Fear of falling asleep

Many years ago I had a similar experience. I felt that if I feel asleep I would not wake up. I have no idea what triggered this feeling, but I found myself reading all night long. For some reason I could sleep if it was light out - but as soon as it got dark I was afraid to go to bed. I did go to the doctor, and he did some blood work and found that my estrogen levels were out of whack - he gave me a prescription hormone therapy and it did seem to lessen my fear of sleeping.


The funny thing is my fear left me all of a sudden. I can't even remember when it just seemed to not be an issue any longer. I had completely forgotten about the experience until I read your post. I really think it is in your best interest to never allow yourself to suffer again. If this ever comes back, go to your doctor and get tests done to rule out any physical reasons for your phobia.


You should be very proud that you overcame this difficulty all on your own!!

While I myself have never really had an issue with falling asleep (in fact it's been the opposite and I've been sleeping too much if anything) when it comes to something like a lack of sleep or anything that could impact on your life significantly, I do think that at some point you are going to have to get professional help. I know that for a lot of mental health issues there are a lot of self help techniques that can work, but sometimes there is only so much that you yourself can do and you are going to need to at least speak to your doctor just to get an opinion.

I went through this for quite some time after my Dad passed away in his sleep. He just went to bed one night and never woke up. After that I feared falling sleep. I would keep myself awake until I was so exhausted that I couldn't function any longer and then I would crash. I would go to bed all dressed for fear of somebody funding me dead. I lived alone at the time and I would often wonder how long I would be dead before somebody come to look for me. I still have those thoughts when I go to bed each night. I consider every day I wake up a blessing. I don't think I will ever completely get over the fear of dying in my sleep.

I had a second cousin who died in her sleep fairly recently. She was not much older than I am, and that bothered me quite a bit. It didn't really make me afraid of falling asleep, but it made me decide that


I wanted to live. I take an aspirin at night before I go to bed, that is supposed to prevent heart attacks, however, all things considered dying in your sleep is not a bad way to go. To be hones twe should all be so lucky! However, I expect to live a good long time, and if I died in 2.5 years, I would not be too happy I don't think. However, it really depends on the day!

Well I cannot say that I suffer from this personally, but I can imagine that it would be rather difficult to deal with. I am trying to imagine the scenarios when I would be most likely to just fall asleep or when I would be at the most risk, and I would think that if I were driving that would be terrifying. Now that I think about it I have had sleep issues come and go before, so this might be something that you can really develop with time, which is a little worrisome, but I guess awareness and recognition is never a bad thing.

Laying out the reasons as to why the fear to fall asleep triggers is very difficult. When you find yourself in this place it becomes sort of a wake-up call to take some action. I remember when I was ten years old and all I could think about was me passing away, it was such a terrifying feeling. thankfully, after over 15 or 17 sessions with my psychiatrist, I was able to break free from this bondage but it took personal determination and a great deal of discipline because I had to trick myself into believing that meditation was the best and only approach. It was beneficial and if I were to give an advice to someone would be to meditate.... do some yoga, have some sort of daily encounter with nature and when you do ask yourself why am I feeling this way? how do I want to feel? The more you train your mind, the more emotionally intelligent you'll become, which is why I think that everything that might be considered a handicap can become your biggest asset to fulfill your god-given potential.

I had a similar case of being afraid to fall asleep. However, it was due to the fear of lucid dreams. It's where your body is asleep but your mind is awake, and the world you are out in is very different. This feels amazing, but almost always leads on the sleep paralysis, where I can't move but am being surrounded by monsters and dark figures, and everything seems so real. I have no idea how to get in or out of lucid dreams or how to leave sleep paralysis, but after a while of being extremely paranoid, fatigue took over and I ended up having short bursts of deep sleep every night. It somehow fixed itself, but sure was a hellish experience during those sleepless nights.

Joel7050 said:

I had a similar case of being afraid to fall asleep. However, it was due to the fear of lucid dreams. It's where your body is asleep but your mind is awake, and the world you are out in is very different. This feels amazing, but almost always leads on the sleep paralysis, where I can't move but am being surrounded by monsters and dark figures, and everything seems so real. I have no idea how to get in or out of lucid dreams or how to leave sleep paralysis, but after a while of being extremely paranoid, fatigue took over and I ended up having short bursts of deep sleep every night. It somehow fixed itself, but sure was a hellish experience during those sleepless nights.

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Im similar, I dont really have a fear of sleep, but there is always that worry in my mind that what if I have sleep paralysis again, for me its where my mind is awake but body cant move, I can even hear real things going on over top of the dream like state and horror. I also sometimes hallucinate upon waking. So I usually a little worried but not of sleep itself exactly

Every now and then I have had issues about falling asleep, but not too often. I think most of my anxiety about sleep comes from the idea of sleep itself. It's like, you just close your eyes and kind of hibernate.
If one thinks about it too long, it is kind of... I don't know, very supernatural I guess the word would be.

Sleep fascinates me actually. It's like, you could be watching television one minute, or talking to someone, and the next thing you know, you're waking up, hours later.
The show that you were watching has gone off, the person that you were talking to has since left the room.

Sometimes I wake up all discombobulated, not knowing what's going on, or what time it is.

The other night I woke up, but instead of realizing it was still nighttime, I thought it was day.
I had an early morning appointment, and was really bummed about having to get showered, ready, and out the door, all while still feeling so sleepy. Plus, it was super-dark outside, perfect kind of morning for staying in bed: very overcast, and cold. I was dragging around the house, preparing to go out and about, but dreading it.

Prior to getting in the shower, while looking out of my bathroom window, I thought to myself, 'I know it's early in the morning, and it is winter, but even so, it's unusually dark.'

It wasn't until I had walked around my house a little bit more, and kind of shook the sleep off, that I realized it was still night. That was so weird. But... I eventually cheered up about the whole thing when I realized since it was still night, my morning appointment wasn't until hours and hours away.

From time to time I get this too. It is a very strange feeling to have and I don't really understand what I get afraid of.

Thinking about it, I think that as I am falling asleep I remember that sleep is like death. I get aware of that 'passing over' or 'crossing the consciences'. When I get into those kind of thoughts it makes it very difficult for me to sleep as each time I'm about to drop off, I suddenly make myself very alert.

I have found that I can overcome it by watching a DVD in bed. I find my eyelids getting heavy and eventually fall asleep. By watching the movie, I have been able to forget my thoughts and allow my mind to relax.

I was barely out of university when a friend died in his sleep. He was 18, a college student. He wasn't known to have a heart disease or any other illness. His brother recalled that he was groaning in his sleep and when he got up to wake him up, he saw that he was foaming in the mouth. He never managed to wake up again. I was already an insomniac at that time and the incident made me dread sleeping. I would unreasonably 'snatch' myself from sleep when my eyes and my body were begging for sleep. Sleep deprivation caused my heart to palpitate. I tried to simulate sleep by just lying down and letting my body rest. That was never enough, of course. After a few days, I finally had to surrender and sleep.

Houille said:

Does anyone else have an irrational fear of falling asleep?


Back in 2011-2012, I developed an incredibly severe case of insomnia because I forced myself to stay awake for days on end - until I found that I could no longer fall asleep, no matter how exhausted my mind + body was. I was so afraid of falling asleep... I had irrational thoughts that once I wake up, I might be a different person - or that I won't wake up at all. It's changed now, I overcame my phobia and I am coping, but I still vividly remember those hellish days.


What are your experiences? And how did you cope?

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Oh boy, I know what you mean. But I wasn't afraid of falling asleep and waking up as another person, it was more that my mind simply decided to not let me sleep. It would come up with all kinds of crazy games to play instead of letting me fall asleep. Paying attention to my breathing, that was the worst one. Once I started doing that, I couldn't drift off into dreamland. Or just as I was about to fall asleep, I would hear a loud "POP!" in my head, like something snapped or a gun went off or something (?) Then I would be awake, and stay awake, for many hours. I read up on that a few days ago, and it's actually called, "Exploding Head Syndrome." It only happens to people suffering from extreme anxiety.

I don't know, even though I think I finally have the sleep problem under control, part of me still wishes sleep didn't exist. Period. Life would be simple. But unfortunately, our minds and bodies need rest. I guess my mind just doesn't like to rest. Now that I can finally sleep, I clench my teeth the entire time and wake up with all my teeth hurting. I think my mind is angry that it has to sleep. That wouldn't surprise me one bit.