Neuroformative Trauma Disorder-Insomnia (NTD-I, NTD-insomnia)

This project develops and documents the construct of Neuroformative Trauma Disorder–Insomnia (NTD-I, NTD-insomnia), a proposed subtype of trauma-related insomnia that emerges when pre-verbal, night-time trauma is encoded primarily in the amygdala rather than in explicit autobiographical memory. The central hypothesis is that in NTD-insomnia, the nervous system reliably initiates sleep (melatonin → doze phase) but triggers a conditioned threat cascade (cortisol/adrenaline surge) at the transition into deeper sleep, leading to chronic difficulty progressing beyond light sleep. The project combines conceptual/theoretical work, literature review, and an autoethnographic single-case study (free-running sleep experiment begun 1 Oct 2025) to map the phenomenology of NTD-insomnia, differentiate it from more common insomnia presentations, and generate testable hypotheses for future clinical and neurobiological research. Materials will include theory memos, daily sleep logs, analytic notes, and draft manuscripts related to NTD-insomnia and its relationship to complex trauma, attachment, and spiritual abuse.