Why do I wake up in the middle night with absolute anxiety and dread over the most mundane inconsequential social interaction I had that day?

Waking up with anxiety after 3-5 hours of sleep is because you are building up cortisol (stress hormone) levels while you sleep to the point where they wake you up. See a counselor and a doctor. You need both of you want lasting improvements. I have a rather severe anxiety disorder, waking up anxious in the middle of the night was once a nightly ritual, now it's pretty rare, only when something particularly anxiety inducing is going on.

Humans aren't evolved to be great at stuff on their own. In the hunter-gatherer days we couldn't hunt large animals alone, but required a group effort. We couldn't stay safe from predation or survive a cold winter as an individual. So we formed groups. Expulsion from the group meant certain death. So we evolved with a survival instinct that screams "YOU WILL DIE IF YOU OFFEND SOMEONE" that is a bit of an over reaction for today's society, but here we are.

Neuroscience of Self and Self-Regulation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3056504/

Its really hard to day without more information. You should talk to a doctor. Some other things that could be causing this that noone else has mentioned yet(I can't tell if this applies for you or not based on your post):

• not enough exercise
• vitamin d/c deficiencies (you can take supplements of vitamin d in winter time)
• bad gut microbiome. Try to eat a variety of vegtables as well as prebiotics (fibre, oats) and probiotics (yogurt, kefir,, sourdough ect).
• try to get regular sleep. I know this is your problem but there may be some things you can do like have a set bedtime, no screens for a while before bed.

Remember that many people have had similar problems and overcome them. You will just need to work out what works for you. Good luck.

Too much coffee during the day?

Because you were most likely traumatized by social interaction as a child, and still have the trauma response in your nervous system.

I say that because that was my conclusion of my own experience.

EMDR therapy has been remarkable in allowing my nervous system to process and release that underlying trauma. Highly recommended.

I do this too and I think, for me, it's two parts.

1. Neurotic self analysis / self evaluation coupled with
2. An actual interaction where I chose poorly that day.

I over evaluate myself generally, so when I do make any mistake socially, my mind will find out on later self analysis and bug me about it.

I find it annoying now and try to dismiss it and go back to sleep. Half the time the thing my mind is fixated on is baseless anyway.

Because you are human.

could be, because you don't have many and the few you have are therefore extremely relevant in hindsight.

You may want to research aspergers

Are you lonely?

If this happens frequently, consider getting a sleep study. There are several different sleep disorders and treatments / therapies.

Do you eat shortly before sleeping? When my body wants to wake me up to finish digesting something, it always hits me with the crazy nightmares

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