Do I Suffer From Bedtime Anxiety?

now that I dont live w my parents, I just sleep with the lights on

i used to ues and i also used to get very anxious when i woke up for no reason, like horrible anxiety. it went away after a while and i’m usually really good at figuring out the reasons for my own behaviour but i never really found out why. i think it was chemical imbalance or hormones for me.

I have the same issue. There called intrusive thoughts. They pop up anytime anyplace. Yanno that one relative you have that comes to all the family functions but you don’t know why because everyone hates them? Ans there annoying always talking about my precious pug jerry had to have surgery on his toenail. AUNT LINDA WE DONT CARE. Anyway those are your intrusive thoughts. Unwanted and irrelevant. Always talk talk talking. There’s no way to get rid of them but when I have them I try and thing of something positive. For me I’m a Christian so I also talk to God when I’m feeling scared or overwhelmed from the situation. Clearly if we believe something different that’s ok too!! It’s not about religion it’s more about doing things to make you feel calm! Distract yourself! Have a snack! I hope this helped💜 please text me if you need too!

I get super anxious about going to bed bc I have super icky vivid dreams every single night. I have always had nightmares but sometimes I have good dreams. Ever since I got put on prozac a year ago it's been super weird and my dreams are almost always filled with negative themes and they just don't feel good. So I feel you. I take hydroxyzine for anxiety and insomnia. It helps sometimes but there are plenty of times where it doesn't get me sleepy enough.

Same. I wonder what it is about nighttime that triggers anxiety/panic for so many of us. My self esteem drops hard, I suddenly am extremely upset about all my failures, every night. It’s almost like before bed there was a possibility of fixing things but bedtime is the deadline? Idk. If nothing bad happened during the day, My brain pulls up a random memory of cringe moments from years ago. 🤷 I don’t know how to get out of the spiral once it starts. I wish so hard that I could break the routine but so far no success.

I'm not sure why this happens but I experience this too. Showering before I sleep helps me fall asleep faster and reducing the amount of time I can be anxious. White and rain sounds can also help.

I realize I cut myself off mid subject to switch the point without actually finishing the sentence, sorry if that makes it hard to read.

Me too. Probably doesn't help for most people, but I recently got a dog that either wags his tail hard enough to make sound on the crate or barks at whoever comes in, even when he's super duper asleep, so if you have an appropriate animal, perhaps repeating something along the lines of "There's no one here, [pet name] would've sensed it." will help.

I've had the same problem for a while I found that limiting horror content to during the daylight hours has really helped me especially considering I love true crime and BuzzFeed unsolved but making sure to not watch any content like that before I go to bed has really helped me

I'm sorry you're dealing with this, nighttime anxiety sucks. I know it's kind of a niche thing that people don't always like but listening to ASMR at night helps my anxiety so much and helps me fall asleep quicker. I'd recommend channels like ALBinWhisperland, Sarah Lavender ASMR, and Amy Kay ASMR. They are all very wholesome and comforting (no weird eating or gross sounds). And if that isn't something you'd like, sleep sounds in general like crackling fireplaces, rain sounds, forest sounds, or even an audiobook (people read a lot of public domain books on YouTube) might be helpful for the nighttime anxiety. I find that the silence is what freaks me out the most so things like that or even just lofi music might help.

I have to have light on to go to bed. Plus be extremely sleepy. Otherwise major panic attack to the point of screaming and crying and im 43. Ambien is the only thing that helps me calmly fall asleep. I also don't turn the lights out till I'm fully ready to fall asleep. And when I am ready I have a tool by my bedside that I use to turn my light off. Once I'm in bed and fully ready to go to sleep, I can use it to flip the switch. No getting out of bed. No feet on the floor.

I also have the same issue and the only thing that helps really is to have some form of light on and music as well, it just gives you something else to distract yourself with

I honestly have had the same issue and I'm not sure why it happened I think it may be due to heightened anxiety