Sleep deprivation

Another night of waking up at 5am with intrusive thoughts & fears. Fears of someone breaking into my house and harming me, fear of house fires and being unable to get my mom & cats out, being overwhelmed with “all the things I need to do” the next day. Obsessing to check the downstairs camera. It’s exhausting and causes me lack of sleep. And then I’m unable to sleep for hours after I wake up sometimes.. and my cat will wake me up in the morning. It’s driving me crazy. 😞😞😞😞 I also need all of my blankets perfectly aligned or I can’t sleep, make my bed every single day bc of it, cannot sleep with pants on or tight clothing. Etc. list goes on…

Username: AnonymousAnonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 46w ago

One thing I learned there through therapy it OCD wants us to be 100% sure that our biggest fears/anxieties won’t happen. That’s what consumes us and our time. Accepting the uncertainty is where progress is made. It’s very difficult trust me but you can do it. Tell yourself, yea someone could break in, a fire could happen, etc.. but what it the probability it will happen? Not very high. If all else fails, learn about Jesus and accept him in your heart. I believe alot of what we deal with like OCD, anxiety, fear, doubt comes from satan trying to ruin our lives. There is peace and comfort in Jesus. Stay strong, you’re not alone.

Username: linabinalinabina

Date posted: 46w ago

@Anonymous Thank you so much for your advice I agree it is very hard to accept but I am working on it. Maybe that’s the hardest part. Glad you have a way of helping your OCD! Also I am not religious.. But I respect your beliefs and I’m glad that works for you!

Username: NeedSleepNeedSleep

Date posted: 46w ago

Yeah, I've got this thing where I'll either have an anxiety attack over it before bed and if I don't have one before bed... I end up waking up an hour earlier or in the middle of the night with it. Maybe my brain is addicted to the adrenaline of it and so induces it? Just speculation really.

Username: linabinalinabina

Date posted: 46w ago

@NeedSleep Same ! Like I’ll be ready to go to sleep and imagine horrible scary scenarios and then I’m like ugh now I need to go on my phone to “change the subject” in my head. And then I end up being unable to sleep bc I went on my phone too long 😭 but the worst (for me) is waking up in the middle of the night. My brain is definitely addicted to something whether it’s adrenaline or constant need for re assurance 😭

Username: MeTellMeTell

Date posted: 45w ago

So relatable! Sorry for your experience. I just take it a moment at a time. I set limits on what I let myself ruminate on. I have my phone set on a do not disturb mode after a certain time so I don't fall down the rabbit hole. Sometimes I push past it & bypass the do not disturb mode, but it's a sort of speed bump to at least slow me down. When I feel the need to keep checking & the thoughts flood my mind I try to do a puzzle or game that I set a time limit for. I drink something warm like chamomile & lavender herbal tea, take a bath/shower, something to relax & set up a bedtime routine to get my brain prepared for sleep. I can relate to the blanket & clothing thing. My dogs sometimes are a pain in the neck or my partner's talking & moving around while sleeping gets me worked up, but I try to focus on getting myself tired & ready for sleep, not giving so much attention to everything else around me. Even though my brain wants to constantly say, "yeah! But what about this, or that, or these... did you think of that" which leads to phone checking. I tell my brain, "sorry... not tonight, I'm going to sleep." Some nights are horrible, & some are better than others, but I'm always striving to make tonight a good one filled with sleep, with intrusive thoughts & fears being thrown to the wind.

Username: zaynab

Date posted: 5y ago

I have work at 4am tomorrow and normally am asleep by 9 or 10 at the latest to be up by 2:30. But the thoughts are so bad I’m afraid of even closing my eyes and lately I’ve been going to bed at 6pm to fall asleep by midnight. I’m so over this. Any tips for falling asleep without getting bad thoughts. I keep picturing imperfect things or reliving every event that triggered me throughout the day. Last night I literally tried falling asleep without closing my eyes (which is impossible) then had to work today running on 3 hours of heavily interrupted sleep. I’m so exhausted and just over this.

Username: bunniesnchee...

Date posted: 2y ago

Obsessions keeping me awake

I'm so freaking sick of this I CAN'T fall asleep because my obsessions and fears just keep rolling and rolling. I am so freakin sleep deprived and I'm trying to keep it together. And being tired and unmotivated makes the worries so much worse. I HATE being this way, feeling so exhausted that I'm paralyzed and don't know how to handle my thoughts I'm trying to let them come and go but they're so upsetting I have a therapy appointment tomorrow so maybe I can get some help there. I just feel no relief from the obsessions and I do not know what to do.

Username: micahbec

Date posted: 1y ago

I can’t sleep at night

Ever since I started 5th grade I’ve had a lot of trouble sleeping. At one point I could sleep up to 15 hours at once because it was like my mind trapped me there and my whole body and thought process was frozen outside of the real world. At another point in time I was obsessed with getting exactly 8 hours. Now, I cannot sleep at night no matter how tired I am. It’s as if sleeping when it’s dark outside makes my intrusive thoughts worse. But as soon as the sun starts to rise, I pass out and stay asleep forever and just like before, I get stuck in my sleep. My dreams become awful, endless nightmares (I’ve had these since I was 4 or 5 but they’ve somehow gotten worse). Like I have no idea what I’m going to do once the nights get longer during fall and winter and I have to go to classes during the day. Part of it may be medication or my other medical condition but a lot of it seems like it’s a part of my OCD or another mental illness. Has anyone else had a sleep problem like this?

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Sleep deprivation

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