Phobias are very common anxiety disorders, and one of the main causes of visits to psychology centres. In addition to classic phobias, such as fear of flying (aerophobia) or fear of heights (acrophobia), there are less common phobias, which you can learn about in our article “The 15 rarest phobias that exist”.

Some phobias may not be a big problem for the person who suffers from it, since the presence of the phobic stimulus is unusual. However, other phobias are really disabling, such as is the case of the fear of sleep, which is called hypnophobia, oneirophobia and somniphobia .

In this article we will talk about this phobia and explain its causes, symptoms and consequences.

What is hypnophobia

Phobias are anxiety disorders characterized by an irrational fear of a stimulus (situation, object, animal, etc.). One of their main symptoms is extreme anxiety and avoidance of the feared stimulus by the affected person as a result of the discomfort he or she suffers.

There are many types of phobias, as you can see in our article “Types of phobias: exploring fear disorders”, and one of the most disabling is the fear of sleep, as this act is necessary for the human being and brings many health benefits. People who do not rest properly see their quality of life and well-being, both physical and mental, deteriorate.

Sleep phobia usually occurs at any age, when a person has to go to bed, thinking that he or she may die during the night or from nightmares . Extreme anxiety leads the subject to a state of panic and insomnia that can be highly detrimental to their health. In this sense, it is necessary to treat this phobia, which usually requires not only psychological treatment, in some cases also pharmacological. This pathology is serious, so it usually needs professional help.

Causes of sleep phobia

Regardless of the type of phobia, the causes of developing these pathologies are usually common. The emotion of fear is learned, and the phobia can appear due to an associative learning called “Classical Conditioning”. Therefore, phobias develop by the association of an unconditioned stimulus that elicits a reflex response of fear and another that does not originally provoke it, called a neutral stimulus . After both stimuli are presented together and as a consequence of the unpleasant experience, the neutral stimulus, now conditioned stimulus, can elicit a fear response, called conditioned response.

The first Classical Conditioning experiments on humans were conducted in the 1920s, when John Watson had a boy named Albert develop a phobia of a white rat that he had previously played with. This experiment could not be conducted today, as it would be considered unethical.

  • To learn more about classical conditioning, you can read our article: “Classical Conditioning and its Most Important Experiments”

Other causes of this disorder

Although Classical Conditioning is the most common cause for the development of this disorder, it can also occur through vicarious conditioning, which is a type of observational learning. You can learn more about this concept by clicking on this link.

Experts also conclude that phobias have a biological origin, since the emotion of fear has an adaptive function, and has been very important for the survival of human beings throughout history. Phobias develop by primitive associations (in the primitive brain) and not in the rational brain (neocortex). This is the reason why they do not respond to logical arguments, which makes patients with this pathology aware of what is happening to them but unable to overcome the phobia, on many occasions, without professional help.

Symptoms

Phobias can appear before different phobic stimuli; however, the symptomatology does not vary from one type to another. This disorder affects a person in different ways, both on a cognitive, behavioural and physical level .

As for cognitive symptoms, there is fear, anguish, catastrophic thoughts, confusion and lack of concentration. As far as behavioural symptoms are concerned, the person experiences a great need to avoid the feared stimulus in order to reduce the discomfort. Finally, the characteristic physical symptoms are: headache, shortness of breath and hyperventilation, nausea or muscle tension, among others.

Treatment and therapy

Phobias are common disorders, but fortunately they respond well to treatment. Psychological therapy has been shown to help patients, according to scientific studies. However, hypnophobia can also be treated with drugs that are gradually withdrawn as treatment progresses.

As far as psychological therapy is concerned, cognitive behavioural therapy is the treatment par excellence. In this therapeutic method, different techniques are used such as relaxation techniques and exposure techniques, both very useful for treating this pathology.

The best known technique to help the patient overcome the phobia is systematic desensitization, which consists of exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus gradually , but the patient is previously trained in coping strategies.

In addition to cognitive behavioral therapy, Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and acceptance and engagement therapy work very well for the psychological treatment of phobias.

Related articles:

  • Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy: what is it?
  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): principles and characteristics