Anxiety and sleep
Posted , 4 users are following.
I have found it increasingly hard to fall asleep, particularly on a Sunday and Monday after the weekend. I often lie in bed worrying about how to sleep, when I will sleep, what the time is, how long I have been in bed without sleep, the fact other people are probably asleep, the amount of sleep I would get if I fell asleep that instant, how will I know if I am asleep, how can I get to sleep, why I can't sleep, what is wrong with me etc? I find it very distressing. Sometimes I get one hour sleep. It's horrible. I do drink (sometimes 1.5 bottles of wine) on a Saturday but surely that wouldn't still be affecting sleep on Monday, would it?!
Anyway it is making me very anxious and feel very low and depressed.
0 likes, 4 replies
apu91247 e97070lle
Posted
alpine e97070lle
Posted
Hello Jane I used to be the same lying awake asking myself "Am I
asleep yet ? Have you tried reading or crossword puzzles before turning out the light ? I also had a problem with cardiac medication interfering with my sleep, I would get leg cramps. Is you mattress & pillow old ? Might be time for replacement. Do you go to bed the same time every night ?
alpine
e97070lle alpine
Posted
Hi Alpine, I havent tried doing crosswords etc before bed as I was under the impression you werent meant to do much to stimulate your brain before bed. I just worry about sleep so much, all the time these days and I didn't used to. It makes me really upset because I feel like there is something wrong with me. It greatly exacerbates feelings of anxiety and sadness and hopelessness. It's hard enough dealing with anxiety without this. I have made an enquiry about having CBT (privately - takes far too long on NHS). I try to go to bed at same time each night, yes.
lily65668 e97070lle
Posted
Wine actually helps me to sleep, but I find there's only a window where it works. If I drink more than half a bottle or so at any one time, it has the opposite effect, disrupting my sleep pattern. I overheat in the night, and am very restless. Maybe 1.5 bottles in one day is a bit too much?
Your anxiety is the real problem, as you've rightly noted. This is what you need to address. There's absolutely no need to panic if you don't get what you think is the right amount of sleep every night. Think about parents of young children. They sometimes go several years without a "proper" sleep, and they survive, don't they?
Someone calling himself bemmeh put up a wonderful post on these boards a couple of years ago. I was so impressed, I asked his permission to quote him when necessary, which he granted. Here goes:
Partial quote from bemmeh:
...The moment I stopped struggling against insomnia it simply started going away, though not suddenly. It took quite a while. But the improvement was real from the start. Insomnia is not a thing in itself. The ability to sleep is so strong among us, humans or animals in general, that it is almost impossible to seriously alter it. Insomnia in us humans appears when we TRY (and therefore struggle) to sleep. You just need to stop doing all the things you are doing FOR sleeping and let your body and mind do whatever they want - if you sleep it's OK but if you don't, that's OK too (everybody has bad sleep for all kinds of reasons once in a while). When sleep time comes just go to bed, close your eyes, and rest. Don't TRY to sleep, as you are used to do. Just rest! If sleep comes that's OK, if it doesn't that's OK too, you haven't been very successful in getting the amount and quality of sleep you have desired anyway - that's why you call yourself an insomniac. So why keep on trying/desiring? Just let it go. Accept your reality and move on to the things in life you can control over. Sleep is not something we can control. You just need to trust your body and mind for it and stop trying to do anything whatsoever for it. Good luck!
End quote.