anyone else

[moomintroll]

does anyone else on here have days when they are fine all day, but as soon as it comes time to go to bed, your anxiety levels start rising and you feel more anxious about going to sleep, i have had this the last couple of weeks on and off, it started again last night :shrug:, i am at a loss as to why this is? i don't have anything going through my head at the moment and when i get to sleep i still can feel my anxiety in my sleep as i always start to get really bad heart burn sometimes when i am feeling anxious, i am totally confused by this being anxious about going to sleep??

[unspoken]

Yes, I have this too. I also get acid reflux at night, my doctor prescribed me medication which has helped (proton pump inhibitors).

I dread going to bed because I get so many anxious thoughts and negative thoughts which feed on each other and escalate until I feel hopeless and think I am useless and worthless. The counsellor I'm seeing said that's because I distract myself all day by being busy but then when I get into bed, everything stops and the thoughts I am scared to let in take over.

I deal with it by keeping busy right up until I feel able to sleep and keeping the light on until I feel really sleepy. I do things like drawing, crosswords, listening to the radio, watching DVDs, anything to keep my mind busy and tire me out. It has meant I don't get to sleep till about 5 or 6 in the morning though, and this morning I got woken up at 9am and couldn't sleep again. I think the night time is definitely worse, I find things seem relatively manageable in the morning but by the night time they seem awful and inescapable and I feel sad and empty and panicky. Also I have nightmares, very vivid ones, and I clench my teeth so I wake up with horrible headaches. I think being alone and having no distractions from the anxiety are likely to make you feel worse at night.

[moomintroll]

glad to know it not just me, i get vivid nightmares too and have been know to sleep all night with my bedside light, much to the annoyance of my boyfriend but i told him it made me feel safer for some reason, my doctor gave me a short course of diazepam to keep me calm and to take before i go to bed as i had insomnia for 3 weeks, the tablets gave me a headache, so i stopped them, things have started to do through my head again at night and they do seem to be worse at night, i used to have it through the day but its swapped round again, i sometimes find one thing pops in to my head and then it all goes round and round, i know the feeling of doing everything you can to distract yourself at night, i read a whole book one night as i did not want to go to sleep, i recently tried doing puzzles or games (like the ones you have on here) on my computer to distract me at night, the worst night i had was when i got up in the middle of the night and i brushed against my wall as i did not realise how close i was to it and thought someone was attacking me which resulted in me having an attack and i could not stop shaking and felt cold for ages

i think i am just scared just now as i have had a few nights where i have been fine and now its all started again and i am scared i am going to end up with days and days of insomnia again

[looking4answers]

I too feel that way sometimes..Sometimes I feel nervous before bed and other times not.. I find that if I eat anything with sugar or salt or even snacks an hour or so before I go to bed I wake up with bad indigestion. Maybe your mind has worries and it causes you to be nervous..I don't know ,last evening I was nervous and don't really understand why . I went to sleep and during the night woke and my heart was beating hard not fast but hard.I felt sick and went to the bathroom and came back to bed I felt weak and heard my heart even as I lie there pounding ..again not fast but hard.. I have been sitting here wondering the same thing as yourself. I hope you find the cause..its miserable.. Good luck.. Michael

[unspoken]

the worst night i had was when i got up in the middle of the night and i brushed against my wall as i did not realise how close i was to it and thought someone was attacking me which resulted in me having an attack and i could not stop shaking and felt cold for ages

Yes I find that rational things, like noises and shadows, really freak me out at night. I feel jumpy and imagine there are people about to jump on me when I'm walking around the house at night. I see things moving that aren't really there and noises like the boiler sound suspicious. I think a heightened sense of anxiety makes me overly aware of noises and movements. Plus being tired makes my brain and eyes do funny things.

The night time is horrible, I wish I could fastforward through it. If I could change one thing about myself, I think I'd make myself someone who can easily get to sleep and stay asleep.

[daydreamer]

Im just wondering if the acid reflux at night causes nightmares, because I suffer from reflux and have really vivid horrid nightmares that haunt me all day the next day. Just a thought?! I too find it really difficult to get to sleep at night and often stay awake till the early hours or if I do get to sleep nice and early I always wake up at about 1 or 2 o'clock, which I find is the worst time of night and my anxiety is 100% worse then. I have had times when I have woken up with palpitations and wooziness, which Im not sure if its a nocturnal panic attack or from the reflux.

This winter I have really struggled with the dark evenings too, never had that before, but as soon as it gets dark I feel an instant increase in my anxiety levels!