anxiety and sleep

[firelily]

Does anyone else find it hard to sleep after a particularly anxiety-provoking social encounter? Even hours afterwards, I'll have really fitfull sleep even when I'm tired as and there is no immediate 'threat'. I'm supposing its because of the adrenalin in my system. Does anyone have any remedies? Or similar experiences?

 

[firelily]

How good would it be if our brains had an off switch? Hehe, although if our brains were entirely off then we wouldn't be able to breathe etc. 8O So maybe just being able to switch off anxious thinking would be good.

I might try some experiments with rescue remedy or valerian and the like...

 

[Septor]

Yep anxiety and sleep don't go togather very well.That's somthing I have struggle with sense my teens.

 

[Toad]

I have this problem as well...my doctor told me to take Melatonin to help me sleep. Although it really doesn't knock you out, it does kinda fog your brain up and make you tired. It's definitly not the most effective solution and doesn't work that well for me, but it's completely natural and isn't habit forming so maybe try it out and see if it works? I just don't like having to depend on drugs to fall asleep, but for now I'll just accept it I suppose.

 

[Boundless]

I find it pretty hard to sleep most times,all the thoughts running through my head >.<

 

[candi_boo_kisses]

hmm i dunno i cant sleep in general much but wen i do something thats made me very anxious or have a panic attack i feel realllly tired! i remember wen i had my first panic attack which was 6 in the mornin so id slept all nite then i managed to sleep again for like 5 more hours coz i just felt drained from it x

 

[Septor]

Me to but it goes in cycles.I can go weeks with normal sleep and then something happens and I have a hard time sleeping.

 

[tewstroke]

I am the exact opposite, after a really bad anxious day i can't think of anything else better to do than sleep. I think thats partly because it really wears me out its like an all day rush. On the other hand if i know that i will have to do something the next day that my trigger my anxiety like a presentation or something i can't sleep at all.

 

[eliot]

i wake up in the night - i think i have bad dreams - sometimes crying / screaming quietly. but almost always in a panic. i dont really have enough time to take sleeping pills as dont you have to be asleep for like 8 hrs or something? but if anyone has any suggestions it would be very much appreciated.....

ive had this problem for about a month now and getting very tired....

x

 

[eliot]

i wake up in the night - i think i have bad dreams - sometimes crying / screaming quietly. but almost always in a panic. i dont really have enough time to take sleeping pills as dont you have to be asleep for like 8 hrs or something? but if anyone has any suggestions it would be very much appreciated.....

ive had this problem for about a month now and getting very tired....

x

 

[Remus]

I'm the same eliot, also I get sleep paralysis practically everynight, I got about 4 or 5 hours sleep every night, sometimes less, on rare occasion I get a full 8 hours, the less I sleep the more messed up I feel the ne=xt day, I have a regime where I force myself to bed 12:30 everynight and not any later, I found chatting online and using my PC into the early hours seriously affecting my sleep and affecting my anxiety

 

[Toad]

i dont really have enough time to take sleeping pills as dont you have to be asleep for like 8 hrs or something?

Actually the stuff I was talking about (Melatonin), you don't really need to get any set amount of sleep with (or so im told...I'm tired all the time so I can't really judge this)...they're not really sleeping pills per se. I only get about 5 or so hours even when I take it, but as I said before, it doesn't really work for me. Might be worth trying though because it's relatively inexpensive.

 

[eliot]

thanks to both of you for your replies,

can you get melatonin over the counter or is it prescribed?

thanks

 

[Toad]

It's over the counter...you can find it a lot of places, I know Walgreens has it...Wal-Mart probably does as well.

 

[newshyguy]

yo

ill prescribe you something that is free

its called: Creativity

it worked for me, there were times where my mind was just so active and i just couldnt sleep (i still have something like that but once in a while)

so why not use all that energy for something, well at that time i used to watch this cartoon Dragon BallZ , and i liked it a lot, so i thought , what if i create my own character... so i imagined my own character in my mind with his own history, customs, voice, moves and so on. and then i thought how he would fit into the cartoon , would he be a good or bad guy and so on. ...and there was always things to add

so what i did was let my mind do all of the work, and for those couple of 10 mins that i was doing this, my mind was only focused on the cartoon , i completely forgot about my problems or w/e i was going to do tomorrow.
and then after a while of thinking i would fall asleep on my own

but i only recommend this to you instead of pills or prescriptions,
this is not a solution to your sleep disturbance, because thats probably an effect of life problems you have . so you also gotta step up

 

[Reholla]

One time i went through such an anxiety filled week...and the only time my body would get a break from it was when I fell asleep..which is probably really unhealthy..

And it got so bad that I remember as I was waking up, I remember feeling my body shift from normal state...to completely keyed-up anxiety stricken state within like seconds. It was the worst feeling, like I was waking up from a dream and living in a nightmare.

But on a happier note I will say that sleep is very crucial in anxiety recovery, so even if you cant, really try to get enough sleep and eat right, and get exercise.

 

[abc1234]

gone

 

[My_shrink]

I've never really had any problem sleeping.I think it is because i have become very good at escaping reality.

I love the time before i go to sleep, i think about the same thing every
night which i started to do some years ago.

I imagine myself being someplace else, usually in the future, and that
the whole world has been destroyed by war. I imagine myself holding
a rifle, and that i am a guy who is skilled with weapons.I imagine
myself being a person who can thrive in difficult sitiations, that i can
have self-controll and be happy and at peace even though society
is not functioning. Of course very unlike the person i am today.

I imagine myself holding a rifle in my hand, and seing people i despise
today in the crosshairs.They are of course failures in this environment,
and i imagine them as raggedy and pathetic people scavenging around
for something to eat. I imagine myself seeing them in the crosshairs
and just enjoying that feeling that i can take them out if i want to, that
i controll them...

You can use that technique if you want :wink: