This project was based on the moment before a person goes to sleep. It's a moment not often talked about, and it can be very lonely. I spoke with a select group of women who courageously opened up about what keeps them up at night, and what they think about in those moments before falling asleep.
Read the caption below each photo to get an insight into the minds of these young women.
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"I have a hard time falling asleep, because I can't shut off my brain. It's always thinking at a million miles per hour. Idea after idea flowing through my system. I can be absolutely exhausted and not fall asleep for hours."
-Lily Davis
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"Sleeping 7 hours during the day compared to 7 at night doesn't feel the same. During the day I can't fall into a rem cycle and I end up waking up every 2-3 hours. I sleep whole days away, only waking when everyone else is asleep."
-Emma Keat
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" I find that looking at screens before bedtime doesn't help with my sleep. I tend to do schoolwork at the dead of night when everyone is asleep because I find myself more productive than during the day when there's always energy buzzing. I'm wide away with my eyes ticking and I feel stimulated. I can't fall asleep, even though my body is super tired. Not sleeping leads to me checking my phones which doesn't heklp and makes things even worse. I end up falling asleep around 4 or 5 am and end up not hearing my alarms in the morning for class. This leads to me not seeing the morning sun and I start feeling gloomy and depressed. It's all a bad cycle and I know it"
-Mirai K-L
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"When my mood disorder was not treated, my mind would slow down, to this state of complete silence, I would not have a single voice or thought in my head. I would just stare at the wall and feel just as blank as the white paint on it. I couldn't get my head to feel tired but I wasn't awake either. I was just in this state of limbo where I couldn't do anything"
-Emily Saso
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"Falling asleep has never been an issue for me, what I do have issues with is feeling awake. My dreams are very vivid and realistic that when I wake up I can't figure out what is real and what is not. I spend days stuck in two different worlds, the dream world and reality. This melding of two worlds can make life very confusing and disorienting. Therefore my sleeplessness is never really feeling asleep, I just feel awake in a different reality"
-Ellia Davis
