This is Melanie aka ‘Sleepless in Cleveland’

I did a thought download on my fear of sleeping alone (per recommendation on the Ask Brooke part of SCS) when my husband is out of town and the thoughts seem to circle around fear of an intruder, not being able to respond to the situation b/c I will be frozen in fear, I will be hurt as well as my two little girls….there is a fear or not wanting to face this alone, don’t want to die alone, can’t face violence alone/don’t ever want to, that sleep makes me vulnerable/unsafe…..I realize from your podcast on fear, I am terrified ahead of time of being terrified and then I am terrified and panic sets in….and then I can’t sleep…..I struggle with taking Tylenol PM b/c I hate being groggy in the morning and want to be alert should something happen in the middle of the night with my daughters, but the fear/anxiety takes over and I am frozen in fear in my bed and can’t sleep, argh. When my husband is there, I am totally fine, I don’t even think about any of this……

All of this is irrational as I live in a safe neighborhood, have a fancy alarm system (did nothing to quell the fear btw) a dog, and friendly neighbors.

How do I lean into the fear? Will this keep me up at night? How can I overcome this, he is traveling more and the fear is leading to panic, which leads to sleepless nights and a grumpy discouraged mama…Thank you