guy45 Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 I have this very annoying fear of falling asleep for a few months now, and I would really like to get over it once and for all somehow. On some nights I'm just afraid to fall asleep. The thought of being unconscious freaks me out. I feel like sleep is a form of death. How can I get over this? Thanks in advance Link to post Share on other sites
RecentChange Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 Hum, that is an unusual one! Do you have issues with anxiety generally? Perhaps some education on all the wonderful things sleep provides us would be helpful to you? Sleep is not a form of death, far from it - you could actually think of it as a natural rebirthing. It's when your body repairs and renews it's self. It's when your muscles heal and your brain runs through some much needed functions. It's a natural end of a day - to start again new the next day, refreshed, renewed and repaired. Without sleep the body will age, and break down. The mind will become dull, and eventually damaged by a lack of healing sleep. Sleep is an absolute necessity for life and health. Without proper sleep - the body and mind will eventually fail. Link to post Share on other sites
Andy_K Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 He's right though in a way... if you think about what it really means to be alive. You aren't your body, bits of it can be out of your control or removed and you'll be just fine. You aren't even your brain, that can be under the influence of chemicals or hormones and it changes the very way you think or feel. All 'you' really are is a stream of consciousness. You exist now only because you existed a few seconds ago, and so on. When you (deep) sleep, your consciousness is gone. You're not there. A new consciousness wakes up in the morning, in your body with all your memories. But yesterday's consciousness is gone. If a perfect clone were made of you, right down to the finest detail, and both you and the clone woke in the morning, neither would be able to know who was the original. You would both be 100% certain it was you, both with the same memories of yesterday's events and beyond. Take it a step further.... if the original you is removed from existence entirely and just the new clone awakes with your memories, for all intents and purposes it's you. You know you wake up after sleeping only because you remember doing so before. So does the clone who has never done so. Link to post Share on other sites
sam light Posted October 25, 2017 Share Posted October 25, 2017 Twice in my life I was afraid to sleep. I had sleep apnea. Waking up gasping for air, heart racing, is a scary thing. My oxygen starved brain would give me pretty bad dreams too. I lost weight, no more issues. The other time I was suffering overwhelming grief at the passing of a loved one. Daily activities provided some distraction. The second my head hit the pillow, my mind was flooded with terrible thoughts. I had to stay up, usually watching TV, any old movie would do. Finally exhaustion would let me fall asleep. As they say.....time heals. Is there something like that happening to you? It's quite unusual to develop an anti sleep philosophy without a clear cause. Link to post Share on other sites
whichwayisup Posted October 26, 2017 Share Posted October 26, 2017 I have this very annoying fear of falling asleep for a few months now, and I would really like to get over it once and for all somehow. On some nights I'm just afraid to fall asleep. The thought of being unconscious freaks me out. I feel like sleep is a form of death. How can I get over this? Thanks in advance Counseling. And a sleep clinic too. something must have happened to make this suddenly appear in your life? I take sleeping before was okay.. Link to post Share on other sites
Darkchan Posted October 28, 2017 Share Posted October 28, 2017 Hi guy54 I saw your thread and though this Is something I can very much relate to. I had a couple of years ago the same issue, I was a teenager back then. I had this fear of sleeping, as it felt like if I would fall asleep now I would never wake up again and I would die. It became worse with time; I would have panic attacks and hyper ventilate as i couldn't stand the though. It was got to teh point that I was so afraid that I would even almost make myself have an heart attack. This kept on going for months. My parents hated thearapists, they though they would make you think wierd and dive into your mind so I wasn't alloed to see any. When i turned 18 I saw a therapist in secrecy as crying and feeling like I'm dying every night for 2 years was horrible. I was diagnosed with death anxiety. I went talking to a specialist who send me to a rehab clinic where I was thaught how to breath and eventually how to relax. . This Session lasted an hour everyday for more than 6 months, after that it was cut to every other day. After a year it was only twice a month. and I could finally quit the sessions all togheter after a year and a half. The relaxation techniques i was thaght, I had to do at home everyday and would eventually make me feel okay with relaxing and the panic attacks would be less frequent every week. The feeling can still occur sometimes, especially if I'm going through a tough phase in life, but I now know how to surpress it and make it go away since I got help to manage it. You should really seek a therapist and get help. I think If i had gotten help earlier it would probably not have been so severe as it was. Link to post Share on other sites
Cookiesandough Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 I have the very same fear very often and my psych long ago tied it to general anxie ty disorder Link to post Share on other sites
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