Feel free to share some anecdotes, if you like.
Very well.
I did used to get insomnia for one to three nights at a time.
After around two nights without sleep, your perception (or rather, my perception) does tend to change slightly. It's rather hard to explain but it's like what you see and hear are filtered on the way into the brain. The upshot of that element is that the memories seem closer to dreams than real life when you look back on them.
For example, after a day or two without sleep once, I got a call from my mother to let me know an aunt of mine had died.
Two weeks later when I was talking to mother, I asked after that aunt - thinking I'd dreamed her telling me.
Make sense? ah well I'm not sure how else to describe it.
Because of this peculiar filter stuff, your mental state changes and you are (or, I am) more susceptible.
For example,
Stephen King's It (a horror film) will scare me to death if I watch it after no sleep the night before but not nearly as much if I've slept.
Make sense? Good.
