One typical complaint of sciatica, which causes intense, shooting nerve pain in the leg, is that the discomfort gets worse in certain situations, such as while lying down to sleep. Sciatica can make it difficult to sleep at times, or it might be so bad that you wake up in the middle of the night in excruciating agony. The truth is that you're not going crazy when you feel like sleeping with the light on or getting up out of bed every hour or so during the night. These are all normal reactions to having sciatica, and it's important to let your doctor know if you find yourself doing any of these things repeatedly. He or she will want to know about any patterns that are happening to help guide them toward a diagnosis. Sleeping with the light on is one of those things that most people do without even thinking about it anymore, but which could be telling you something if you aren't used to doing it. If you are experiencing pain when you lie down, this may be caused by compression of a nerve root somewhere along your spine. This would also explain why turning off the light makes the pain go away, since it's no longer being subjected to gravitational force. Getting up to use the bathroom every hour or so is another common behavior associated with sciatica. The reason for this is simple: bathrooms are usually located down the hall from your bedroom, which means that you have to walk through some degree of pain to get there!