Since the beginning of the pandemic, it is so common for patients to come to us with sleep disorders and especially with insomnia.
At the other extreme, there are patients with a irrational fear of going to sleepwhich causes them to delay the time they go to bed until dawn or until they fall asleep from exhaustion.
The result? Insomnia at night. And here we are, like a fish biting its own mouth…
But what is happening to these people? And, more importantly, why is it happening to them?
Hypnophobia, somniphobia, clinophobia or oneirophobia, what is this?
Irrational and excessive fear (phobia) of sleeping and, in a broad sense, to fall asleep, so that the patient can even suffer panic attacks for fear of stopping breathing during sleep or not waking up after it.
In this way, these people associate sleeping with a possible death and since, obviously, they want to continue living, this will end up producing the insomnia I was talking about.
Symptoms
The onset of symptoms occurs when going to bed, although in many cases it can begin even hours before this occurs due to a process of anticipatory anxiety.
Among the symptoms we find physical, we find:
- Dyspnea or hyperventilation
- Excessive sweating
- Weakening of the immune system
- Tremors
- Excessive tiredness during the day
- Headache
- Nausea
- Vertigo
- Muscle tension
And, among the psychological symptomsare:
- Sudden mood swings
- Difficulty concentrating and paying attention
- High levels of anxiety and night anxiety
- Conciliation and intermittent insomnia
- Paramnesias
- Avoiding going to bed
But what are we really afraid of?
- To lose control. When you sleep, you lose control over yourself and your environment, as your muscles relax, but not your brain, which keeps you alive, since it never loses control and continues to perform all the vital functions necessary to keep living. But, in the same way that when you are under anesthesia, you are afraid of “disconnecting” from yourself and your environment because of this fear of not being in control of your life, in both cases, we unite sleeping and dying.
- To the unknown. It is just an extension of the above. It also happens to people who tend to have night terrors or nightmares and the fact of not knowing if they are going to have a bad time that night, too, is another trigger for the fear of sleeping.
- To loneliness. The habit of sleeping, and especially sleeping alone, is acquired during childhood. However, when you are a child and you wake up in a dark room and alone, you become aware of the loneliness of that particular moment that ends when you go to your parents' bed. As adults, waking up at night in the dark unites us with this same feeling of loneliness but already bearing in mind that we cannot run to our parents' room, which generates anxiety and sadness.
- To death. As a superlative form of loss of control in the face of the unknown and fear of going to bed and not waking up the next day. Moreover, in our society, even before the arrival of the pandemic – and still – Talking about death was considered almost taboo.Even when you are younger, you think that death happens to others, but that, in any case, it is experienced with fear, rejection, and a feeling of discomfort.
Causes of fear of sleeping
They are not well categorized, in any case, we could mention among them the following:
- Sleep disorders: psychophysiological insomnia, night terrors, nightmares.
- Anxiety or stress.
- Previously untreated recurrent depressive disorders.
- Sleep breathing disorders such as apnea.
- Past traumatic experiences that generate powerful anxiety, which in turn produces sleep disturbances, which in turn produces more anxiety and enters a loop.
Treatment
- Seek professional help to conduct an initial interview, a psychological assessment – to find out if you are suffering from anxiety, depression, stress or any other pathology – and, from there, start a psychological intervention. Try a free online therapy session at .
- Psychoeducation to acquire the maximum knowledge about the functioning of our organism during sleep. It helps us to understand what causes anxiety and answer questions about yourself.
- Perform cognitive restructuring to change the thought patterns that maintain fear and, therefore, eliminate its consequences.
- Work on all aspects necessary to improve the patient's quality of life.
- Using new techniques such as Virtual Reality to treat both phobia and problems related to sleep and anxiety.
Guidelines for sleeping better
- Follow some routines. Everyone has their own options; take a warm bath, have a light dinner, wait a couple of hours, read something, do relaxation exercises (like the ones you will have been taught at the consultation) or distract yourself.
- Avoid napsEven if you are falling asleep (and even though most patients cannot sleep well during naps) you should avoid them and replace them with activities that provide you with some value.
- Use elements that relax you. Reading, dim light, low sound, aromas…
- Respect the schedules: Always go to bed at the same time – even if you are not sleepy – and always get up at the same time – even if you are very sleepy – If you can't sleep while you are in bed, get up, take a walk around the house, drink some water – not alcohol, coffee, tea or sugary drinks – or make yourself some herbal tea or watch a boring movie or read that book you never finish.
- Don't drink caffeine from the afternoon onwards.
- Do physical exercise a few hours before going to bed.
- Remember that your room should be a comfortable place, at a standard temperature – neither too cold nor too hot – and completely dark.
- And finally, reserve the room just for sleeping.
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- André, C. (2005). Psychology of fear: Fears, anxieties and phobias. Barcelona: Kairos.
- Longaker, C. (1998). Facing death and finding hope. Mexico. Grijalbo.
- Blechner, M.J. (2001) The dream frontier. New Jersey: Analytics Press.