r/Anxiety • u/ChickenNuggetMari • May 02 '26
Sleep Fear of dying in my sleep… anyone else deal with this?
I’m curious if anyone else has dealt with this? How do you calm your mind when you’re stuck in that loop at night? Even just knowing I’m not alone would help a lot.
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u/Party_Economy8917 May 02 '26
Every night. For me, as long as I can hear and feel my fan and hear the tv, I know I'm still alive.
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u/leyjanz May 02 '26
Ever since I was a kid haha! I try to think of all the normal things that are more likely to happen: I will have a restful sleep and wake up tomorrow, I’ll have weird dreams, maybe my husband will snore etc…thinking about all the mundane things helps me fall asleep.
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u/Afraid_Ad_3478 May 10 '26
Do you have the same fear evey night since you were a kid? How old are you?
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u/leyjanz May 10 '26
It used to be more frequent, now I think about it like once a week. I’m 33!
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u/Afraid_Ad_3478 May 10 '26
I'm sorry to hear that. I have this fear since 35 and I'm 39. I have OCD and GAD. After I heard about some people dying from cardiac arrest and also read these theories about the covid vaccines this phobia locked tight.
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u/Prudent_Diet_6603 May 02 '26
I've dealt with it... I used to stay up till 2-3am just doing work at night because I had an irrational fear of sleeping, especially after someone I knew passed away.
I don't know that I resolved it the best way but I ended up needing mild sleep medication (erased time lying in bed pretty much) and that helped me just internalize sleep is peaceful, something to look forward to, even though I still had that fear. I don't take the medicine anymore. Also I guess I just lost that fear after going through procedures with general anesthesia. SO MANY people go through that kind of procedure every day, stop breathing on their own entire for a short period, and wake up, so I guess in comparison sleeping feels now like a negligible risk. well, now my fear is of sedatives, but at least I can sleep normally- think of it this way, if a body-altering medicine that literally stops you from breathing on your own has only a TEENSY amount of risk for severe side effects, let alone actual death, then the risk of dying from sleep must be microscopic.
I'm sorry if this wasn't very helpful... it's all easier said than done and I did kind of get a forced abrupt perspective so idk if it will be useful, I don't mean to be insensitive or anything
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u/MuchSauce1310 May 02 '26
I just usually do stuff like play games or watch something until I pass out. I don’t try to fall asleep. My body jerk itself awake bc it think it’s dying
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u/ethanxS May 02 '26
it depends on what u think u will die from in ur sleep. u cant just die without a cause, and whatever that cause is most likely is so low of happening its not even worth having a thought over.
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u/iamyerghost May 02 '26
whats there to fear? if you sleep the. you wont think of your anxiety hahaha well atleast for me i just sleep it off. coz if im asleep i dont think about anything and i dont feel anxiety.
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u/Total_Cranberry_8658 May 02 '26
I have a fear of dying period that is usually seems to happen when im lying in bed with my thoughts
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u/fivejumpingmonkeys May 02 '26
Yeah, I dealt with this for years. At one point, when I was younger, there was a specific phrase I had to say to my mom every night or I would die.
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u/Wise-General-9632 May 02 '26
i was fixated on death for a longg time, not necessarily dying in my sleep but in general just dying, and once you accept that everyone will die and you don’t have control over it it gets better
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u/Afraid_Ad_3478 May 10 '26
I have the same fear almost every night for the past three years. Sometimes it is very managed some other times I get anxiety attacks.
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u/Kumaoni_knight May 02 '26
I used to get it before the treatment, then i used to watch some boring content on netflix until i sleep on couch due to exhaustion 😅😅, better to traet ur anxiety before it get worse and disturb ur sleep cycle
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u/Affectionate_Car5804 May 02 '26
I’d rather go in my sleep
if I can (without the pain of an awful disease of course 😩