New problem: sleep anxiety!

Never in my life did I think I would/could develop anxiety about sleep! For the past several years, since I started running regular, I became a good sleeper. Could pass out quickly and sleep 7-8 hours no problem. Last week I had a really rough week, started with a panic attack last monday night that was triggered by physical symptoms - felt like I couldn't get enough air when I breathed, likely due to GERD/reflux. I started worrying it meant something really scary, then my heart started racing, then I started worrying about my heart! LOL. Long story short, ended up taking lorazepam that I had from an ER visit months ago that I barely used. 1mg, knocked myself out. Had to do the same thing the next 3 nights and then freaked out because I didn't want to become dependent/tolerant. I normally never take anything like that. My doctor started me on sertraline on friday, we are hoping once it gets into my system and kicks in this problem will re-set itself and my brain won't be as tuned into my anxiety. Anyway, Friday night I stayed up all night, tried melatonin but it didn't work. trying to re-set myself. Saturday night I took less melatonin, fell asleep for about an hour then woke up, an hour later took one benedryl and felt really weird, fell back asleep sometime between 3am-4am and slept til almost 8am. I was glad I got any sleep at all but it wasn't enough. Tonight was bad again. I did my melatonin, I did a new wind down routine, no TV or computer an hour before bed, etc. Told myself I am only allowed to sit and do mindfulness meditation or drink water if I can't sleep. I rested comfortably for like 40 minutes but couldn't drift off. Tonight, there were no distressing bodily sensations (maybe a few but I remained calm), my GERD symptoms were better, but my brain would seemingly not let me drift off. I tried sitting mindfully, laying on the floor mindfully, walking mindfully....took 2 benedryl between 11-midnight, they made me feel drunk and i may have drifted off for a short amount of time but I don't remember.

The anxiety about not sleeping is overlapping with some weird thing my brain is doing in trying to keep me awake. I believe there's some subconscious thing about not wanting to lose control and a fear of dying in my sleep, related to health anxiety. I think the zoloft will help the health anxiety part, but the anxiety about not sleeping I'm not sure about!

Anyone else has this problem? How long have you gone without sleeping? What has worked for you?

I am getting an acupuncture treatment later today and I'm hoping I can nap during it. I also told myself since i went 3 days without lorazepam, I can take it tonight (monday night) to try and sleep and see what happens. I will try a few more nights to sort this out myself and then contact my doctor. Last week I was in his office 3 times! He put me back on a beta blocker for my heart palpitations (I was on one for a limited amount of time earlier this year) and the sertraline. Something tells me all these drugs in my system are not helping either! I am not going to take lorazepam more than once or twice a week if I can help it, i will try other things the alternate nights.

Thanks for listening. I feel better just typing this.

I get a lot of anxiety about sleep, but that's because I tend to dream a lot and my dreams tend to be bad. So I'll have a particularly disturbing or realistic dream and then be afraid to fall asleep again for a few nights, though I've hardly ever seen actually "recurring" dreams. Usually I just stay up later and later each night until I kind of collapse with exhaustion, or force myself to sleep with Advil PM or whatever.

I think the longest I've ever gone without sleep was like 52 hours or so. But I'm one of those unfortunate people who needs a LOT of sleep to function; I feel really groggy and get very forgetful when I get less than 9 hours in a night.

Good luck; I hope you're able to sleep well again soon.

how did the treatment go?

able to rest at all?

i am anxious in sleep because i have nightmares.they feel so realistic that i often wake up with fast heartbeats.

Oh man, those nightmares sound horrible! Every once in awhile I've had a bad dream that makes me afraid to go back to sleep that particular night, but it never would be consecutive. But that would be a very good reason why your brain would keep you awake! Not getting regular sleep SCARES me. I am afraid I'm going to start hallucinating or have a heart attack and wind up in the hospital. Like you, I need a good amount to function. I usually get 7-8 hours. The past week (since last Monday) the most I got was 7 (last night, after taking Ativan...ugh) and the least was 0 (Friday) with an average of 3-4 the other nights. My body is badly sleep deprived! But when I lay down, my fight or flight kicks in and my brain turns on. It's so frustrating.

Thank you for asking!

The acupuncture was lovely, for some reason I had gotten myself worked up before it (no trigger just heart beating fast for some reason) and as soon as I was laying down with the needles, I chilled out. I didn't think I napped during it, but I realized I was dreaming while having awareness of the other people around me (it was community acupuncture). When I got up to leave there were 4 other women in the room, and I only recall hearing 2 come in, so I think maybe I did sleep a bit? The acupuncturist told me to come again, so I'm going back tomorrow, and I'm seeing my regular acupuncturist on Friday. The more, the better!

I ended up taking an Ativan last night to sleep. I am not going to beat myself up about this. it had been 3 nights of either 0 or poor sleep, I was shaking and getting weird tingling in my face and having another semi-anxiety attack before bed. My husband just said "Just take it!" and I did and it worked. Tonight I'm trying melatonin again. I'm going to keep alternating things until something sticks and I get re-set again. Or, if all else fails, call my doctor again. I really don't want yet another prescription, but I can't afford to be sleep deprived!

I hate those fast heart palpitations at night! They are the worst. Mine seem to be happening for no reason, although it might be my body getting prepared for a panic attack or something because it seems to think bed is scary right now because of the panic attack last week. I am trying to re-wire my brain to remember bed is our friend.