Do you fear sleeping? The sleep paralysis thread made me think I should make this. Personally, for me, I've developed a very intense fear of sleeping for MANY reasons and I'd love to know if there's anybody similar to me so I'm not alone.
First of all, literally 95% of my dreams are nightmares. Very horrible, vivid nightmares that feel real. Although I've had them so many times that sometimes I'm aware that I'm having a nightmare and I try to wake myself up and then I begin to dream that I woke up so I'm convinced that it's reality and I woke up but I'm actually still dreaming and then another nightmare commences but it's even scarier because I'm convinced it's real. Second of all, even before sleeping is horrible. I have trouble sleeping because of how hyper I am naturally and I have a very active mind so I can be pretty restless but I'm hesitant to call it insomnia. More importantly, I have what I can only define as manic paranoia. Just in general as a person and it only amplifies when I'm trying to sleep. I will occasionally have panic attacks, anxiety attacks, you name it. On top of that, I'll have hallucinations (especially auditory). It's a common thing for me to hear people breaking into my house and coming up to my room to murder me and then going around my house to check all of the doors only to find nothing. I actually hear voices a lot too but there's other things too. And just when I think it can't get worse, sleep paralysis is becoming a common theme in my sleep. Just the other night I had it 3 times in one night and I definitely have it pretty often overall. I definitely hear creepy voices the most which I (sometimes) convince myself to be aliens or something. Obviously I know that's ******** but when you're 90% asleep still your mind can wander off to things. Like how I woke up from a nightmare about something where I was involved with Satan only to find myself in sleep paralysis being pulled off my bed and I heard a demonic voice so I thought I was going to hell or something AND I'M ATHEIST. So obviously I know it's not real but in the moment my mind can go off to that zone sometimes. TO TOP IT OFF, I have an unknown medical mystery condition and I won't go into it but when I hear voices during sleep paralysis as I always do, it can cause my body to tighten up and spasm in intense pain and I'm just waiting for it to be over. So even when I know it's not real and I'm ignoring it, I can't because my pain is intense whether I like it or not (not regarding the pain I feel from the sleep paralysis experience myself where my body is basically being abused).
So yeah that's my experience with hypnophobia!
I'd love to know if I'm not alone so post your experiences here!
Edit: Forgot to mention one more fun part!
After I wake up from a horrible night of nightmares or sleep paralysis, if they're exceptionally bad then I'll wake up feeling super weird and foreign like I just came from some other world and it's just a really weird feeling I can't describe.
, it's the only way I can sleep. If they are not at home and it's late, I just turn on the lights outside our house and turn on the tv so that it won't be too quiet.
