c/anxiety·Posted by u/sam_whitaker·1h ago

How do I stop the loop of getting anxious about whether I'll fall asleep?

I used to fall asleep like a person. Now I get into bed and immediately start monitoring whether it's happening, which guarantees it isn't. Last night I watched the red digits on the alarm clock go from 12:08 to 1:41 while doing math about how many hours I'd get if I fell asleep right now. Every time I got close, I'd notice I was close, and pop back up. I tried putting the clock facing the wall. Then I used my phone to check the time anyway. I'm tired enough that I should be out. Instead I'm running a nightly performance review of my own sleep. Weekends are slightly better because there's no I-have-to-be-up-at-6. Work nights are a mess. How do you stop treating sleep like a test you're failing in real time?

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