Any tips for helping with waking during night with anxiety & cannot get back to sleep

[skoosh1]

Hi

I'm looking for any advice on what to do or say to myself when wakening everynight with stomach churning & adrenalin rushing through body for hours and cannot get back to sleep? Been doing this for a week now usually around 3am & cannot get back to sleep and adrenalin so high when getting up that the rest of the day I'm suffering from burning skin sensation & trying to cope with my work & the exhaustion.

Any tips please as hate this!!:weep:

[becky000]

I know exactly what you're going through. I've experienced it myself so many times and ended up staying awake for the rest of the night just not able to even close my eyes. And of course that means you're tired for the next day which only makes you feels worse, causes more anxiety, worrty about being able to sleep etc etc. I found that staying awake for as long as possible (even a full night if possible) does help. Just breaking that cycle by being so tired that you end up sleeping right through the night from sheer exhaustion seems to do it.
If you're awake during the night and feel extremely anxious it helps to have someone to talk to. Of course normally everyone else is asleep which just makes me feel 10 times worse but sometimes I get on my laptop and find a chat room - just talking about absolutely anything else takes my mind off myself and I eventually calm down enough to go back to sleep. Hope this helps

[skoosh1]

Thanks Becky glad to know its not just me! As you say all you want is a full nights sleep which really does help! I hate this worry as you say when you wake its horrible. I just hope that my body will re-adjust again as I am exhausted the day so I will see what happens tonightx

[tamo]

Skoosh1

I am sometimes bothered with the 3 am panic but not so bad as I used to be , i use self talk silently , affirmations like "i sleep calmly and peacefully " . Louise Hay has good books on this .
Its memory that seems to trigger it, we fear we wont have a night like last night , we are on guard for IT . Why cant we remember that one good night we had and cling to that , no no we seem to watch for the thing coming so no surprise IT comes as expected, doesn,t let us down . I think its all about reprogramming. Im seriously thinking about hypnosis !!! . in this reply I refer to anxiety/panic as IT an external thing ,something that shouldn,t be here an unwanted visitor.

[iamlove]

Hi, i used to have this problem and found a good remedy that works for me. i get half an hour intense exercise every night after work and this seems to get all that extra energy out my system that keeps me awake at night. also i sometimes leave my laptop on next to my bed and fall asleep listening to sleep and anxiety hypnosis videos on youtube. both of these together seem to work wonders for me to get a good nights sleep.

[James_P]

Make sure that you eat something too, i find that if i wake anxious, its usually through hunger, maybe low blood sugar or something!

[Arnie365]

Try counting backwards from 500. Every time you lose track of whee you are up to or nod off a bit star again at 500. My therapist taught me this and it really works though does need some practice as you are training your mind to go to sleep when you do it. I can now fall asleep within about 20 seconds whereas at first I'd get down to the 200's before nodding off.