Anxiety, Travel and Sleep.

[Kris92]

Hi everyone,

Hopefully I can get some help with some of the nice, kind people on here. Or people who have shared a similar experience.
Since young I've been experiencing anxiety. From the age of 13. It's nothing new for me (I'm currently 25).
Ever since I was 18 I've been on and off anti-depressant meds.

I've done some travelling with friends from when I was 18. However, because of my anxiety, travel can be really hard for me.
The problem is that I hardly sleep well when I'm on holidays with friends (I'm travelling again next week). I'm not sure why that is. It's for various reasons. Sometimes I fear what they think of me and I can't fall asleep. Sometimes I fear that I won't be able to sleep and therefore won't be able to do the fun activities the next day because I will be too tired. Sometimes I don't sleep well next to people because of the temperature being too hot, or I feel I dont have enough room, or I'm not that comfortable around them or their snoring. (The girls I'm going travelling with, I'm not that close to). I can put a lot of pressure on myself to be liked, even though I dont really care to be that close to these girls.

I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but this sleeping problem while I'm travelling has been an issue for quite awhile. Everytime I travel with friends these fears bite me in the ass and it's so exhausting. And I never have as much of a good time as I could because of this issue.

If someone could please provide so tips that would be awesome and much needed.

[Indecisive_Butterfly]

Hi Kris92,

Thank you for sharing.I'm fairly new to the BeyondBlue forums but I can definitely relate to what you're going through. Isn't it terrible that knowing that you need to sleep causes so much stress that you can't sleep? And I completely understand the difficulty sleeping while traveling with others, I always feel really uncomfortable and sounds like snoring really bug me.

This may not work for you, but I what I have found is that, when you can't sleep, sometimes you just have to tell yourself it doesn't matter. Take the stress away "I'll sleep or I won't but I have no control over it". If it takes the pressure away and you sleep, GREAT! If it doesn't, you've lost nothing by trying.
I also try and make up a story in my head or sing "100 bottles of beer on the wall" in my head (very rarely do I make it to zero).
Another thing I have tried is making my body dead weight. Just relaxing to the point where you're really floppy.
I've also heard breathing exercises help.
As for the noise factor, maybe earplugs?

Just remember, if you don't get enough sleep you may just have to accept it and try to have a good time anyway.

I really hope that this helps, I really do know how difficult it can be and how stressful lack of sleep is. In the end you can only do what you can do (just be safe and let someone else drive if there's driving involved).

Take care Kris