Somniphobia: Somniphobia is the chronic and irrational fear of falling asleep, it is spreading more and more in modern societies. It is also sometimes confused with insomnia. But this confusion only makes diagnosis and the possibility of a full recovery more difficult. Avoiding sleep can lead to serious disorders, such as severely reduced immunity, obesity, neurosis, and even depression.
Trauma and nightmares
Somniphobia or hypnophobia is a fear accompanied by severe panic before falling asleep and dreaming. It is a long lasting and debilitating disease that is rapidly increasing in modern society. Not surprisingly, it has a very negative impact on the proper functioning of the body, thus contributing to the development of new diseases.
what is the origin of somniphobia?
Unfortunately, its development can be influenced by many dependent factors, which are often unknown to us. It usually occurs as a result of post-traumatic stress, but can also develop in people who have experienced a traumatic event in childhood. Falling asleep can be associated with a feeling of fear as a result of traumatic experiences. These can be truly deadly, like a car accident that happened during sleep, or fear-inspiring. Like waking up in a dark room in the absence of parents. These phobias (including somniphobia) can be induced. In children, they can develop under the influence of suggestive stories, images, or anxiety seen in caregivers (when they have trouble falling asleep).
Another reason is recurring nightmares and associated sleep paralysis, i.e. sudden freezing of the body and inability to move, combined with a feeling of shortness of breath. This condition is physiological during sleep. Avoid accidental, dangerous activity in the absence of conscious control of the body. It occurs when the brain waves are not fully «switched» to dream when sleeping or waking up. Such an experience can cause a paralyzing fear of falling asleep. Unpleasant dreams, including a sense of threat or sleepwalking, can also be the cause. Somniphobia, like insomnia, can be caused or exacerbated by chronic stress. It often accompanies affective disorders (for example, depression) and generalized anxiety disorder (neurosis).
Somniphobia: Symptoms
In the midst of all the stress of not sleeping, somnifobs show the following signs:
- They breathe raggedly
- constantly sweat
- They are short of breath or hyperventilate
- Your immune system is weak
- They often experience sudden mood swings
- They are excessively tired during the day
- Have difficulty staying focused and attentive
- Anxiety and panic levels are generally high
- Those who manage to fall asleep wake up excited several times during the night.
- Headache and nausea
- Muscle tension
rest without fear
- Uncontrolled insomnia under a state of anxiety is life-threatening for the patient. Therefore, it is essential that you undergo a medical evaluation in a timely manner that allows you to find the origin of the phobia.
- From a psychological point of view the roots of fear are in thought patterns. So this will be the focus of attention to combat the phobia to sleep if determined by the particular diagnosis of each patient.
- It is important to clarify that insomnia as such can be both the cause and the consequence of this phobia.
Somniphobia: Therapy
When those who suffer from somniphobia go to the psychologist to receive professional attention. The techniques and strategies used in therapy vary depending on the characteristics and needs of each patient. However, there are several therapeutic resources that are used more frequently than others.
One of the most effective therapies to treat this and many other phobias, both in adults and in the youngest. And we know from experience that psychological intervention is very effective in dealing with this class of disorders.
One of these resources is the systematic exposition. In which the psychologist poses a situation linked to the phobic stimulus and creates a context in which the patient can face this source of anxiety in a safe environment where everything is controlled. To do this, work is sometimes done by proposing exercises of imagination. Sometimes more real contexts are sought. And even forms of therapy against phobias have begun to be developed using Virtual Reality systems.
In addition, the professional constantly adjusts the level of difficulty of these challenges so that the patient can progress until they reach a point where the symptoms have been reduced so much that they are hardly a problem.
Another way in which somniphobia is combated in psychotherapy is using relaxation exercise training. That help not to let anxiety lead the patient to lose control over her actions. Normally these exercises are based on breathing and becoming aware of how moments of relaxation are experienced, so as not to focus on what causes discomfort. The objective is to associate the situations of discomfort due to somniphobia to the moments in which anxiety is reduced thanks to relaxation techniques.
Cognitive restructuring is another therapeutic technique that is especially useful in cases where there are irrational ideas that feed the intensity of the phobia. For example, if someone tends to believe that there is a risk of the heart stopping during sleep. Or if you fear sleep paralysis. In therapy, situations can be created in which the patient questions these ideas, stopping to think about the extent to which they adjust to reality and are a risk that justifies that constant state of alert.
The creation of routines and negotiated self-instructions between the patient and the psychotherapist also helps a lot. The simple fact of organizing time better also helps mitigate the power that somniphobia has on oneself. In this way, situations are avoided in which the patient constantly postpones the moment of going to bed (which generates tension and an anticipation of danger that reinforces the fear of sleeping).