Insomnia, also known as insomnia, sleep paralysis, also known as nightmares, and much more. . . There are many sleep-related disorders that have very serious effects on our health, but somniphobia, known as the fear of the act of sleeping, is perhaps one of the interesting ones. Also known as clinophobia and hypnophobia, this phobia, which is called the fear of sleep in everyday language, causes the person to be afraid of falling asleep and as a result, they cannot sleep even if they are very tired.
Somniphobia should not be confused with the fear of not being able to sleep.
Because people with somniphobia don’t have thoughts like “What if I can’t sleep and I can’t gather my energy . . . What if I’m sleepy and I am very tired tomorrow . . . ” so what they are afraid of is not being able to sleep. The fear of people with somniphobia is the direct possibility of falling asleep. Even if they feel very tired and go to bed, they ironically have a “I hope I don’t fall asleep” fear. But since they know that sleeping is necessary for their vital functions, they are aware that they have to sleep; Therefore, they have to face their fears every night. In order to better understand the situation, imagine that you are afraid of drinking water, even if you are afraid, you would have to continue drinking water every day despite that phobia in order to continue your life activities.
Fear of sleep is common in people with anxiety disorders.
In addition, people who already have a sleep disorder are more likely to develop somniphobia. In addition, common features of people with somniphobia include frequent nightmares, having experienced a trauma in the past, and fear of death.
One of the most important reasons associated with the fear of sleep is the fear of losing control. People with this phobia are afraid of movements that are beyond their control while sleeping. These include fears of walking in their sleep and hurting themselves or their environment, saying/doing humiliating things, not being able to protect themselves from situations such as fire, earthquake or burglary, dying in sleep, seeing a traumatic memory or a recurring nightmare in a dream.
It is necessary to pay attention to some symptoms that may indicate that you have a fear of sleep.
Among these, there are movements such as increased anxiety near sleeping at night, making various excuses to prevent going to bed, using drugs, alcohol or substance to make it easier to sleep, and trying to stay up as late as possible and make it easier to fall asleep.
In addition, the environment and conditions associated with sleep in these people begin to become anxiety-inducing factors over time. For this reason, the person avoids anxiety in situations such as going to bed at night, being in a dark and quiet environment, and starts to fall asleep in noisy and light environments, in places such as sofas or balconies, without even taking off his work clothes.
Somniphobia is a serious condition that needs to be treated with a cognitive behavioral therapy approach with a specialist.
Although it can be supported by drug therapy, it is important to identify and address the underlying fear associated with sleep. Even if it increases anxiety, care should be taken to be in an environment suitable for sleep at bedtime, activities that will disturb sleep before sleep should be avoided as much as possible, and it should be analyzed whether an action can be taken to eliminate the main anxiety factor. Of course, it is extremely critical to get support from a psychiatrist, as it is very difficult for a person to do these things alone.
The aspect that distinguishes somniphobia from other phobias is that exposure therapy, which is another type of treatment, does not produce successful results. While it is observed that repetitive encounters with the fear element cause depersonalization and thus reduce the severity of the phobia over time, such a situation does not occur in sleep phobia.
If you have symptoms that suggest you have somniphobia, be sure to consult a psychiatrist instead of self-diagnosing and treating.
Sources: Sleep Health Solutions, Exp. Dr. Nihan Coskun, HealthLine
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