Fear of sleeping? (TW)

[SharpAndBlunt]

I was wondering if anyone else sometimes has a fear of going to sleep?

I had the dream below a few nights ago and since then I haven't been sleeping well.

Now I'm really tired but don't really want to go through that again. It might take me up to a week to forget about it. I find this kind of thing seems to happen every so often and makes the days a bit harder when I am so tired through lack of quality sleep.

TW
The other night I had a disturbing dream where I was with old friends, but I had done something wrong, yet I didn't know what it was. They were being quietly but openly hostile to me (we were watching sports on TV in this dream) and eventually I kept prompting them to tell me what was wrong and they just said 'You're vulnerable, you're vulnerable' while pointing at the TV. They repeated it twice just like that while still keeping eyes on the TV. It was a really weird dream. I didn't like the feelings at all, and I haven't seen these people for years
End TW

Just re-reading this back has given me an idea where the sports on tv thing has come from, but I'm going to let that sink in. I hope this post is not too weird! 

[Three Roses]

Not too weird at all. I've seen others in the past mention the same. When I'm going thru a period of bad dreams, I'm apprehensive about falling asleep but I would not call it fear.

Hope this is better for you now. Sorry my reply is so late, just saw this.

[Sceal]

Several times in my life I've had terrible fear of going to sleep. So much so I'd do anything to keep myself up and awake for days at an end, I do not recommend it. It makes everything, all the other symptoms tenfolds more worse.
Perhaps  you could watch something as you fall asleep. Scroll through pictures of cute baby animals, or listening/watching a standup comedy show you like, or watch a friendly tv show you've watched a million times before so you know it's safe and it doesn't require you to understand what's going on as you slowly drift off to sleep.

[SharpAndBlunt]

Cool, thanks, I'm glad this doesn't happen to me too often it seems terrible when it comes around again. My ex always told me she knew when i was tense because my breathing gets shallower. Me being me I don't even notice it!

Sorry in general if my replies are a little slow. I'm not on here every day generally and i only just discovered the facility to read updated posts. There are so many sub forums (which is great) it's easy to lose track so obviously that feature is very useful!

[EZ Linus]

I might be an extreme case of having the fear of sleeping situation. I'm embarrassed to admit all this, but I don't really sleep at all. I can fall asleep with sleeping pills, but I will wake up four hours later and won't go back to sleep. I may get a nap in during the day, but I usually don't. I am scared to sleep next to my boyfriend of 20 years and he is the sweetest person in the world. I have feared sleep my whole life before he came along though. I've been messed up about this forever.

[SharpAndBlunt]

Dear EZ Linus, thanks for posting about your trouble sleeping. You must be very tired with only getting four hours per night. I think last night I got only about that and the night before I didn't fall asleep until late meaning I had been awake the full 24 hours.

I used to get really tense sleeping next to my girlfriend sometimes and I would regularly move to the couch or the spare room, where I felt i was able to relax better. It was nothing to do with her she was (and is) a very nice person.

I doubly want to thank you so much for posting as you stated it was hard for you. Reading other people's experiences has sometimes surprised me how much we here have in common. Often i have felt totally alone. I have also posted a few things on here I have felt were 'out there' and I left them up because that's the way i was at the time, and I have always been treated with kindness. All the best. SaB.

[Rainagain]

I know this is an older post but I wanted to say thanks for it.

I've been told I do shallow breathing but never thought anything more about it until reading this.

Fear of sleep is a thing too, but I think it might be fear of the nightmares, not sure.

Good post.

[Ellis]

Hey SharpAndBlunt,

I can relate to you. At times I'll have horrible nightmares and be terrified of going to sleep in case they may happen again (which they sometimes do. Oof)
I've found that if I've woken up and feel too startled to sleep, a cup of tea and a book/comic to read helps quite a bit. Eventually I'll feel a little calmer and with the plot of the story to think about it helps me to finally go back to sleep. And I've noticed that calm thoughts before bedtime decreases the chance of having a nightmare! But that might just be me.

Regards,
Ellis.

[movementforthebetter]

Hi SharpAndBlunt,

I do have a fear of sleeping sometimes. Last week I had a night of it. Tonight it's just regular ol' insomnia. I had a cat nap this afternoon. My fear of sleep is sometimes about nightmares, but more usually seems to be Existential dread.

I find that it's more likely if I'm both overtired and I stay up too late. Once the clock hits the witching hour, if I'm still up, I'm in for it. If I wake from sleep due to bad dreams or whatever, I get it sometimes, too.

I also get it pretty regularly before my workweek starts. That, I attribute to work.

To combat this, I devote a lot of time and energy to getting solid sleep, whenever I can, which seems illogical, maybe. But I figure it's being overtired plus stress that brings the fear on most regularly. I don't know how to control my work stress levels well, so I focus on not getting to overtired, which does help me.

[SharpAndBlunt]

I'm exhausted tonight yet wide awake. I don't even have work tomorrow.

I'm going to have hot cocoa and read my book but I can see myself still being awake at 4am tomorrow morning. My anxiety is really high and I'm not sure why.

I was falling asleep on the couch. As soon as I came to bed I'm wide awake! Aaargh!!