Catching yourself falling asleep

[Ellie5187]

Hi All,

I have been suffering from insomnia for the past 5 months. One of the main issues I have is the resulting anxiety around the insomnia. I find that I often “catch” myself falling asleep, which obviously interferes with falling asleep. This causes a huge rush of adrenaline/anxiety each time I catch myself. I calm myself back down only for it to happen over and over again. Any tips on how to overcome this? Thanks !

[Battleground]

Same problem. I take 2 or 3 Excedrin which seems to help . I find it happening when I am reading or after an especially bad night. I get a headache along with the inability to keep my heavy eye lids open. I just read an article about the benefits of caffeine in boosting energy and sleepiness. I have never been a coffee drinker so I never knew what some people meant when they had to have their morning coffee. Caffeine can be taken in pill form and I was about to e-mail my Dr to ask about the amount and times that would be the best to try it.

[Ellie5187 in reply to Battleground]

Thanks for the reply. Seems we might have separate issues though. Sleepiness is not my problem. My awareness of myself falling asleep is my problem and my mind unconsciously waking itself upon falling asleep. I stay far away from caffeine. I hope you find strategies to help with low energy or wakefulness

[Clarita83]

Hi Ellie, I think I have the exact same thing happening to me. It started out of the blue, it seems. Mines started almost two weeks ago. And I'm slowly started to get other anxiety symptoms along with it ( feeling of fear and dread etc) so I might look into seeing a psychologist again. Have you seen anyone about it?

When did it start for you? Do you have any idea why? And how are you doing today?

I guess I'm wondering if it's insomnia or anxiety or a number of things.

[Ellie5187 in reply to Clarita83]

Hi Clarita,

My story is a bit complicated. It started 3 months postpartum. I had some mild anxiety and tried Zoloft. The first week I tried Zoloft I had insomnia. I didn’t realize insomnia and heightened anxiety could be a side-effect of Zoloft. My first menusteual cycle also returned that week so it could have been that as well? Anyways on the third night that I couldn’t fall back to sleep I began having panic attacks about not sleeping. When I tried to sleep with the anxiety, that is when my body seemed to “catch itself” when drifting off. This freaked me out even more and things spiraled. I barely slept for weeks after this. I then started a sedating antidepressant, Elavil, at a low dose and during the same week when I began to catch myself and my body would automatically panic each time, I just breathed through it, told myself it was ok and eventually fell asleep. I Used this as a positive indicator for myself and slept well thereafter. I was still taking Elavil, oh and 1mg of Ativan at this time. I took the Ativan for several weeks and the Elavil for about 2 months. I have been off the Elavil for 4 months now and my sleep is so messed up. Worse than before I think. I wake a few times an hour. For months I got 2-4 hours of sleep. I think it’s getting better as I haven’t had a completely sleepless night in a few weeks. Apparently Elavil can be very difficult to come off of as your body adjusts to it and without it, it doesn’t know how to sleep on it’s own. I find that I catch myself falling asleep when I am anxious. Which is very often now since I’m not sleeping. Playing a progressive muscle relaxation track helps. I also make sure I go into bed calm and relaxed so I do some meditation and take a bath prior. I have a friend dealing with the same thing. It’s very difficult. I am also enrolled in CBT-Insomnia. Perhaps you can look into finding a therapist trained in that? There are also apps that can guide you through the basics of it

[Clarita83 in reply to Ellie5187]

Hi again Ellie. Thank you for sharing! I'm so sorry this is happening, its not ideal but I truly believe it won't last forever. Your mind is sensitised and it makes it worse. I've been sleeping better the last few nights thanks to a combination of things.

The first one is I take melatonin, 2-4mg an hour or two before bed. If there's one thing you can do for yourself is watch a Google video by Claire Weekes, just type in Claire Weekes, it's the video that goes for 1hour and 19 mins. There are several copies of this from different YouTube vchannels. Please watch this because this is ultimately what helped me stop what was happening to me. I know I'm not convincing but what is there to lose?

Apparently we are adding fear to fear and in this way we continue to feed the strangeness we feel that pumps out adrenaline.

I'd be interested to see if this video and method helps you. I can't attach the link for some reason. Claire Weekes is a life saver. Im grateful to her.

I'm also taking your suggestion onboard because I'm certain it's all going to help. Thank you for responding!

Hope you're doing well.

Sonia