The main symptom of somniphobia is intense distress when you think about or try to sleep. You may: Avoid going to bed for as long as possible. Feel irritable or have mood swings.
Somniphobia is often a long-term fear and one that may necessitate help from a therapist and/or sleep specialist to overcome—especially since lack of sleep can lead to physical and mental health problems.
Somniphobia is the fear of falling asleep and staying asleep. You may feel that you will not be in control of what is happening around you when you sleep, or you may miss out on life if you're not awake. Some people also fear that they will not wake up after having a good night's rest.
Around 12% of US adults suffer from from the anxiety disorder known as somniphobia.
Somniphobia is an anxiety disorder and a sense of fear that keeps people from sleeping even when they are tired. Common fears that fuel this problem are connected to health problems, the idea of dying, worrying about nightmares or nighttime behaviors.
1. Arachibutyrophobia (Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth) Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. While the phenomenon has happened to everyone at one point or another, people with arachibutyrophobia are extremely afraid of it.
What's going on? This body movement is what doctors and scientists call a hypnic (or hypnagogic) or myoclonic jerk. It's also known as a "sleep start," and it can literally startle you out of falling asleep. This type of feeling is normal, and it can happen before people enter the deeper stages of sleep.
However, the brain undergoes a shutdown process as we enter sleep mode, and if we have poor sleep hygiene, acute stress, or chemical imbalances, we could experience brainwave dysregulation. As a result, we might experience odd sensations at bedtime.
Anxiety, stress, and depression are some of the most common causes of chronic insomnia. Having difficulty sleeping can also make anxiety, stress, and depression symptoms worse. Other common emotional and psychological causes include anger, worry, grief, bipolar disorder, and trauma.
Children who have somniphobia may strongly resist bedtime, cry or tantrum frequently, not be able to sleep alone, and have frequent night wakings. 1 Speak to your pediatrician if you suspect your child may have somniphobia.
Someone with somniphobia, also known as hypnophobia, can experience extreme anxiety and fear around falling asleep that can potentially lead to lasting consequences.
Understanding the phobia can help you overcome it and live a fulfilling life. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is one of the longest words in the dictionary, and ironically, it means the fear of long words. It originally was referred to as Sesquipedalophobia but was changed at some point to sound more intimidating.
1) Arachnophobia – fear of spiders
Arachnophobia is the most common phobia – sometimes even a picture can induce feelings of panic. And lots of people who aren't phobic as such still avoid spiders if they can.
The reason for our brains turning to negative thoughts at bedtime is what's called 'conditioned arousal'. Most people who have a bad time sleeping do so because of a stressor in their life and their sleep goes back to normal when their stress resolves.
Sexsomnia, characterized by sexual behavior during sleep, is within the spectrum of parasomnias occurring predominantly in NREM sleep, as a variant of confusional arousals and sleepwalking, with or without associated obstructive sleep apnea1.
Voices as you fall asleep or wake up – these might happen when you're half-asleep, because your brain is still partly in a dreaming state. The voice might call your name or say something brief. You might also see strange things. These experiences usually stop when you're fully awake.
Turn down your stress levels
Stress is also why you want to sleep but your brain won't stop talking to itself. That's because when the mind is under pressure, it releases a hormone called cortisol, which is also what the body uses to wake you up in the morning. Cortisol causes your heart to beat fast.
Random hypnic jerks and twitches in sleep are completely normal and quite common. They usually don't indicate an underlying health issue and are simply muscle contraction during sleep that ranges from mild to intense.
Hypnic jerks are strong, involuntary contractions that usually happen just when you're drifting into sleep. This jolt in the body can startle you awake when you're in the period between being awake and being asleep.
If your child is afraid of the dark, they're not alone. “It's very common in children and adolescents alike,” says Thomas Ollendick, a distinguished professor emeritus at the Child Study Center at Virginia Tech who has dedicated much of his career to understanding fears and phobias in children.
Nyctophobia is an extreme fear of the dark. This phobia is very common among children but can affect people of all ages.