Sleep Concerns

Does anyone have 'success' stories about sleeping problems?
I think sleep deprivation is a major culprit on a lot of the symptoms that I get.
And I think I just have a general fear of sleeping in a way. From sleep paralysis to 'jolts' right before falling asleep, to sometimes waking up trembling. Last week I went 3 straight days with a total of about 5 hours of sleep. Until I finally caved and took an anti-anxiety med and was able to start normalizing some sleep patterns again. But only partially, as I'm only really operating on 5 or 6 hours a night (low for me).
I feel like I'm falling apart over this. I wonder if I'll have to be institutionalized over it if I can't conquer it.

I find my sleep is 100% connected to my anxiety levels.

There are lots of helpful tips on here regarding good sleep practice and techniques to reduce your every day anxiety. Once your general anxiety levels reduce sleep will be much easier.

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Originally Posted by Catkins

I find my sleep is 100% connected to my anxiety levels.

There are lots of helpful tips on here regarding good sleep practice and techniques to reduce your every day anxiety. Once your general anxiety levels reduce sleep will be much easier.

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Have you been successful at reducing your anxiety? And if so, what tips would you credit as being the most helpful for you?
I've read a lot of sleep tips, from making sure to go to bed the same time every night so as to avoid messing with your circadian rythym etc.. And that's all valid and everything, but much of it doesn't do the real trick in actually getting restful sleep for me.
I imagine getting my overall anxiety levels down would do the trick, and I've definitely managed to get them down to decent enough levels in the past. But truly restful awesome sleep has never returned for me. Insomnia has just developed into the norm for me to varying degrees. And I'm curious if anyone has been where I am at, and gotten completely or mostly better.

I usually sleep about 7 hours a night now, which to me feels fantastic.

What has helped me with my anxiety is a whole array of things. Mindfulness, yoga, guided meditation, medication, counselling, CBT, this site and changing some aspects of my life.

I'm not totally anxiety free and I don't think I ever will be, but I'm an awful lot better than I used to be.

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Originally Posted by StarsDie

Does anyone have 'success' stories about sleeping problems?

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I had chronic insomnia for several years..

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I think sleep deprivation is a major culprit on a lot of the symptoms that I get.

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Absolutely.

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And I think I just have a general fear of sleeping in a way.

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This is your problem.

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From sleep paralysis to 'jolts' right before falling asleep, to sometimes waking up trembling.

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All common with people who suffer with anxiety. (I've had all three)

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Last week I went 3 straight days with a total of about 5 hours of sleep. Until I finally caved and took an anti-anxiety med and was able to start normalizing some sleep patterns again. But only partially, as I'm only really operating on 5 or 6 hours a night (low for me).

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6 hours sleep is decent. I was averaging 2/3 hours a night for a very long time until I got my head around it and that meant being mindful of my thoughts - which had been along the lines of, 'Oh my God, another night. I won't sleep. I will wake up having a panic attack. I can't stand this' etc etc etc.

I should add that a huge part of my insomnia was because I have nocturnal panic attacks so I dreaded going to sleep. I educated myself about the stress response and I told myself that it didn't matter if I had a panic attack or not. I'd had thousands of the buggers and they're unpleasant but not harmful. I realised that it was a case of my body being so hyper-sensitive that non-scary things like the sound of a car door being closed, my husband snoring, a drop in temperature or my own dreams were triggering the fight or flight response while I was still asleep. I learned what to do to calm myself down and I reminded myself of the many beautiful sunrises I'd seen as a result of being up at silly-o-clock in the morning. Now, I still get the odd panic attack that wakes me up but most of the time I deal with it in situ or I get up and move about if that doesn't work, but I average eight hours of sleep now and all I really did was to change my attitude to the problem - which was to remove the fear.

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I wonder if I'll have to be institutionalized over it if I can't conquer it.

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It's thoughts like this which are upping the gears with your anxiety which in turn is feeding directly into your sleep problem. It's a catastrophising thought and it's irrational. You are sleeping. Your body will force this no matter how hard you try to stay awake but it's not restful sleep and your daily anxious thoughts will carry through into your sleep state..

Turn bedtime into something to look forward to. Take a warm aromatherapy bath, listen to some gentle music. Do some light reading. Practice breathing exercises. Watch some comedy instead of the news. Don't look at computer screens or phones before bed. Try not to eat after 6pm. Don't have caffeine after 2pm (earlier if you're really sensitive or avoid altogether) Don't dread going to sleep. If you think that you are not going to sleep, that you are going to have a bad night, and you're scared to sleep etc your brain will respond to this 'danger' as if it is real. It's does this to protect you. I choose not to be unrealistic and say to myself, 'You're going to have a great night's sleep Nora!' because that generally just sets me up for disappointment as my anxiety norm is set on high. Instead, I go with this, 'If I wake up it doesn't matter. If I have a panic attack, it doesn't matter. I know what to do. I will handle it'. This recognises the problem without adding fear and eventually the brain gets that we're not scared and stops trying to wake me up all the time..

I've also had some success wearing a sleep mask. Took some getting used to as I don't like things on my face but my brain does like the darkness and it means I'm not reacting to changing light levels in the room..

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Originally Posted by NoraB

Turn bedtime into something to look forward to. Take a warm aromatherapy bath, listen to some gentle music. Do some light reading. Practice breathing exercises. Watch some comedy instead of the news. Don't look at computer screens or phones before bed. Try not to eat after 6pm. Don't have caffeine after 2pm (earlier if you're really sensitive or avoid altogether) Don't dread going to sleep. If you think that you are not going to sleep, that you are going to have a bad night, and you're scared to sleep etc your brain will respond to this 'danger' as if it is real.

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Does watching comedy work for you?
Sometimes laughing kind of amps me up a little bit.

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Originally Posted by StarsDie

Does watching comedy work for you?
Sometimes laughing kind of amps me up a little bit.

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Good point.

There are gentle comedy programmes which I watch (these tend to be older ones) which are easy on the brain and I also watch a certain one (Mrs Brown's Boys) from a familiarity point of view. I've watched it so many times now that it's comforting, rather than stimulating.

Generally, the last thing we put into our brains at night needs to be 'light' whether it's reading a book or watching TV. I go to bed quite early and I generally watch some comedy but for the last hour I wear my eye mask (which is a complete blackout one) so I am only hearing the audio and not looking at a screen. Sometimes I listen to classical music on Alexa or a sleep story, but mainly it's comedy simply because it works for me.

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Originally Posted by NoraB

Good point.

There are gentle comedy programmes which I watch (these tend to be older ones) which are easy on the brain and I also watch a certain one (Mrs Brown's Boys) from a familiarity point of view. I've watched it so many times now that it's comforting, rather than stimulating.

Generally, the last thing we put into our brains at night needs to be 'light' whether it's reading a book or watching TV. I go to bed quite early and I generally watch some comedy but for the last hour I wear my eye mask (which is a complete blackout one) so I am only hearing the audio and not looking at a screen. Sometimes I listen to classical music on Alexa or a sleep story, but mainly it's comedy simply because it works for me.

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Thanks for the responses.
I'm having a really rough night. 2am where I am. I feel like I am falling apart.

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Originally Posted by StarsDie

Thanks for the responses.
I'm having a really rough night. 2am where I am. I feel like I am falling apart.

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Sorry to hear it, but I do 'get it'.

If you can acknowledge your anxious thoughts but that they scare you (nothing bad will happen to you, it just feels unpleasant) and it doesn't matter if you sleep or not (you will sleep at some point) then your brain will eventually listen up and it will stop protecting you with the stress response every time you go to bed because that's what is actually happening here. Fear equals fight or flight - your body's natural security system. Every time you have the fearful thoughts about sleep, you are reinforcing this response from your brain. But it has become habitual so you have to break the habit as you would any other and you do this by changing the dialogue you feed into your brain..

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Originally Posted by Catkins

I usually sleep about 7 hours a night now, which to me feels fantastic.

What has helped me with my anxiety is a whole array of things. Mindfulness, yoga, guided meditation, medication, counselling, CBT, this site and changing some aspects of my life.

I'm not totally anxiety free and I don't think I ever will be, but I'm an awful lot better than I used to be.

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If you don't mind me asking, what kind of medication have you used, and how have you used it efficiently?