Worry About Not Falling Asleep Keeping You Awake?
Anyone got some sleep this week? For example, went to bed, closed your eyes and slept for more than 37 minutes? For those of us who look back longingly on dreams of yesteryear (when we only had to deal with our original apocalyptic level of anxiety), disturbing events may seem like they are constantly looming right around the corner.
Depending on your normal ability to sleep, you may survive one or two sleepless nights relatively unscathed and semi-functional, but after that you will get worse. By then, you’re still dealing with everything that gave you anxiety throughout the day, but a new level of anxiety arises from worrying about whether you’re actually ever going to fall asleep again, which in turn makes it difficult to the fall. sleeping.
It has a name – “somniphobia” – and people experience it all the time, regardless of whether the rest of the world is crumbling around them. Here’s what you need to know about sleep anxiety and how to get rid of it.
What is somniphobia?
By now, we are all painfully familiar with the idea that anxiety disrupts our sleep . And while, unfortunately, it does happen, most people can recognize it, allowing them to identify the root causes of anxiety and take the steps necessary to address them .
But doubt is a completely different category : it is fear and / or extreme anxiety due to the thought of sleep. In other words, what keeps you awake at night is anxiety caused by the fear of either not falling asleep or, in other cases, falling asleep. (We apologize if you are reading this in a sleepless state – this phrase is difficult, even if you are running on a full tank.)
Given our current situation, we are going to focus on the anxiety caused by worrying about what will happen if we are unable to sleep. (More on that in a minute.) The other end of the spectrum – anxiety caused by the idea of actually falling asleep – is absolutely something that people also experience, and it is called “fear of sleep.” These are usually situations where a person is afraid to fall asleep because they are afraid of what will happen , for example if they have very vivid recurring nightmares, sleepwalking, or sleep paralysis. But we will leave this variety for another day.
What are the symptoms of somniphobia?
While you may be familiar with the general feeling of anxiety, there are several ways your mind and body respond to the fear of falling asleep.
According to Dr. Virginia Runko , a behavioral sleep medicine specialist and psychologist based in Washington, DC, somnophobia may be an offshoot of insomnia. “People who have trouble falling asleep see how it affects them during the day, and so there is concern about how the night will go, ” she told The Healthy . “Sleepless nights are a terrible experience and no one wants to put up with it.”
But the next day is more than just feeling tired. Runko says it’s important to remember that because sleep anxiety is a phobia (i.e., irrational fear), it can disrupt your daily life and activities and ultimately seriously compromise your mental health .
Mental symptoms of somniphobia
In addition to fatigue, exhaustion, and the usual consequences of lack of sleep, some of the mental symptoms of somnophobia can include, according to Healthline :
- feelings of fear and anxiety when thinking about sleep
- gets stressed as it approaches sleep
- avoiding going to bed or staying up for as long as possible
- panic attacks when it’s time to sleep
- trouble concentrating on things other than anxiety and fear associated with sleep
- experiencing irritability or mood swings
- hard to remember things
Physical symptoms of somniphobia
This type of anxiety can also cause symptoms in the rest of your body ( including the Healthline ):
- nausea or other stomach problems associated with constant restlessness while sleeping
- chest tightness and rapid heartbeat when you think about sleep
- sweating, chills, hyperventilation, or other breathing problems when you think about sleep
- in children, crying, tenacity, and other resistance to bedtime, including unwillingness to be left alone by caregivers
Just a few things to keep in mind: While having the fear of death is more closely associated with fear , you will fill (and then apparently died in his sleep), it can also work the other way. For example, if one of the reasons you are so worried about not being able to sleep is because you are afraid of dying (among other things) from not getting enough sleep, this is likely to exacerbate your doubtfulness.
Finally, if you are someone who cannot sleep without your TV on , or listens to music or a podcast while falling asleep , this may be your survival mechanism for dealing with somnophobia – regardless of whether you understand why you are doing it.
How can we deal with somniphobia?
As with any phobia, there is no single “cure” for the fear of falling asleep or not – but that does not mean that all hope of a decent night’s sleep is lost.
If you’ve already gotten to the point where you can’t sleep because of anxiety about whether you will be able to sleep, chances are you’ve already tried all the usual guidelines . Now is not the time to put forward proposals such as keeping a diary before going to bed , installation and compliance with sleep or taking melatonin (which, as we have noted, in any case not a technique for sleep ). While this may sound condescending to a well-meaning person with somnophobia, this advice from friends, family, or even healthcare professionals suggests that while falling asleep is a serious problem for you, you’ve never considered drinking chamomile tea.
Like insomnia, somniphobia can disrupt your sleep for shorter periods of time or become a chronic problem that seriously affects your ability to function day in and day out. If you fall into the second category, it’s time to see a healthcare professional, because the consequences of not getting enough sleep are no joke .
But if you’re new to somnophobia or only experience it from time to time, the first thing you need to do is find out what exactly triggers it and develop a strategy based on that, ”said Dr. Martin Seif, specialist. a clinical psychologist specializing in anxiety in Greenwich, Connecticut, told The Healthy . Here are some possibilities:
Generalized anxiety disorder
At this point, it may seem like we have come full circle in terms of anxiety and sleep, but this is more subtle than that. Right now, it’s safe to say that most – if not all – people have at least one cause for concern related to something happening in the country or the world (choose your choice).
But, as we pointed out in this August article , there is a difference between experiencing the emotion of anxiety and anxiety disorder . Generalized anxiety disorder is not only something that ruins your life in the long run, but it usually does not limit your anxiety to one particular situation or fear (hence, it is generalized).
This means that you probably will not feel much better when it is eliminated that seems mainly trigger your anxiety. Instead, your brain will jump straight to something else, constantly looking for things to worry about. These concerns will often be out of proportion to their actual impact and may require a methodical workaround for all possible worst-case scenarios.
Which (finally) leads us to doubt. If you have generalized anxiety disorder, your brain may focus – and catastrophically – on what would happen if you were awake. If this sounds familiar and you haven’t talked to a mental health professional about it yet, now is the time.
Indirect concern
On the other hand, if the above information about experiencing the emotion of anxiety associated with a particular situation or event sounds familiar to you, take it from there. Again, this may not be so obvious, especially now, during times of intense stress.
For example, yes, you are probably worried about the entire global pandemic situation, but your real somnophobia may be triggered by anxious anticipation of how you will be able to work the next day, explains Seif. Being able to narrow down our concerns can give us the opportunity to rationally think about the cause of our anxiety – and possible solutions – instead of just feeling paralyzed by anxiety and not understanding why.
Insomnia
As Runko explained, doubtfulness can be an offshoot of insomnia. If this is true in your case, can you try to approach your sleep anxiety in terms of being a normal symptom of another condition , and then work with your doctor to figure out how best to treat insomnia (which can be significantly different from person to person). to a person).