Night time anxiety

[Gethappy17]

Is it just me or does anyone else get bad anxiety at night? I get it kinda bad when im alone but I get it even more when it's time to go to sleep. I have been having such a hard time falling asleep lately and it's the worst.

[NanCeder5]

You’re not alone, my anxiety hits me way worse at night as well. However for me, I don’t have any trouble falling asleep, it’s staying asleep. I’m exhausted from repeated nights of not sleeping because of the anxiety, so I’m able to pass out very quickly, but then about 3 hours in I wake up and can’t fall back to sleep. It’s a vicious cycle. Or if I do manage to fall back asleep it’s like an hour before my alarm is set to go off. I don’t know if you experience this, but for me it’s not being able to to shut off my thoughts. It’s just like an endless list of anything and everything that’s worrying me in my life, for whatever reason manifests itself in the middle of the night, and there’s absolutely no way to drown out the thoughts. Lots of ruminating. One trick that kind of worked at least for a little while which someone taught me is to recite a line from a song over and over again in your head, It’s supposed to take the focus off of your racing thoughts and onto one specific thing. It helped me, but definitely wasn’t a full solution. Other people say to write things that you’re preoccupied with down on a piece of paper, things got so bad recently that I did actually keep a pad and paper by the bed and make notes of things that were running through my mind as they were happening. But honestly in the end, the only time I ever get a halfway decent night of sleep anymore is when things seem temporarily resolved that I’ve been worrying about. I feel “at peace,” in the moment.

Anyway, I hope you’re able to get some better rest for yourself soon, the anxiety is magnified when you are exhausted!

[Adlon57 in reply to NanCeder5]

Same here, I live alone, but my brain is ALWAYS working faster late at night, early morning, I'm retired, but takes me hours getting to sleep, even then broken sleep, I am a deep thinker always have been. I might sleep a couple of hours then wake up but cannot go back to sleep, so it builds up sleep pattern gets more irregular, morning ALWAYS weakest part of the day. I like theologizing maybe for hours, lightens the mind, I know going back to my mancave and rumbling away on my laptop does not help much? I'm downsizing at present, moving to a smaller apartment, currently DOES NOT help my sleep, but this is a process I've known I HAVE to do, but after 21 years, same sleep pattern throughout, ALWAYS been a bad sleeper throughout my life, maybe, maybe, this could be a major turning point in my life 🤞

[Adlon57 in reply to Adlon57]

I'm going to a Mental Health Counselling meeting tomorrow, got 'sized' out a couple of weeks ago, honestly thought that would be it, they got me on their 'system' that was it! THIS could be start of cleaning the brain all the 💩that has been up there for 68 years, maybe another way of at last, getting some sleep?😴

[Gethappy17 in reply to NanCeder5]

Yeah i tend to play music going to bed cause I can't sleep in silence so it's either music or a show im familiar with the voices to help me go to sleep. I also have no trouble falling asleep with help of melatonin and sleepy time tea but staying asleep is tough.

[Mskitty21]

I take sleep meds but sometimes still get anxiety at night as well. Def worrying at sleep time is super common because it’s a cycle of… oh no it’s bed time I’m gonna get anxious… but I need my sleep.. what if I can’t sleep… I can’t be so anxious now I need to just sleep and so on it goes.

Having a night time ritual can really help. I also listen to something when I’m going to sleep to help my mind focus on something else.

Magnesium and chamomile tea can help at night time to help relax you and your mind.

Sending good sleeping and relaxing vibes your way 🩷

[Gethappy17 in reply to Mskitty21]

I usually take melatonin and drink sleepy time tea which of course helps me fall asleep but the hard part is staying asleep. I wake up in like a panic attack sweating. And I can usually breath thru it and fall back asleep but I haven't had a solid at least 6 hours of sleep in a while and it's so bad when I have to drag my self out of bed in the morning. I can never really out my finger on what caused me to wake up my body just freaks out and then I'm up.

[CL3V3R-G1RL]

I have told myself when I can't sleep "Fine, I'll go watching my favorite shows. Whenever I get tired is when I'll go to bed". Sometimes I watch things that my partner isn't interested in. I, too, spend the night alone because my partner goes into work at nights. So I downloaded a game called Zencolor. It's like a paint by numbers thing and plays relaxing music. And it helps me relax.

I also journal. Trying to get better at that to write out my feelings and work on my handwriting. Until I get sleepy 🥱

Sending love and sleepy dust ✨ 🫂❤️

[Gethappy17 in reply to CL3V3R-G1RL]

Yeah thays a pretty good idea. I usually do color or write thru out the day when I get anxious. But i never thought to have that near the bed. In case I can't fall asleep ill have to give it a shot