Waking up in night and can't sleep from HA

[robin321]

Over the past week and a half I have been waking up at anywhere between 130am and 4am. I start thinking about my anxiety, and then cannot sleep. Then I think about my health fear most of night.

I went to doctor and got a one month supply of benzo anti anxiety med. I have taken it 3 times in 7 days - but two were in the last two nights. I want to tackle the anxiety so I can sleep better.

[Traceypo]

Try to reassure yourself when you wake that's it's just anxiety, you're perfectly safe, it can't harm you.
Try counting backwards from 1000 minus 3 each time. I still wake sometimes during night, but I can now get back to sleep without any panic. Don't switch your phone on, even to look at time, try not to over analyse it. Most people go through periods of waking during night, even non anxious people.
Xx

[robin321]

Thanks! I tried your tip last night, and like it. It forced me to 'think' a bit, which gets focus off of myself.
I woke up twice - once at 12am. It worked and I got back to sleep. But I woke up again at 1am.
Since my health anxiety has been so bad - and it is I think getting more manageable - I decided to take the tranq to sleep. Right now I need to focus on not starting day by stressing all night. I then counted backward, and fell asleep within 15min and stayed alseep till 515. I need to manage this by reducing my HA during the day. I think I wake up anticipating the morning, which is my worst time. This is when I 'scan' myself, my poo, etc.. to see how I am. Anticipating this is what is keeping me up.

[SmithsFan]

Over the past week and a half I have been waking up at anywhere between 130am and 4am. I start thinking about my anxiety, and then cannot sleep. Then I think about my health fear most of night.

I went to doctor and got a one month supply of benzo anti anxiety med. I have taken it 3 times in 7 days - but two were in the last two nights. I want to tackle the anxiety so I can sleep better.

I'm similar to you in that I can normally get off to sleep but usually wake after a couple of hours and often have a similar period of tossing and turning before dropping off again. I often wake in a cold sweat after a horrible dream related to anxiety as well.

Lack of sleep will make your anxiety worse, the anxiety will make the sleep worse. It's a (no pun intended nightmare) but it's all about finding something that breaks the cycle