Fear of Trying to Fall Asleep Posted: 06-25-06 01:24am
Dear doctor,
i have posted this question on the forum
but then I realized that you do take
questions. Could you possibly read mine
and give me your advice.
Thank you,
marionalma
maybe it is more that I fear going into
bed at night because I won't fall asleep.
My mind whirls and then I get frightened
that I am not going to sleep - so then the
worrying of falling asleep begins. ..
This all began 40 years ago, when I was
young. I was sleeping and my phone in the
bedroom rang and startled me; the next
night the blind fell and woke me and
startled me; the following night, the
phone rang again and awokened me, and that
began my mind worrying about what is going
to happen tonight - will I fall asleep and
if I don't, I need to get up for work at 7
am. This went on nite after nite and I
became really nervous and sick over it. I
finally went to a doctor. He had said if
I had gone to him when those worrisome
thoughts it first began, he would have
given me sleeping pills just to put me to
sleep so I would not have had to worry
about the not falling asleep. Those
thoughts were ingrained in my mind and
needless to say, they are still there - 40
years later. .. Well, that is what
started my long bout with insomnia which
never got any better with the years; I
am still frightened to go into bed b/c I
know I will not fall asleep. Sounds crazy
but that is what happened. I wonder what
disorder this would be called? No doctor
could help me or tell me how to get the
thoughts out of my mind. I take
kolonopin and ambim when necessary to
sleep but that does not help relax me to
fall asleep. .. Would a sleep doctor
help?
Thanks for listening,
marionalma
|
littlesqueaks
Experienced User , Rather EHEALTHy
Joined: 06 May 2006 Posts: 296 Location: Caldwell, Idaho
Posted: 06-28-06 00:43am
How ironic I have just finished taking a
phsychology class and we had learned about
sleeping disorders. My boyfriend also
suffers from insomnia with the same
reasons as you had mentioned. He worries
about going in to lye down because he
knows he will not beable to sleep. When
he does ly down he thinks about everything
going on around him weather negative or
positive. In my class I had learned that
the more you stress about "will I be able
to sleep tonight?, will I get up in time
for work?" the negative things related to
sleep the more likely you will unable to
sleep. The medication that they put my
boyfriend on for this occurences is called
serequil I have tried it myself on very
restless, stressful nights when I can't
seem to get my mind to rest and it really
does the trick. 15 min there will be
nothing on your mind but to go lye down
and sleep. The only thing that you have
to keep in mind when taking it is you will
need to have 8 hours of sleep time. Just
remember if you choose not to take the
meds to help you sleep try taking a hot
shower right before bed then get your mind
to focus on something else like have your
hair played with, or head messaged, gentle
touches on the arms or forehead that
always seems to help me relax. I hope I
have been of some help take care!!!
Heather
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racer
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 30 Jul 2006 Posts: 4
Posted: 07-30-06 18:52pm
Marion, I saw this site that might help
while I was looking at another one on
dreaming. These people have a lot of
stuff and look like they know what they're
talking about. I posted this somewhere
else but might as well do it here if you
check back. Reading all the posts, it
seems like no one can find real help and
maybe this will work for you www.Sleep-deprivation-cd.C
om they say money back so it's worth a
shot. Good luck
|
Merkeb
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 15 Sep 2006 Posts: 3 Location: MN
Problem With Sleep. Posted: 09-15-06 15:59pm
Marionalma, I have exactly the same
problem it started about the same way
yours did but I have not found a cure for
it yet. Everyday I have fear going to
bed, I though I would get use to it but I
can't, I just can't belive it has been 40
years for you. The problem I have is that
even when I get up in the morning I still
think about it because it bothers me that
I can't go to sleep like other people.
Every time I tryed to explain it to a
doctor they look at me like am crazy. My
sleep problem started in january of 2005
when I was working on overnights and I was
going to school during the day. In the
beginning I suffered a lot because I
thought I was the only one with the
problem. There was a time that I could
not even stop my thoughts and I could not
even explain to the doctor because I
thought I was going insane. The doctor
gave me ambin to help me sleep and
lorazepam to calm me down it helped and I
was doing fine for about a year but
something triggered it and it came back
agin and now i'm even more feared because
I remeber how I was the first time. The
problem is when I start feeling that way I
can't eat food so I feel more sick. So if
there is anyone out there that had the
same exparince please......Please help
this is one of the worst thing any one can
get. Not known what the problem is or not
knowing how to fix it is the worst thing.
Marionalma or anyone else that can help
can e-mail me at merkeb15
4@yahoo.Com
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sandyallen
Extremely EHEALTHy
Joined: 02 Feb 2004 Posts: 4580
Marionalma Posted: 09-15-06 16:24pm
I am not a dr and I am sorry to hear about
your situation. I have known of several
people that have phobias and have past
problems in their lives such as post war
syndrome and just things that have
happened in their past that they cannot
let go of, I had a situation to and I
tried .E.M.D.R. (eye movement
desensitization resposes or something like
that) it is done without drugs and it
takes you back to that time and allows you
to release the feelings or situation you
are in because of it, it is a very unique
feeling, you are not put under hypnosis,
it is either done by finger taping on the
leg or watching the pschologist finger go
back and forth, you might want to do a
little search on it, I am not trying to
sell it to you, it is your choice.
I wish you the best in whatever decision
you make!
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dtiz154
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 22 Feb 2008 Posts: 3
Posted: 02-23-08 12:57pm
Trying to fall asleep scares me too! If
I'm at home I'm okay, but most other
places I get myself into a full-blown
panic worrying about whether or not I'll
be able to fall asleep. I almost always
do, so I have NO idea why I panic about
it. I can't find a name for this phobia
anywhere!
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brokentitansgirl90
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 06 May 2008 Posts: 2
Posted: 05-06-08 09:52am
I have the same problem. I am scared of
sleep in general. I can get in bed and
watch TV but the minute I try to fall
asleep a million different things run
through my head and it wakes me up in a
fit of panic.
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glwest
New User, Becoming EHEALTHy
Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 1
FEAR WHILE TRYING TO FALL TO SLEEP Posted: 05-15-08 14:06pm
Been dealing with this since 1997. I'll
have several nights of this with having to
take all kinds of medicine just to try to
force myself into sleep. Then it starts
to spill over in the day where you feel
hopeless about the whole situation and
have general anxiety over it and sometimes
it goes into panic attacks. Just a
repetative cycle. I am a Christian and
pray about it alot. If not for that. I
surely would have lost my mind by now. I
would love for anyone who has had FEAR AND
PANIC WHILE trying to fall to sleep and
CAN NOT get INTO sleep because of the
fear.
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