Anxiety about going to sleep

[Dazl1212]

Hi I was diagnosed with GAD around 2 years ago. But I have always had trouble getting to sleep because I worry about what will happen if I do not get to sleep (missing work feeling aweful at work etc). I did manage to sleep whilst I was being treated with citalopram for around a year. Once I came of the Citalopram and had one sleepless night the whole cycle started again. The only thing that sometimes helps is Cannabis which I obviously know is not a good thing. I am now back on the citalopram again as this problem was starting to make me physicaly ill and I felt like I was completley loosing my mind. I know what it is that causes me not to sleep but I cannot stop thinking about it. Can anybody help? as I do not want to be held back by this for the rest of my life! And I feel that that I will!

[cjdelphi]

i've always had insomnia the inability to fall asleep along with sleep walking, sleep terrors and once even sleep paralysis :) and when i do wake up i feel like a zombie.

sorry I have no cure for it still ongoing for me, I even did a sleep study spent the night wired up to machines to monitor me, there's little that can be done apparently and i've been on every medication, i guess CBT is the next step.

[Gaucho]

Yes, when I get real bad, nodding off to sleep it what makes me wake up in sheer terror, completely loosing control of my thoughs. I use deep breathing techniques and it usually helps, but when it doesn't (a few nights back my symptoms hit a new high), I went to the doctor and got some Alprax, and it did the trick. Obviously, you can't use it every night, maybe just do a lot of intense exercise to burn your body out and deep breathing and a meditation tape to help you relax. Also get to bed with plenty of time to get to sleep (even 3 hours if need be), so you won't worry as much about getting too little sleep.

[Dazl1212]

Its Anxiety about falling asleep and the consequences of not sleeping when I have to be up early however since I have gone back on the Citalopram it hasnt been an issue what bothers me is when I come off them I will have the same issue has anyone had this before I dreaded bed time as I knew what was coming.

[moggy]

hi dazl1212
i had the same problem when i was a kid around the time i started a new school - i guess i was scared of being too tired to do my schoolwork if i didn't get a good night's sleep, but after a while, without any effort on my part, the problem went away. in adulthood it occasionally comes back briefly when i've got something heavy on at work, but again it usually goes away again fairly quickly. these days, if i sense it coming back, i just remind myself that actually i can function pretty well on very little sleep (my baby daughter taught me that!) and that my body won't let me go too long without catching up on my sleep (no matter how hard you try, when i'm really tired, i just can't stay awake)
sometimes if i've got a lot om my mind and it's likely to keep me awake, i make a point of reading an easy book for a while in bed to relax me (TV before bed only stimulates your brain), then i'll turn out the light, focus on my breathing and maybe start counting slowly backwards from, say, 500 - that way i'm thinking about something else other than whether i'm falling asleep - it usually works for me
the key point i suggest you remind yourself is that you CAN still function perfectly well even if you have a bad night's sleep - the minute you convince yourself that this is true, i'm preety sure falling asleep won't be a problem
hope this helps

[Robbed]

the key point i suggest you remind yourself is that you CAN still function perfectly well even if you have a bad night's sleep - the minute you convince yourself that this is true, i'm preety sure falling asleep won't be a problem
hope this helps

Another thing to remember is that if you have a poor night's sleep, you will probably sleep MUCH better the next night.

[Dazl1212]

Yeah I see what you mean well im back on the citalopram for now. Thanks for the advice

[light99]

I also had this problem horribly as a kid, I went a week without sleeping once. It was in the top 5 worst experiences of my life...

But as an adult when I worked and had to do a late-night shift and then had to come back 6 hours later to work in the morning -- holy cow I ALWAYS had anxiety problems sleeping. I dont think I EVER got more than 2 hours of sleep everytime I had that type of work schedule.

I never did find a solution to my problem, most sleep medications made things worse, as I get anxiety attacks when feeling strongly sedated. Only thing that seemed to work were the more milder sleep agents like Lunesta or over-the-counter items.

[bio]

My only reason for fear going to sleep is hypnogagia which is of auditory hallucination form. Very scary that it would trigger panic attack. As of now, it's my major concern or otherwise.

I hardly get it off. How I cope? I am not very sure how to smother hypnogagia. Perhaps, clonazepam will help. However, I have ceased medication many many years back.

Or may be, relaxation and deep breathing before sleep can help. But again, I cannot tell you guys the exact ways.

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We are in the same boat