Cannot sleep, seems like my body is afraid to sleep
Posted , 4 users are following.
Some context:
I've usually somehow been pretty good at catching myself as I'm near the end of the hypnagogic state, where my consciousness is supposed to just fade. And a lot of times I jolt awake from this stage because it's weird sensation for me. So I've developed a habit of breaking out of this perfectly normal sleep stage.
Last Monday night, I was trying to sleep, and as I was in the hypnagogic state, I imagined some bright white lights and thought randomly, "Am I gonna die?". And I'm assuming that's what triggered a panic attack I had half an hour later. I had strong heart palpitations, inability to calm down, burning skin sensation. No hyperventilation or breathing issues though.
Ever since then I just cannot sleep well or at all and had high anxiety all day everyday. The day of the attack I got maybe 4 hours of sleep max. The next day I somehow managed to get around 7 hours of sleep despite how crazy my body was pumping with adrenaline.
I figured maybe I was traumatized by my imaginary experience and that I had to somehow get over that phobia of falling asleep. It makes sense to me because that's why I kept having anxiety issues despite being a person who hasn't never had panic attacks before in their entire life (though my sister has had them).
But the next night and ever since I just have not been able to get any sleep.
Every time it seems like I'm about to fall asleep, my body just quivers and I'm kinda jolted back into consciousness. Immediately after, random muscles around my body just start twitching uncontrollably. I'm assuming this is because of anxiety?
Maybe this is because I place a lot of thought on my breathing and perhaps when my body tries to automatically take over, I just freak out.
I managed to get two hours of sleep this morning by just trying to accept my anxiety responses and letting myself calm down.
But now I just cannot sleep. Every time I try, I'm just jolted awake by the quivering and subsequent muscle spasms. Then my anxiety just shoots and I have to calm down for a bit.
Anyone have similar symptoms? I'm dying to be rid of this asap.
Also, I have checked with a doctor who found that my Heart was perfectly fine. Waiting on a blood test at the moment to see if there's anything else wrong with me.
Also going to see a psychologist/psychiatrist soon.
I think it's mostly just all in the mind. But I can't get over this barrier with just my willpower. If this is somehow a phobia of sleeping, then I don't know how I can solve it seeing as how my body won't even let me sleep even the slightest bit.
Thanks for any responses.
0 likes, 7 replies
melanie39677 davastor
Posted
I can’t relate to everything you wrote and I can’t offer any advice but you aren’t alone in feeling this way.
About six weeks ago I got sick with a bad cold. It has caused me to snore and when I’m in the ‘dozing off’ stage I hear myself and wake up.
It is disruptive and annoying and caused my anxiety to spike. So when I was lying down to sleep I’d feel anxious, eventually I’d fall into a hypnagogic state where I would still be aware but my thoughts would be all over the place. This state felt weird to me so I would wake myself up. I would then experience the twitching muscles.
I’m not sure if the twitching was due to anxiety or fatigued muscles/mind or maybe a combo of the two.
I hope you can get some answers and help. I hope I can too.
davastor melanie39677
Posted
So I think I've chalked it down to just sleep anxiety. I've read some posts on here that the best solution to this is to simply stop worrying about getting sleep. People have suggested to just try to not make any efforts to sleep. I suppose this is the best way to break down your anxieties about sleeping. I managed to get 7-8 hours of sleep last night, though no more than 4 hours continuously. I somehow did this by focusing on doing nothing and just listening to ambient sounds, not trying to sleep. Perhaps I was also just emotionally deprived and just didn't care much about it anymore. Somehow, the first 2 hours suddenly passed and I didn't even notice that I was asleep. I'm still anxious about it at the moment and I'm not really sure if my technique will work again. But I'm going to try just not caring about sleeping at all and see if it helps.
apu91247 davastor
Posted
davastor apu91247
Posted
Nah I haven't used any medication at all.
davastor
Posted
Ok so I managed to sleep a little bit. Maybe around 6 hours total. But never more than 2-3 hours at a time. My friend told me to just focus on something in the room and empty my thoughts while listening to ambient noises going on. I did this and eventually I became tired enough to fall asleep. Almost immediately I started dreaming as well. I thought I was maybe hallucinating and somehow 2 hours went by, but it turns out I actually slept. So I did this a few more times and it worked, though I don't feel fully rested. Can anyone relate to this?
kristi13597 davastor
Posted
Hi Davestor, I've had the same sleeping problems as you when my anxiety become severe. It seemed as if I was sleeping with one eye open and I could see my room in my sleep. It was hard to sleep then and I had to manage stress before attempting to sleep. Listening to ambient noises or white noises is a great way to calm the mind and help the body go to sleep. I would suggest relaxing your muscles before going to sleep, starting from your feet to the top of your head until you feel completely relaxed.
davastor
Posted
Perhaps that was what gave way to my sleep anxiety. The night of the panic attack I was worried about not being able to sleep cause of digestion issues, bladder issues, etc.
Any tips anyone?