Is sleep anxiety causing fear of not falling asleep? Seeking relatable experiences.

@Immyxo Did you also only get a few hours of sleep a night?

@Alyssa1995 It defo took a lot longer for me to fall asleep which scared me - I would usually end up falling asleep just because I was so tired from all the ruminating and trying to force myself to sleep.

@Alyssa1995 I’d wake up and check how many hours I had been asleep and if it had been more than 7 I’d be like ‘oh good I can sleep fine’ but then the thought would always come back during the day ‘what if I can’t sleep again’ and so on

@Immyxo I’m unable to fall asleep entirely it seems. I can only seem to fall asleep from complete exhaustion and can only sleep for like 3-4 hours maximum :( I’ve always been a good sleeper so this has scared me so much.

@Alyssa1995 Yes ik exactly what u mean. A lot of nights I’d only sleep for 4 - 5 hours and it was worse when I had something on the next day because it would be like ‘omg Ive barely slept this will ruin my day’

@Immyxo It’s terrible :( would you consider yourself recovered from this fear? What are some exposures you did for it?

@Alyssa1995 I am recovered from it now because I learnt to accept the fear so now it only really gets triggered when I’m going on holiday or know I’m going to be jet lagged as I’ll be like ‘oh know what if I can’t sleep and it ruins the rest of my holiday’ but mostly it’s gone. I honestly think I just got habituated to it on my own when I went on a long cruise holiday and I learnt to just accept the fear. Yes I might be able to never sleep properly again which is terrifying or never be able to sleep again but trying to fight this won’t make it go away so I just accepted the discomfort. It’s difficult to accept at first but I promise it gets easier !!

@Immyxo I can’t thank you enough for your support. I haven’t posted in this forum in a while as my OCD normally took on the Harm OCD theme and never attacked my sleep, but since I value how “good” of a sleeper I was, obviously it gave OCD some fuel. I was in recovery for almost a year and then this happened :( but it is so nice to hear that I’m not alone in this and there’s a way out as long as I stick to my ERP and acceptance. Thank you again and I hope you know just how much you’ve helped someone today ❤️

@Alyssa1995 No worries at all! OCD will always attack what you value the most, which is why it feels so scary. It can often happen when you’ve been recovered from OCD and you feel like you’ve done really well until another thought strikes and it feels like you’re back at square 1. But that’s just what OCD wants you to think. You’re not alone - I am also currently struggling with a scary obsession at the moment, OCD is very creative 😂 Aww I’m glad to have helped. I wish you all the best in your recovery :)❤️❤️❤️

@Immyxo And I wish you the best in yours! You have the strength to get through this ❤️

@Fragile Thank you so much for your kind words! What kind of radical acceptance do you mean?

@Alyssa1995 I just try to accept that I won’t get any sleep. Because if I accept it before it actually happens, it wasn’t as bad because I already planned it, yk? It is rough, i hope you’ll find some relief 🌞