What Is Sleep Anxiety and Why Does It Happen? Understanding and Managing Your Symptoms

Another prominent symptom of somniphobia is that the patient has a strong desire to avoid sleep at all costs, to the detriment of their health.

The root cause of most phobias is unclear, and the same applies to somniphobia, making them inherently hard to diagnose.

That said, somniphobia may be a symptom of other issues. For example, someone with nightmare disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) will likely want to avoid sleep at all costs, not to experience nightmares that make them relive their traumatic experiences.

Additionally, sleep makes certain people feel vulnerable. So, there’s also the fear of getting attacked or succumbing to life-threatening health challenges.

Isolated sleep paralysis is also a potential risk factor for somniphobia. Isolated sleep paralysis is a condition whereby individuals cannot temporarily move when waking up despite being aware of their surroundings. Such episodes can also add to an individual’s fear and nervousness around sleep.

As mentioned earlier, phobias are complex and challenging to diagnose. However, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) describes seven criteria for diagnosing phobias, including somniphobia. The highlights of the criteria include:

• Considerable fear or anxiety related to the phobia, in this case, sleep
• The fear and anxiety at night last for an extended period, exceeding six months
• The individuals actively try to avoid the phobia
• The phobia causes significant distress and impairs the person’s quality of life
• There are no other reasonable explanations, like being diagnosed with mental disorders like social anxiety disorder

There’s no treatment prescribed explicitly for treating somniphobia. Mental health professionals will usually explore a combination of different behavioural therapies and medications to manage sleep anxiety and somniphobia.

Common methods include exposure therapy, eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR), and cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

In terms of medication, drugs that help reduce anxiety or fear, like benzodiazepines, are often prescribed. Beta-blockers are another example of drugs health professionals may prescribe for someone who has somniphobia.

You’re probably here because you’re searching for answers to your “Why do I get anxiety at night?” question. Sleep anxiety can stem from a variety of issues, including psychological, environmental, and physical factors.

From the stress of daily life to the distractions of our modern world, each piece plays a role in keeping you up at night. We explore these factors below.

Stress, whether from work, relationships, or other life circumstances, can trigger night time anxiety, making it difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep.

You’re heading to bed and suddenly remember that rent is due, and you don’t yet have the full amount. Or you remember the important deliverable at work that you’re yet to resolve despite the deadline looming.

And just like that, your body activates its stress response mechanism, including releasing hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. The presence of these hormones signals the brain to stay alert, making it harder to fall asleep.

Additionally, unresolved feelings such as anger, sadness, or worry can manifest as anxiety when trying to sleep, leading to racing thoughts and restlessness.

Per a study on the linkages between emotion and sleep, researchers found that “the higher the score of anger and the lower the score of control, the higher was the sleep-onset latency,” a term that describes how long it takes a person to fall asleep.

Sometimes, sleep anxiety may start moderately and inconsistently. However, repeated sleep anxiety can spiral out of control.

For example, as sleep anxiety becomes a nightly routine, you may start to worry about your inability to sleep, thus creating a vicious cycle where anxiety about sleeping begets more anxiety, further disrupting sleep.

The thoughts of the potential consequences of sleep deprivation, such as decreased performance at work or impaired cognitive function, mainly trigger anxiety. All of this can aggravate anxiety surrounding sleep, especially for those with high anxiety sensitivity.

According to research, individuals with high anxiety sensitivity pay more attention to anxiety symptoms and interpret them as dangerous or catastrophic, leading to reactions like panic attacks and waking up with anxiety in the middle of the night.

Noise, light, temperature, and other factors like mattress and bedding within your surroundings can also disrupt sleep and contribute to anxiety surrounding sleep. Multiple studies have proven this to be true.

Mental and physical health conditions can all contribute to sleep anxiety. Individuals suffering from any of the anxiety disorders are particularly prone. Moreover, anxiety and sleep disorders are closely intertwined.

Examples of anxiety disorders that lead to sleep difficulties include generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), PTSD, panic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For example, GAD significantly affects sleep initiation.

Chronic pain, respiratory disorders like sleep apnea, sleep disorders like chronic sleep problems, and neurological conditions can also interfere with sleep and exacerbate anxiety. As many as up to 86% of patients with chronic pain suffer different kinds of sleep disturbances, which may ultimately lead to sleep anxiety.

A chaotic or stressful home environment can make it difficult to relax and unwind before bed, contributing to sleep anxiety. An example of a stressful environment is a place that reminds you of past traumatic events.

Similarly, your bedroom can become a stressful environment when you do activities like work or scroll through social media while in bed. Job-related stress can spill over into bedtime, making it challenging to switch off and fall asleep. This is especially true for remote workers.

Think about it for a minute: while scrolling through social media, there’s a high chance that you’ll encounter something exciting, scary, or stressful. Exciting content stimulates the brain and keeps you awake.

Scary content can fuel your anxiety, making you scared of sleeping and stressful content, as we said earlier, can trigger reactions that prolong sleep onset.

There’s an expectation in the modern world where you’re expected to be constantly available.

Certain work dynamics demand more than the traditional 40-hour week, and working in a company with such a culture can pressurise you to stay connected even at the expense of your sleep, perpetuating sleep anxiety.

Even social media platforms are optimised to keep you perpetually online, from “For you” tabs to algorithms that curate content related to your interests.

All these make it challenging to establish boundaries between everything craving your attention, leading to increased stress and anxiety, especially when trying to wind down for sleep.

Reducing sleep anxiety involves different interventions, like lifestyle changes, relaxation techniques, and a conducive sleep environment.

Here are some effective strategies:

Relaxation methods can help reduce and manage stress. Practising these techniques before bed can relax both body and mind, allowing you to fall asleep quicker.

Some of the methods you can adopt to overcome sleep anxiety include:

• Deep breathing: This relaxation technique involves taking slow, deep breaths, which activates the body’s natural relaxation response. Ensure you inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
• Mindfulness meditation or guided imagery: This technique helps you focus on the present moment or calming imagery and alleviates racing thoughts. You’ll need a quiet environment to optimise your gain from this exercise.

Designing an ideal bedroom for sleep involves optimising your bedroom to promote relaxation and restful sleep.

Depending on where you stay and when the sun sets, you may need to install blackout curtains or blinds to block out light from street lamps or sunlight. If ambient light is unavoidable, consider using an eye mask.

Also, minimise noise disruptions. If you can’t help the noise levels, maybe you’re staying in a hostel, you can use earplugs. We also recommend investing in a supportive mattress and pillows that suit your sleeping preferences.

Lastly, keep the room cool. According to the experts, the ideal room temperature for the bedroom is 65 degrees Fahrenheit or 18.3 degrees Celsius.

Lack of regular sunlight exposure can throw your circadian rhythm out of sync. An out-of-sync circadian rhythm affects your energy levels during the day and your ability to fall asleep at night.

Research shows that using Luminette light therapy glass leads to “significant improvements in the experimental group with respect to the delay of sleep onset, the quality, and the daytime sleepiness.”

If you’re wondering how to get rid of bad anxiety at night, then an excellent place to start is making some lifestyle changes.

Practicing good sleep hygiene, such as having a fixed sleep-wake schedule and nighttime rituals, can help reduce sleep anxiety and help you rest better without needing to take sleep medicine.

You can embed your adopted relaxation technique into your sleep routine to turn it into a habit.

Other helpful tips for reducing sleep anxiety include:

• Practice time management: Break tasks into manageable chunks and do them based on their priority to reduce feeling overwhelmed and prevent late-night worrying about unfinished work.
• Set boundaries: Establish boundaries with work or personal obligations to prevent them from encroaching on your sleep time. Learn to say no to commitments that can wait until the next day. Setting boundaries includes avoiding electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, or computers at least an hour before bedtime.
• Avoid stimulants like coffee and alcohol many hours before bedtime.
• Limit naps to less than 1 hour and avoid them once it’s 3:00 PM.
• Avoid large, heavy meals and excessive fluid intake close to bedtime to prevent discomfort and disruptive nighttime awakenings to urinate.
• Try to get at least 30 minutes of sunlight daily.