The other night, Paul Klein, a Kerry supporter from Squirrel Hill, had a dream -- that on Nov. 2, he fell asleep at 8 p.m, and didn't wake up until 2 a.m.

	Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette

"By then the election was over and I had missed everything, so I raced to the television and turned it on and all I saw were a lot of red states with just a little bit of blue in there," Klein said.

Natalie Hauser, a Bush supporter, has her own nightmares to contend with.

"I'm really stressing out about what will happen to the country if Kerry is elected," the University of Pittsburgh sophomore said, adding she's lost 10 pounds worrying about it.

When sleep eludes her, she says, she finds herself turning on Fox News in the middle of the night for comfort. "Sometimes, though, they'll be saying Kerry's doing well in some poll and that makes me ever more upset."

With E-Day just five days away, the presidential race is still squeaker-tight, and the country seems headed toward a mass meltdown, no matter who wins. Families, friends and neighbors aren't speaking. People are flying home from abroad to vote because of fears their absentee ballots won't be counted. Television, radio and the Internet are erupting like volcanoes, spewing tracking polls, campaign ads and talking heads like so much flaming debris.

"I haven't seen anything like it in my lifetime," said Nancy Ellman, a psychologist in Oakland, who reports an increase in patients complaining of anxiety about the election. "It's the first thing they talk about when they come in the door and the last thing they talk about when they're putting on their coats to leave."

Karen Kiely, a Squirrel Hill therapist, says underlying worries about security and terrorism in the wake of 9/11 are making the stakes seem higher than in past elections.

"It's very unusual this year," Kiely said. "I'm seeing a lot of deep-seated anxiety, not just about the election but what it represents for them in their lives and about general feelings about whether we're safe."

Are pre-Election Day jitters mostly a Democratic phenomenon?

A Newsweek survey last week found that more Kerry than Bush voters believe this year's election is the most important of their lives. And an Associated Press poll found that 69 percent of Democratic voters don't think there will be a clear winner after Election Day -- a situation sure to raise anxiety -- while 56 percent of Republicans feel that way.

While Kiely says her election-fearing patients cross the political spectrum, Ellman describes her clientele -- East Enders and university people -- as mostly Democratic. And Jaclyn Herring, a therapist in the mostly Republican suburb of Cranberry, says she's not seeing the same degree of fretfulness among her patients.

"It doesn't seem to be as much of a problem up here in Butler County," said Herring. "It really isn't coming up much."

"Republicans go drinking instead. It's cheaper," quipped Michael O'Connell, executive director of the Republican Committee of Allegheny County.

Two local Republican political consultants, however, say that the past few months have been particularly trying.

"I'm having a lot of difficulty talking to my Democratic friends, of which I have many, because of my minority party participation status in this county," said William J. Green, a longtime GOP activist.

"It is hard being a Republican around here on a good day, let alone in the middle of a trying presidential campaign," he said.

John Brabender, a Republican advertising consultant based on the South Side, calls it a "longer, tougher season than I've ever seen before. Now I'm just at the point where I want this to be over, which is almost as important to me as winning or losing."

Indeed, there are signs of battle fatigue. Steve Awodey, a professor of philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University, has been working for months for Kerry.

Now, he's just tired.

"I feel less like an athlete looking forward to a big game, as I should to really be effective, than like Martha Stewart [going to jail]. I just want to get it over with," said Awodey.

As usual, television is the biggest anxiety producer. Presidential politics aren't just confined to the three networks anymore, but pop up on cable comedy shows, Oprah, Leno and Letterman. Pollsters are updating at breakfast, noon or 5 p.m. -- take your pick.

Bill Bradley, a University of Pittsburgh senior and a Republican, admits he checks Fox News several times a day, while Kerry supporter Barbara Danko, of Regent Square, took the step of ordering expanded cable TV service before the political conventions so she could monitor her candidate's progress.

"My kids know, though, that we're going back to basic after Nov. 3. That is, of course, assuming the election is over," Danko said.

All of this disgusts Kevin O'Neill, a McCandless resident who says he's confident that Bush will win.

"People are worried because of the information they're pumped with every day -- 'Oh this poll is up, oh this poll is down' -- but in reality nothing has changed," he said, noting the race has been close for months. "We live in a nation of sheep, led by television sets and what comes out in the liberal media."

Bradley also feels a different kind of pressure as a member of the College Republicans, a decided minority on what he describes as a mostly liberal campus.

"You can cut the tension with a knife," he said.

At a Kerry rally in April, he showed up with other Bush supporters "and people were accepting and cordial to us." But when he and his pro-Bush friends showed up at a recent appearance by the Democratic candidate, Bradley got into a shoving match with Kerry supporters, "and a little old lady kicked me," he said.

For voters who find themselves on an emotional roller coaster these days, guilt often accompanies those feelings of momentary elation when one's candidate is perceived to have the upper hand. The situation, it seems, doesn't always bring out the best in people.

Judith Andrew, a Pittsburgh native and Kerry supporter who now lives in Ithaca, N.Y., says she's disturbed to realize "that as I check the news each day as usual, I find myself secretly happy if something has gone badly for Bush. Then I feel horrible about having positive feelings about something that most assuredly has caused someone harm or death, the worsening situation in Iraq in particular."

So what should people do?

Turn off the television advises Ellman.

"People are addicted to television and the same stuff is being thrown out there day after day," she said.

Go out and volunteer on a campaign, adds Herring.

"Focus on what you have control over in your life, and being part of a something," she said, "whether it's knocking on doors or phone banks, or just voting, can really help."

Find your center, adds Keily.

"I tell people to try to find the peace inside of them, to relax. They need to do their duty and go vote and do what they can, but then they need to come back to their center," she said.

"After the election is over, I tell my patients, you will still be you."

Yes, but will it really be over on Tuesday?

With talk of thousands of lawyers and poll watchers descending on voting precincts in the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, many expect the nail-biting to extend past Nov. 2.

"People were starting to look ahead and say, 'At least this will be over Tuesday.'

"They're not saying it any more," Ellman said.