"It's like being trapped in a bad dreams, but your eyes are open and you're wide awake."
Many people are well aware what having anxiety is like. It's growing more common now days and more people are coming out about their issues with anxiety. Having any sort of anxiety is difficult, painful, and it can ruin the best parts of your life. Over 40 million adults have had reported anxiety, which is over 40% of the world's 18 and old population. Anxiety can be common and a lot of the time, the signs of anxiety can be easy to spot. But I'm writing this to educate you about how devastating night time anxiety can be.
When I say Nighttime Anxiety, I don't just mean having some anxiety at night time. I mean having severe anxiety while sleeping.
Imagine coming home from an 8 hour retail shift on a Saturday. Sounds tiring, right? Well next imagine finally crawling into bed and then laying awake for another five hours. Doesn't that sound like fun? Not really. Night time anxiety can effect you in several ways. Insomnia is the first sign. Laying awake for hours, being so very tired, but not being able to fall asleep. You're uncomfortable, exhausted, and grouchy because of your lack of sleep; Insomnia can effect your life the next day, and even days to come.
But imagine finally getting to sleep, and then being woken up because your brain decided you needed to make sure your alarm was set for the next morning. On average, I wake up three to fours times each night to be sure my alarm is set. Even if I don't have anywhere to be in the morning, my brain still thinks there's a possibility I might. I have dreams about being late for work, about not waking up in time for an appointment, and about not waking up at all.
Night time anxiety is something I've lived with all of my young adult life and it's not something that can be remedied by pills and less caffeine. It's ruined sleep, relationships, and fun. You dread sleeping anywhere but your own bed because of your night time anxiety and people just think it's because you're weird. Having night time anxiety can be embarrassing and very frustrating.
Night time anxiety is not as well known, or talked about, in the world today and I hope this article can help shed some light on it.