Seek help: “If you struggle to sleep alone straight for a week, see a mental health professional,” prescribes Dr Raghu. It’s packed with natural muscle relaxants like potassium, magnesium, and tryptophan. Try home remedy: Banana peel tea has gained a reputation as a sleep remedy. Your aim should be to sleep with a positive mind. If talking to a friend or reading a spiritual book in bed makes you happy, try that. Reduce stress: “Walk for 45 minutes every day and practise breathing exercises like pranayam,” says Dr Raghu. I am now falling asleep with only positive thoughts about myself and my life.” You can chant affirmations like ‘I am now ready for sleep. Practice affirmation: “Say at least three affirmations three times before going to bed,” advises Arpitha. It helps to slow down racing thoughts and relieves negative emotions. Even better is to sign up for classes on mindfulness meditation. It will deviate your mind from stressful thoughts and help you visualise happy images,” says Arpitha. Meditate: “Tune in to a guided meditation during bedtime. Knowing that your house is secure will put your mind at ease, says Sugami. Secure your home: If you fear break-ins, check if your door is locked, windows are sealed, and the watchman is doing rounds outside, before hitting the bed. Overall, any fear that threatens the emotional and physical sense of security of a person can trigger a chain of bad thoughts and hinder their sleep.Īccept: Begin by accepting that you fear sleeping alone and you want to fight it, says Arpitha. “After her husband passed away, she found it hard to sleep alone as she started fearing death.” So he would sleep at Jayadeva every night and come back home by 7 am.”Īrpitha looks back on a case of a grandmother. He started getting anxious that if he gets a cardiac arrest, nobody will know. “His wife was sleeping alongside their children and so, he had to sleep alone. Dr Raghu recalls a man in his 30s, who would sleep at the Jayadeva Hospital in Jayanagar. Such anxiety can set in at any time in life. His anxiety was part of the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.” Dr Raghu shares a case study of an 18-year-old boy: “He could sleep by himself only when his mother told him ‘Good night’ a certain number of times in a certain manner. Sometimes, it could be an underlying disorder. Darkness reminded her of the time in childhood when two thieves had broken into her house.” With or without parents, some childhood incidents scar the mind.ĭr Sugami Ramesh, a clinical psychologist at a city hospital, talks about a woman in her 30s. So during this phase, parents must assure the child that they are around in case he/she needs help at night.” If this transition from co-sleeping with parents to sleeping alone doesn’t happen well, it can leave them feeling insecure. Dr Raghu explains, “In India, it’s a common practice for children to sleep with their parents often till they reach their teens. There’s also the issue of unresolved separation anxiety. The fear can arise from the anticipation of theft or medical emergency, or nightmares, or a frightening sleep paralysis episode, or phobias about rats lurking in the house. In some cases, the cause can be traced back to childhood, and in some, a trauma experienced in the adult years sticks on. The society expects adults to be independent enough to sleep alone, she explains. They don’t broach this topic openly because of the stigma associated with it. Two out of five adults who come to her with sleep issues carry this fear. One-third of people in the world suffer from sleep disorders and I would say at least 10% of them are such cases,” he shares.Ĭounselling psychologist and EQ practitioner Arpitha Ranganath from Bengaluru has observed the same. Only when we start investigating, we diagnose this fear. “They come to us complaining about sleeplessness. I was alone,” she recalls.Īccording to Dr Raghu K, chief psychiatrist at a hospital in Uttarahalli, Kengeri, the fear of sleeping alone is a common problem among grown-ups but they aren’t forthcoming about it. I was in a state of half-sleep and I assumed it to be a ghost when it was a thief. “The fear crept in after a 2014 incident. I have shared this with a few friends and they come over when my husband is out of town,” says the techie, who stays in Koramangala. “I am 32 and people don’t expect adults to have this problem. It’s not something she talks about openly. Shalini (name changed) fears sleeping alone.
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