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Anxiety-Induced Sleep Deprivation

I have anxiety. It's something I have to deal with. I have been on a small dose of a medicine to help me deal with it. It isn't bad, sometimes I can barely notice it. I just tend to worry about things a tad more than others. My mind always nagging me about something that I have to do, or haven't done, or something I have done that makes me feel anxious. I can usually control it. However, tonight I took 1 sleeping pill and 1 anxiety pill at around 4 pm to help me sleep as I have to get up for school at 5 am. It is now 12:25 AM. At first when I went to try to go to bed at around 8:30 I had no anxiety. I was tired. I thought I was ready to sleep. I wasn't.


Time passed and I couldn't resist the urge to look at the clock anymore. It was an hour later. Well, no big deal. The latest I could have gone to sleep was 10 pm while still getting 7 hours of sleep, still do-able. I commute to school and I have to drive to the train station for an early train, then ride the train for about an hour and a half. The drive is about 30-40 minutes. So I need my sleep because I have anxiety about being too tired to drive since it's not that short of a drive.

So time keeps passing, I've tried reading books, listening to relaxation music, watching tv, and just silence. Once I passed 10 pm the panic attacks ensued. Every few minutes my heart would race and I would get sweaty. I had to lie there and focus on my breathing. But it kept happening.

Finally I had to look at the clock, it was 12 am. How did I get from being ready for bed at 8:30 pm to not even tired anymore at 12 am? I'm thinking all of this has to do with my anxiety, but the anxiety came out of no where. Now that it's so late and I have to wake up so early I am feeling sick to my stomach anxiety. I am now extremely anxious and feeling sick about missing my first day of classes all because I couldn't sleep. Any ideas on what to do?

Comments for Anxiety-Induced Sleep Deprivation

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Apr 16, 2012
Re: Anxiety - Induced Sleep Deprivation NEW
by: Scott

I think I can appreciate the difficulty you face here. I often struggle to sleep, due to my mind racing, especially when I'm worried about something. Could it have been brought on by the test you knew you were having? It sounds simple, but for me, the thing that works best is literally to breathe deeply & solely concentrate on that; it slows my mind after a few minutes and before I know it, i'm sleeping.

Other than that I wouldn't know what to suggest. My girlfriend often gets me to send her a 'night night text', just to give her piece of mind. She's a chronic worrier and finds this helps a lot. If anyone could do the same for you maybe that's an idea too? Hope that helps at least a little!

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