What Is Sleep Anxiety?

Stress Management

Sleep anxiety, also known as Somniphobia is the fear of falling asleep and remaining asleep. People who experience this feel they will not be in control of what is happening around when they sleep, or may miss out on something important if they are not awake. In extreme cases, some people also fear that they will die in their sleep and won’t wake up if they sleep soundly. Additional reasons to avoid sleeping may be to avoid scary nightmares that sometimes repeat, again and again, fear of darkness, fear of letting their guard down, fear of loss of control, and inability to be vigilant because they are asleep

Somniphobia is a specific phobia and is classified as an anxiety disorder. Specific phobias are being fearful of a particular person, place, object, situation, or activity. Such fears may be real or imaginary. But they cause distress and impact daily functioning. It’s not limited to children who are afraid of the dark or imaginary demons. Even adults face this fear.

Sleep is extremely essential to our life as air, food, and water. People spend about one-third of their lives sleeping. But when we have difficulty sleeping, it will drastically interfere with our daily routine and destroy us physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Symptoms of Somniphobia

Symptoms of specific phobias include,

Heart palpitations.

Dizziness and Disorientation.

Chest pain.

Tingling sensations.

Chills and hot flashes.

Sweating, trembling, and shortness of breath.

A sense of impending doom.

Fear of losing control or dying.

What Causes Somniphobia?