Sleep anxiety and OCD

I can really relate to this post. I have struggle with sleeping anxiety on and off for decades. Sometimes the only sleep I would get was just from pure exhaustion. I preface I'm not advising you to do the same but I take Benadryl at bedtime now. I have pretty bad allergies so it helps with that AND helps get me to sleep. However, during particularly stressful times even the Benadryl doesn't help. Counting is usually what gets me to sleep. I know the concept of counting sheep is kind of lame but it works. You don't have to count sheep. You can count anything. I usually visualize sheep jumping over my bed and counting them one by one and eventually fall asleep. Of course when I wake up to go to the bathroom sometimes I have to start this process all over again. Good luck! I hope your therapist can help you with this! ♥️

Try trazadone!! I got prescribed it from an online doctor. It helped me so much as I had the same issue and would go DAYS without sleeping. I didn’t know it was OCD at the time. Now I’m on Zoloft and I don’t need to take the trazadone anymore.

Hi!! I have SO much experience with exactly what you’re describing. The thing that helped me the most in the end was writing imaginal scripts as an exposure with my therapist, detailing the worst case scenario of what would happen if I don’t sleep, and also detailing how I feel and what I experience while laying in bed trying to sleep. Reading these in the day seem to help my brain get “used” to the ideas before they actually happen. It helped me to release my need for control over sleep. Releasing control of sleep is so difficult, because we obviously know we need and want sleep. This is tough, and I empathize with you completely. The sooner you’re able to stop “caring”, the sooner your sleep will return

I would have sleep anxiety for fear of not being in control of my thoughts or body while asleep. The concept of being in a state where time perception is altered for hours all whilst my thoughts take over is a subconscious anxiety that would prevent me from falling asleep naturally, or if I would supplement it with medication, I would wake up in a panic. I noticed if I wait out my natural circadian rhythm it would help. Ive been working a morning shift for the past couple years but naturally I would fall asleep comfortably around 4-5 am so forcing myself into a rhythm that my body doesn’t agree with is where I think some of my anxiety comes from. I’m not completely similar to your thought patterns however I think experimenting with the actual time frame that you plan on falling asleep might help