline — it’s regulation.

What This Kind of Insomnia Actually Felt Like

This wasn’t trouble falling asleep once in a while.

It was a nightly battle between a body that desperately needed rest and a system that refused to power down.

• Feeling deeply tired but suddenly alert at bedtime
• A racing or pounding heart when lying down
• Internal buzzing or adrenaline surges at night
• Waking between one and three in the morning, wide awake
• Light, unrefreshing sleep even after “sleeping” all night

Some nights I slept in fragments.

Other nights, not at all.

When your body won’t sleep despite exhaustion, it’s often because it doesn’t feel safe enough to rest.

Why Mold Can Disrupt Sleep So Severely

Sleep is not just about fatigue.

It’s about whether the nervous system feels safe enough to shut down.

Mold exposure can keep the body in a constant state of low-grade threat detection — even when you’re unconscious.

• Adrenaline dysregulation that spikes at night
• Nervous system hypervigilance that prevents deep rest
• Blood pressure and heart rate instability when lying down
• Inflammatory signaling that interferes with sleep architecture

For me, this symptom rarely showed up alone.

It lived right alongside the heart racing and adrenaline surges I described in
why mold made my heart race and why doctors missed it,
the dizziness and instability I later recognized in
why mold made me dizzy, lightheaded, and unsteady on my feet,
and the mental fog that followed me during the day in
why mold made me feel mentally slow, foggy, and not like myself.

When sleep, heart rate, and cognition all unravel together, the issue is almost always systemic.

Why This Gets Blamed on Stress or Anxiety

If you can’t sleep, the assumption is stress.

If your heart races at night, the assumption is anxiety.

And while anxiety can absolutely coexist, it doesn’t explain why my sleep worsened in one place — and improved in another.

It also doesn’t explain why no amount of “good sleep hygiene” fixed it.

You can’t routine your way out of an environment your nervous system doesn’t trust.

The Pattern That Finally Broke the Spell

I didn’t see it at first.

But over time, the pattern became impossible to ignore:

• Sleep was worst at home
• Nighttime adrenaline surged after long indoor days
• I slept deeper and longer when away from the house
• Insomnia improved before I ever felt “less stressed”

That last part mattered.

Because it told me this wasn’t psychological.

When sleep improves with location change, the trigger is rarely your mind.

What Helped — And What Didn’t

What didn’t help:

• Sleep supplements alone
• Strict bedtime routines while still in exposure
• Blaming myself for “not relaxing enough”

What helped:

• Reducing exposure to the environment triggering hypervigilance
• Letting go of forcing sleep
• Supporting my nervous system instead of fighting it
• Recognizing insomnia as a signal — not a failure

Rest returned when safety returned — not when I tried harder.

A Gentle Reframe If You’re Living This

If you’re exhausted but can’t sleep…

If nighttime feels activating instead of calming…

If your body wakes you before you feel restored…

It may be worth asking whether your nervous system is reacting to something it can’t escape at night.

That question changed how I understood my insomnia — and myself.