Scared at night

[littlegirlost]

I'm 30 years old and I'm still too scared to be in the house by myself at night. This sounds absolutely ridiculous and need some help. Ever since I can remember I've been scared to be alone at night and it's probably down to watching too many horror films/ghost stories when a teenager. My marriage has had its moments and one of the reasons I stayed is because I know I could never live by myself. I need to get over this as I've recently been reading other threads and hearing about how people love being single and the freedom they have (we have worked on our marriage and we are both in a good place right now so this isn't an issue at present). If my DH is away I stay at my parents.
I'm absolutely fine in the day but as soon as it gets dark and I go to bed my hearing becomes super charged and I think I hear things in the house. I'm convinced someone is going to break in. As soon as I close my eyes I need to open them to check no one is there. It's ridiculous. I will keep trying though as I have a young child and don't want them to be like this. Any advice? Feel free to tell me I'm being stupid.

Haha I'm the same! I find it's better to have the radio on or music playing and then you don't hear the "house" noises.
Maybe get a pet? That might give you some company?

Check every room before you go to bed then switch on the house alarm downstairs (or get one installed) then when you're in bed you can relax knowing you'd hear it if anyone came in.

I regularly have this and when I do, I need to take my anxiety meds and a sleeping pill.

Do you drink a lot of caffeine. I was like this and lowering my caffeine intake made a big difference beyond the usual getting to sleep easier.

I don't think this is so unusual OP, whenever my DH is away on a work trip I get people asking me am I not scared to be in the house by myself. I'm never really by myself because I have a big dog and no one is getting in to the house with him knowing about it so no need to worry about random creaks or whatever when I'm home alone with him!

Honestly op I am the same, when dp used to go away, I would stay with my parents. When I got pg, I couldn't do that because their spare bed is like sleeping on a rock (sorry mum ha!) so I had to suck it up. I got used to it and then actually started to enjoy it. Then we moved from a small 2 bed with only 1 room downstairs to a large 4 bed, big mistake in terms of being alone at night 🤣.

I know what you mean; I’ve never lived alone (since being an adult lived in flat shares or with DH) and when he’s away I struggle to sleep. We got a burglar alarm last year that we can set for downstairs (and upstairs hallway if I wanted) and that actually helps me a lot as then any random noises I know are just random and not someone breaking in

CBT would probably be very helpful here, but I'm not sure viable the reasoning would be for GP referral unfortunately. Although it does seem to be impacting your life so could be worth asking GP about?

I'm glad to hear I'm not alone! I'm lucky in that my DH is very rarely away but it just got me thinking last night how this is a bit ridiculous at my age! We did have a dog and I still felt the same. I used to work nights and had no problem sleeping in the house by myself in the day so it's a night thing. I live in a very safe area and am semi detached so I try to think that my neighbour is in the house with me to help me settle lol!