Fear of sleeping due to health anxiety

[LauraWoo84]

Hi All

I am not sure if anyone else feels this but when my health anxiety is bad I then have a phobia of falling asleep as I worry I may not wake up.

Does anyone have any ideas of how to conquer this I have tried meditation and listening to relaxing music but nothing helps. The issue is if I don't sleep I feel worse but I am too frightened to sleep it just a vicious circle that I can't seem to get out of.

[lukeneal26]

the one thing I don't struggle with is sleeping Its staying asleep I struggle with I can wake up in panics anything from 1 time a night to 10

[courierdude]

i had this years ago though now if i am having a bad one falling asleep is my way out of it.

what do you think is likely to happen if you fall asleep? i mean what is it that will keep you from waking?

[Willowacres]

Hello! I am new but I can absolutely relate to this. As I type I have a cold pack on my chest because I've been having chest pain for the past few weeks and I'm terrified I'll die in my sleep because of heart related problems... Trying to calm myself only makes it worse... I don't even want to take a sleeping pill anymore because I'm afraid it will slow my heart down and it will quit working��
I do find relief intending success stories though... And using my 'notepad' on my phone to write down future plans...

[bingjam]

I sometimes feel like this too.... I mean you spend all day feeling like crap then you think going to bed and going to sleep will be some sort of an escape but you spend the time falling asleep worrying about not waking up, it sucks....
At my lowest I used to set an alarm on my phone for every 10 mins throughout the night for some reason made me think that when the alarm woke me up it would be fine, or if it didn't wake me up my partner would be woken up by it and notice that it didn't wake me up and save me in time, with it only being every ten mins

Good to say I'm not that bad now thank god, even though I do still get scared sometimes it's no where near as bad

[LauraWoo84]

Thanks for your comments guys, Bingham you summed it up so well I feel like crap all day hope for sleep to make me feel better then I stress about falling asleep due to fear of thinking that I won't wake up as there is actually something wrong with me, that the doctors have missed.

Everyday health anxiety surprises me with just how much of an impact it has and is having on my life.

[courierdude]

laurawoo, you might be 120 years old one day and you will fall asleep and you wont wake up. accept that it can happen-unlikely as it may be that it is going to happen to you anytime soon, what can you do about it?
you think that your doctor has missed something? is he doing his job properly or is he just not competent? can he /she read the future?

you cant blame health professionals for the fears you hold on to.

how many times have you gone to sleep and woken up absolutely fine?
that thing that you thought might happen hasnt happen how many times?
do you think that the odds are against you now and you have used up all your chances or that actually you are quite well and you will continue to wake up every morning just the same as you did previously?

its just fear laura. we all fear fear. thats what its there for. if you had something wrong with you then you would just deal with it and stop fearing it-well i do.

stop feeding your fear!

: )