fear of sleep

is there anyone else here who is actually afraid to go to sleep?

owly

owly wrote:is there anyone else here who is actually afraid to go to sleep?

owly

Hi, is there a reason for it?
Are you afraid you wont wake up if you do sleep? Afraid of nightmares?

I used to get anxious about it when I had symptoms of anxiety or chest pains because of it....

i feel incredibly vulnerable when i go to sleep... when i am really really stressed, i'll wake myself up as soon as i fall to sleep - every two minutes - i'll start hallucinating and will have terrifying nightmares (this doesn't happen often, or i just wouldn't cope).

just afraid of dreams, not being able to wake up, waking up and seeing someone there, seeing shadows in the dark, sleep paralysis.

right now, i'm stressed, and my sleep is really poor quality.. the nightmares are ok, i'm dealing with them, and i'm not really hallucinating which is good - means i'm getting better.

owly

Yes I am actually afraid to go to sleep. I think it is a 'letting go' issue. I can be really tired and be ready to fall asleep but than i stop myself thinking 'WAIT, I want to know exactly what happens and what the process of how I go from being awake to asleep. I have had several nights like this and I have kept myself awake for hours until I finally fall asleep. Another question arises, how did I go to sleep? I can't remember... but i wake up the next morning and can remember my dream.. so obviously i have. but i am left with no reassurance for my next night...

I have this letting go issue with a lot of other things also. but once my sleep get affected by it it is making me tired inside out all the time. I need my sleep back!! please someone help!

blue^girl" --

I was just thinking about this last night before falling asleep; will I wake up the next day? I don't normally have problems falling asleep once I hit the pillow, but negative thoughts sometimes are swirling in my head; like not being around for 6-7 hours... strange I know. Don't know if it's fear or a concern. The "letting go" issue does exist for me too. Fortunately I have very trouble sleeping, but required to go to bed quite for some reason. I feel a lot better with the sleep I get before midnight. There's been studies/reports -- the deep sleep one gets before 12 o'clock is indeed the most beneficial.

Insomnia due to stress is one thing, but fear of sleep it's another and I (unfortunately) know a disorder that fear of sleep is a thing that among others, characterize it. Its Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). Let me explain...

A NPD person doesn't really have it's own personality. He generates a personality from the response he takes from other persons. So these people afraid to death to be alone. But there is one time a day that everyone gets alone, ant it's sleeping time. Even if we go to bed with our spouse, the time we close our eyes, we're alone and the only relationship we have is with ourselves.

And that's exactly what a NPD person try to avoid all of his life. Having no other person to interact he run out of his own personality, his own ego, and this is equivalent in some way to death. So NPD's experience a fear of death when they have to go to sleep. Some of them try to work overtime, or try to sleep with the lights turned on, some experience nightmares.

I don't mean that everyone that has a fear of sleep has NPD, but it's a considerable situation.

For this thing, for it seems to be 100% mental, you should google on "Lester Levinson" or the "letting go technique:; believe it would be helpfull. From my own experience, you shoud start by this very simple thing: whenever the fear shows up, do not try to run away from it. Imagine it as vividly as you can, let yourself feel it and say YES to that fear. Yes, yes, yes, yes, hello, fear, oh fear, hello, hi. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Admit it, let it be. Sometimes miracles happen with this one technique...

yeah, I'm afraid when night time comes for it only reminds me that i need to sleep but i hardly make it because of the nightmare that keeps on visiting me...hey, can you help me?....

Just do some hard day, work, training both to be hard worked and will make you to sleep like a lamb