Let's all try and exercise to help us be able to get out of our own heads tonight: let's talk about what's keeping us from sleeping tonight.

You want neurosis? Here ya go! Anybody in a similar situation or any advice would be appreciated as this is a recurring thing for me.

After an OK week I slept really terribly last night and now I'm afraid I will again. Tried looking up advice (tl;dr "stop worrying, it'll keep you from falling asleep!"). Don't want to take a melatonin because I'll be groggy in the morning. Don't want to take a benadryl because if I don't fall asleep when it kicks in I'll be a very awake zombie like last night - and I have a feeling the pressure to fall asleep within a window will overrule the medicine.

I feel trapped because I'm not in a neighborhood where I can go for a walk at night. Can't really make a cup of tea, watch rv, or even read a book in peace without waking people up. Headphones aren't accessible without waking people up. And with other people who have their own sleep schedules to deal with I'm sure getting my own schedule regular will be awful. Just like eating well. So lots of nights like this to look forward to plus I'll be fat. And that'll make it harder to exercise which will make it harder to sleep.

Oh, this evening I started worrying about it around dinner time and downed a few beers hoping they'd either make me sleepy or stave off the anxiety enough that I'd fall asleep fast. NOPE. And yeah I know that's a really bad idea but gee when the only tool you have is a hammer everything starts to look like a nail.

Anyhow, I get to stare at the ceiling/hug my pillow/curl into the fetal position and listen to all the things. There's a car playing bass super fucking loud, snorign which is usually relaxing but tonight it's almost painful, the automatic air freshener (why) going off every 36 minutes making me jump, and whenever all those stars align for a moment of silence the cat runs across my legs or takes a massive shit or just runs in circles or something by the sound of its collar. And a car alarm just went off outside. Motherfucker. You know that Kurt Vonnegut story where they play loud noises to disrupt intelligent thought? It seems so real tonight.

I downloaded the game Lifeline a little while ago and it's actually making me feel quite a bit better. Tomorrow I'm going to wake up a couple hours early and go running before everyone else gets up and take the batteries out of the damnable auto air fresheners. I guess that's a start.

Pretty embarrassed at the length of this post, but I guess this is the place for it. Still, sorry to vent. Hope you all have better luck and sweet dreams.

/r/Anxiety Thread