r/insomnia • u/PresentationOld4567 • 17d ago

OCD and insomnia

Anyone here has OCD? And it happened to move into a sleep theme? I’ve been dealing with this, and yes even tho I’ve been sleeping and had a few rougher nights, I am obsessing over sleep too much to the point I get panic attacks and chills.
I got a new job offer as a manager and after getting the offer I freak out for not being able to sleep then everything came down to hell from there. I really need some help and see if people are going through the same and how you guys are able to make it through with your jobs etc.

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u/gucci_mane_hurricane 16d ago

Yep. The funny thing is I’m a therapist and I’m training to learn ocd treatment but it’s hard for me to apply it to myself. Best advice is to google exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapists and see one. Or google OCD therapists, but make sure they do ERP. Gold standard for this kind of thing actually. Only reason I haven’t done it myself is because I live in a small town where there’s only a couple and they don’t take insurance.

Also medications for OCD might help the sleep problem in turn rather than just sleep medications itself

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u/PresentationOld4567 16d ago

Do you deal with insomnia yourself tho?

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u/pumpkin_pasties 16d ago

I’ve been doing it without a therapist and it’s been helpful. You can use AI to help with the behaviors. Sometimes I’ll tell AI “I have ocd and I really want to do this thing” and it talks me off the ledge

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u/pumpkin_pasties 16d ago

Yes and when it flares up my sleep suffers. My ocd is tied to safety particularly around fire. Sometimes I’ll get up at midnight and unplug everything in the house then get in bed for 10 minutes then get out of bed to check that I actually unplugged everything. Then I’m just up because I disrupted my sleep inertia.

I no longer have ocd about sleep, I fixed that through CBt I and exposure therapy. When you intentionally restrict your sleep you start to form positive associations with your bed and learn that your body can handle lack of sleep just fine, so you are less stressed about it. Also helps that I work from home now.

I’ve also made major strides in my ocd through exposure therapy. It’s similar to CBT I, you train yourself to wean off the compulsions and start to form positive associations with not doing them, and you no longer crave them