sleep anxiety

[Roxann Kranstover]

Tell me if anyone else has had this experience. I can go for three days with no sleep. This has been going on for years. Night times are nightmares for me. I was molested as a child, and must have developed a vigilance at night. I will literally be up all night, with diarrhea and having to urinate every half hour. Once I have a night like that, it can lead to two more. I will not be able to sleep, even during the day, but will be so physically and emotionally drained that I can do nothing bu lay on the couch and stare, because I can't even follow a sentence. I have gone to work many times like this and people have made remarks about me supposedly behind my back, some have been that I must have attention deficit disorder. I've told no one at work because I fear it will affect my ability to get where I want to be. They will stigmatize me.
At night my body just doesn't shut down. I am 57 and this has been going on since my children were little. When I did sleep then, if they needed me in the night and came to wake me up, I would scream and they would run. They learned to awaken me very gently. I regret that. Please share any like experiences and how you have gotten through it. Thanks

[Guest]

I don't have the problem to the extent you do, but sometimes I will have a few nights in a row where I toss and turn, waking up every hour. The days following those nights I feel out of it and physically tired but have a hard time napping or falling asleep at night- sometimes its like I'm too tired to even sleep! Usually by the second or third night like that my body is so worn out that I will go back to sleeping regularly.

I recommend you talk to a counselor and doctor about your problem, if you haven't already, since it's affecting your work.