Have you ever been afraid to sleep? When it’s time to go to bed, do you feel anxious or insecure? Although it is not very common, the fear of sleeping can be very problematic for people who suffer from it since rest is essential for the functioning of our physical and cognitive abilities. In this Psychology-Online article we explain Symptoms, causes of fear of sleeping and possible solutions.
Symptoms of fear of sleeping
The hypnophobia or fear of sleepingas its name indicates, is the fear of falling asleep, whether due to the belief that you may die while sleeping or sleep disorders such as nightmares, night terrors, etc. that can be produced.
The symptoms usually appear when it is time to go to bed to sleep, although they can also occur a few hours before going to bed as the event is mentally anticipated.
People who suffer from fear of sleeping feel anxiety, nervous feeling or feelings of panic, these emotions are usually accompanied by negative thoughts that lead to avoidance of sleep. These emotions cause sleep, thus avoiding falling asleep. This can cause symptoms such as headaches, memory problems or respiratory irregularity. Sometimes nausea, vertigo and muscle tremors They appear due to the accumulation of tension during the act of sleeping.
Like the rest of phobias, the fear of sleeping is an irrational and excessive fear of something that produces unpleasant sensations. In the case of fear of sleeping, it becomes a disorder that affects our daily lives, since lack of sleep is harmful to our physical and mental health.
Fear of sleeping alone
Just as most basic care, the habit of sleeping is acquired at an early age. On many occasions, adults are not sufficiently aware of the importance of transmitting healthy habits, from a vision of love and serenity, this implies that many of the teachings we acquire are through impositions and obligations.
For example, when we are little and begin to sleep alone, going to bed or waking up in the early morning can cause feelings of anxiety, producing the sensation of fear. Depending on how adults teach us to manage this anxiety, it will increase or decrease.
Adults take for granted many aspects that we gradually acquired as we grew up and that we take for granted, one of them is consciousness. Consciousness is the ability we have to perceive reality and connect with it and therefore this implies understanding the difference between myself and the other. What seems so basic is a capacity that develops over the years and above all with knowledge of the world at different levels.
When we are little and begin to develop our consciousness, the fact of finding ourselves alone in a room or waking up alone in the morning, can connect with the feeling of loneliness. The physical loneliness of the specific moment evokes the feeling of emotional loneliness, this entails a feeling of anxiety, sadness and fear.
Sometimes, this feeling of emotional loneliness awakens in adulthood causing the fear of sleeping alone, therefore, this fear would be derived from anxiety and feelings of sadness.
Fear of the unknown while we sleep
Sleep is something about which we have very little knowledge, there are many situations that we do not know how to define while we sleep, for example, sensations that seem real to us, lucid dreams, experiences known as “extrasensory” and many others without apparent explanation. Many of these experiences that we are unaware of a priori can be unpleasant, producing sensations that remain once we have woken up and last throughout the day.
Currently we live in the belief that science is the only one that can provide us with reliable explanations, without taking into account that it is limited, especially to the most profitable and subsidized studies, which are not always the most necessary for the knowledge of the human being. This has meant that sleep or the processes that human beings experience while sleeping are not of great interest or benefit to current science, minimizing experiences during sleep and trying to control them only through medication when they are uncomfortable for the person.
In ancient times there were temples where people who experienced strange or unknown sensations went to sleep and were later accompanied by professionals who helped them integrate and understand what was happening to them. These professionals were therapeutes (therapeuein which means to care and –tes in the sense of the person) that’s where the term therapist comes from.
This reflects us the importance that dreams and the sensations that occur while we sleep can havesince our mind relaxes and our level of consciousness decreases, we stop receiving external stimuli and internal perceptions from our subconscious can emerge, providing very useful information about ourselves and our own development as human beings.
As an exercise, you can keep a dream diary, where you write down what you experience, the sensations and scenarios you evoke in these dreams and try to see if they are related to each other. It is advisable not to search in books or on the Internet for the meaning of what you dream, although it is true that there are cultural codes that can be reflected in our way of expressing ourselves in dreams, we must keep in mind that each individual experiences the reality of a differently based on your own experiencesso there is no universal language that can respond to your own subconscious perceptions.
Fear of sleeping and not waking up
The fear of sleeping and not waking up is basically the fear of death. Death remains a taboo topic especially in Western society. In some way we have all questioned something about death, to a lesser or greater degree, almost always superficially and from a distant perspective, as if it were something that happens to others but is far away from us.
Very contrary to this superficial thought, Death is something that all people will experience sooner or later., and that in most cases it will be a transit experienced with fear, rejection, discomfort and many other negative feelings. This desperate vision in the face of a natural transition such as death is due to the fear that this issue produces in people, to the fear of the unknown that we find latent in individuals, culture and education.
For example, in Hindu culture, death is experienced with respect and acceptance, this being one of the bases of the spirituality that characterizes this culture, since if you consider your death it is because you consider your life. Becoming aware of the fragility of life brings us closer to valuing, respecting and loving ourselves and other forms of life.
When we sleep we stop having control, both of ourselves and of the environment, to a certain extent this is an act of relaxing, surrendering and allowing what has to happen to happen, without mental anxiety. There are people who feel panic at letting gostop controlling and just allow yourself to be, leaving pretensions aside, this can lead to a connection between sleeping and dying, due to the deep parallelism of attitude.
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Causes of fear of sleeping
The causes of fear of sleeping can come from various factors. As we have seen, the fear of sleeping can be caused by sleep problems such as night terrors, nightmares, sleepwalking, etc. Ignorance of these or other facts causes anxiety and insecurity in unknown situations. Searching for information and consulting with truly qualified professionals with practical experience may be some of the solutions to consider.
It can also be derived from fears related to anxiety and stress or fears deeper problems related to existential emptiness or lack of meaning, in this case self-knowledge, the search for meaning and inner growth can help you resolve the discomfort.
Treatment for fear of sleeping
Treatments for fear of sleeping can be diverse depending on the case and the degree to which the person is. If you have symptoms of anxiety or think you are afraid of sleeping, it is essential that you consult with your doctor; a professional and effective assessment is necessary to determine why the causes occur. It is advisable to undergo tests to rule out any type of physical problem, since some hormonal deficiency can cause insomnia, leading to anxiety due to not being able to fall asleep. This confusion can cause the erroneous belief of suffering from a fear of sleeping as such.
Acquire knowledge about our bodyphysical functioning, psychic, mental and bodily functions helps us understand what happens to us and why, answering these questions from ourselves and not from agreed statistics, benefits us in our human development.
Psychological treatments can be effective, professionals specialized in sleep or anxiety disorders They can accompany you during the recovery process.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
If you want to read more articles similar to Fear of sleeping: causes, symptoms and treatmentwe recommend that you enter our category.
Bibliography
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- Frankl, V. (2015). Man’s Search for Meaning. Barcelona. Herder.
- Krishnamurti, J. (1997). Total freedom. Barcelona. Kairos.
- Longaker, C. (1998). Face death and find hope. Mexico. Grijalbo.
- Nuland, S. (1995). How we die. Madrid. Alliance.
- Panikkar, R. (1999) The Tree of Paradise. Madrid. Siruela.