"Survivors of violence who wake up at night rarely describe their experience in dramatic terms. They do not always speak of nightmares, panic, or vivid recollections of violence. Instead, they describe a quiet alertness, a body that listens even when the world is silent, and a form of wakefulness that feels less like fear and more like unfinished vigilance. Night becomes the space in which the past has fewer distractions and the body resumes a role it once needed to survive."
"Night is when the body speaks most honestly. During the day, many survivors of violence function with remarkable discipline. They work, maintain relationships, and meet responsibilities with a steadiness that often surprises others. At night, when demands fall away and control softens, the body speaks more freely about what it has learned. Waking up is not a malfunction but an expression of memory stored beyond words."
Survivors of violence often experience nocturnal wakefulness as a quiet, bodily alertness rather than dramatic nightmares or panic. Nighttime provides fewer distractions, allowing the body to express memories encoded as preparedness and vigilance. Many survivors maintain functional, disciplined lives by day while their nervous systems retain readiness learned during danger. Safety can be achieved physically while biological systems remain primed for protection. Waking at night can therefore signify adaptive survival mechanisms and memory, not a failure to heal. Sustained listening to lived experience reveals recovery as nonlinear and shaped by bodily learning and ongoing vigilance.
Read at Psychology Today
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