Sleep Disorders Forum - Some Strange, But Mild Experiences

I'll just describe my experience to begin with.

Main
8 weeks prior to today, I experienced an sudden, unexplained complete lack of sleep one night, and during that night I noticed a persistent 'numbness-like' feeling on the right side of my head. This was not a skin sensation, but at a deeper level and was not sensitive to touch - kind of like a headache but not an ache. This feeling persisted for around 1 week, then seemed to dissipate and disappear. It was accentuated by attention and anxiety, as well as a lack of sleep.

The unexplained insomnia on the other hand recurred, initially every night, but after an alteration to my sleeping pattern (went to bed earlier) it recurred only once every few nights and was associated with persistent thirst that seemed to keep me awake - it didn't seem to matter how much I drank, I did not need the toilet and still felt thirsty within the next 30 minutes. The episode seemed to subdue, associated with a direct effort to minimise attention/anxiety which as described before, exaggerated(/exacerbated?) the strange sensations.

After 2 weeks (from initial onset), and a period of relative normality, I experienced further disturbances of sleep, and further strange sensations in the same part of the head, but shifted slightly forwards, with the same pattern of experience (decreased sleep, increased attention and increased anxiety exaggerated the sensation). The cause of the decrease in sleep was still not evident.

From my pov, stress was not likely as I did not feel stressed and had no particular reason of which I was aware to be stressed. I would also not describe myself as feeling depressed - more correctly, I was not unhappy about anything at the time. Nonetheless, in order to minimise any potential sources of stress, I took a relaxed approach to work (studies) and ensured I took all the appropriate steps to aid good sleep.

Over the next 5 weeks, there was an initial 1 week period of poor sleep and anxiety (anxious because I thought I may have been ill ), followed by a 3 week period of good sleep, followed by a recurrence of a milder insomnia (slept, but sleep did not feel refreshing, nor did I feel like I had ever fallen asleep - only the absence of memory of certain incidents in the night suggested I must have slept; there was no thirst or excessive drinking or urination). This has recently (in the last few days) recovered to a sleeping experience I can describe as normal and enjoy.

Aside/concerns
the unsettling nature of the experiences increased my anxiety at times, and I became concerned I may have been ill. It is in this context that I describe some of my other experiences, which I believe may be significantly psychogenic in nature and a consequence only of anxiety, although I cannot be certain of this.

I noticed at times, particularly at the beginning of the 5-week period described earlier, the presence of particular, mild tremors in my fingers (mostly in little finger), present mainly at the initiation of a postural readjustment, in particular positions of the hand at rest and occassionally in movement. These were more prevalent in the left than right hand; I am right-handed. Some of these tremors persist today, but appear less noticeable/significant and as I never paid much attention to finger movements before these experiences, I am unable to determine whether the current situation is the normal for me.

On occassion, I notice some mild, transient, dull pains at various locations in the limbs of a none-touch-sensitive nature and usually arising deeply, from seemingly the bones, or deep muscle. This is indeed quite a mild experience and is always transient in nature, but the frequency or my awareness of it is increased with lack of sleep (described earlier).

Just to conclude
i would like to ask whether there is any cause for concern with regards to the symptoms experienced. I have no real concerns about these symptoms (with the exception of sleep troubles, which seems to have settled for now). My only concern however is of the possibility of a serious underlying cause, such as a neurodegenerative disorder and I would like to know whether these experiences are suggestive of a cause for concern. Also it would be interesting to hear if anyone has had similar experiences, particularly with the sleep/ mild pains issues.