All of us at some point have been afraid of one or another bad dream experience; however, there are people for whom this fear becomes a real nightmare even when they are awake: it is the Oneirophobia or Somniphobia and as its various names indicate it is a fear of sleep and although it is a much more common disorder than they could Imagine, research in this regard in the Ibero-American context is very scarce, which is why information in the Spanish language is extremely poor.
The term Oneirophobia itself is relatively young, dating from 2001 when Blechner, almost randomly, mentions it in his book: The Dream Frontier. People who suffer from this type of phobia when they are approaching the time to go to sleep can experience: feelings of suffocation, excessive sweating, nausea, feeling dry mouth, trembling, heart palpitations, inability to speak and think clearly, fear of that the madness happens or to lose the control. Panic attacks are very common.
Although most sufferers understand that their fear has no rational basis, they can not overcome the great fear they experience at the thought of falling asleep.
This phobia usually has its origin in recurring nightmares that may have been experienced both in childhood and adulthood or have seen films or scenes of shocking content before going to sleep, so that these images remain as day lags and then they manifest in the dream experiences that the person experiences as very vivid and real, for which reason, it is not surprising that they live with great fear.
People suffering from Oneirophobia exhibit particular fears very varied: they fear dying during sleep, the inability to breathe but especially to have nightmares and unpleasant dreams.
The treatments tend to be very varied, ranging from the well-known systematic desensitization where the person is gradually exposed to the frightening situation so that fear is gradually lost to psychoanalytic therapies where you try to find and eliminate the unconscious cause of Irrational fear
Among the less conventional treatments for fear of sleeping but with equally effective results can be found: hypnotherapy, Neurolinguistic Programming and even Energy Therapy. However, all show as a common denominator the fact that people must reprogram their beliefs, considering them as the primary cause of irrational fear. The difference between the treatments lies in the level of consciousness in which it is influenced since while Neurolinguistic Programming and Energy Therapy work at an eminently conscious level where they try to vary the thoughts that give rise and sustain the fear to sleep; in hypnotherapy you work on an unconscious level, reprogramming the person's beliefs but without the person playing an active role in the change.
In addition, there are some associations such as CTRN Oneirophobia, a group dedicated exclusively to the management of phobias and anxiety attacks, which offer the possibility of accessing online treatment.
As you can imagine, Oneirophobia is not only an annoying disorder but it can cause serious damage to the person, both emotionally and physically. A night of rest helps regulate our mood and prepares us for new challenges, consolidates learning and erases everything unnecessary memory while sleep deprivation increases the activity of the brain area closely connected to depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders.
However, although sleep deprivation usually leads to difficulties for health, there are some extremely curious cases for the science of people who can not fall asleep; such is the example of Thai Ngoc, a Vietnamese man has not slept in 36 years and so say two local agencies: one from the United Kingdom and one from Thailand.
But this case is not unique, on the cover of ABC also appeared the story of a child of three years, this time doctors could diagnose a malformation in which the brain would literally be sunk in the spine so that imprisons the areas related to the control of sleep-wake states.
As can be seen, there is still much to investigate about the fear of sleeping because so far we can only provide brief touches of what undoubtedly is a highly disabling disorder for the person who experiences it.
