Dealing with Sleep Anxiety: Tips and Tricks

It sounds like it could be night terrors which are awful. You wake up feeling terrified and don't know why. I hope your doctor is able to help you. Trying to establish a bedtime routine could help but especially if it's getting so bad you're afraid of sleep, talking to a doctor is definitely a good idea 💜

Sleep was never a problem for me until I started waking up in middle of night with panic attacks now I’m afraid to go to sleep thinking I’ll feel that way again. What’s helping so far is not looking at my phone before bed, not staying up too late, putting lavender in shower before bed and sprinkling on my pillow too, lay heating pad under me, heavy blanket on top, deep breathing while listening to calming music or Psalms, nighttime cbd and sometimes GABA supplement.

I've had this problem from time to time. I have a strict bedtime routine. I go to bed at the same time, I keep the bedroom cool, I keep a lavender scented roller on my bed side table. I also take valerian root capsule. I use slow deep breathing with my hand over my heart. It lessons the anxiety. You can also try tensing and relaxing each muscle group while breathing. You just keep trying until you find something that works.

It differs every night. Recently I've been very out of it in my day to day life and whenever I sleep, everything just feels off and it can be scary. The past couple nights I haven't really slept at all because every time I do I wake up a few minutes later in a panic. No idea why, but I'm talking to my DR about it so hopefully we can figure it out.

Do you know the root cause of the anxiety? For example are you having nightmares/terrors/paralysis? Is it that you feel like it's wasted time? There are other things I can think of but the last thing I want to do is further spike your anxiety. This is something I'm struggling with as well and it's hard. I try to have tea, calm down, read, journal, occasionally music can help? or something to just calm my mind down but it's friggin' hard. I'm sorry if this isn't very helpful. If you need an ear (or eyes I guess) you can always send me a message.