There are many resources available if you suffer from anxiety, OCD, panic attacks, fears, phobias, and other related conditions.
Current Anxiety Support Resources in Ireland
The older automatic resource list has been replaced with a smaller set of current public routes. Availability, eligibility and service details can change, so check the linked provider pages directly.
Sleep, Insomnia and Anxiety
Sleep and anxiety often move together. Worry can keep the body alert at night, and poor sleep can make the next day feel more threatening, more irritable and harder to manage. If you are lying awake calculating how little sleep you will get, checking the clock, or becoming afraid of the bed itself, the problem may no longer be only tiredness. It may have become a sleep-anxiety loop.
For persistent insomnia, cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, often called CBT-I, has strong guideline support. CBT-I is not just general sleep hygiene. It may include stimulus control, sleep scheduling, work with unhelpful beliefs about sleep, and careful behavioural changes. It should be adapted to the person's situation, especially where trauma, bipolar disorder, substance use, pain, breathing problems, pregnancy, medication effects or severe daytime impairment are present.
Psychotherapy can also help when sleep is tied to worry, overthinking, grief, stress, relationship strain, trauma reminders, perfectionism or the pressure to function. The focus may be less on forcing sleep and more on understanding the arousal pattern, reducing performance pressure around sleep, and working with the anxiety or life situation that keeps the body on alert.
Safety and Medical Boundary
Sleep problems can be medical. Loud snoring with pauses in breathing, severe daytime sleepiness, chest pain, breathlessness, seizures, mania, psychosis, severe depression, suicidal thoughts, withdrawal symptoms or pregnancy-related concerns should be discussed promptly with a GP or appropriate professional.
Sleeping tablets, sedatives, alcohol, cannabis or other substances should not be started, stopped, mixed or changed because of online information. Medication decisions need to be discussed with a qualified prescriber.
FAQ
- Is this page a diagnosis? No. It is educational and cannot diagnose or assess individual risk.
- When should someone seek professional help? When symptoms are persistent, severe, risky, impairing, confusing, or affecting sleep, work, study, relationships or day-to-day functioning.
- What if there is immediate danger? Use local emergency services or crisis support. In Ireland, call 112 or 999 if there is immediate danger.
Education and safety note. This page is for general information. It cannot diagnose you, assess your individual risk, or replace care from a qualified professional. If you are in immediate danger, may harm yourself or someone else, cannot stay safe, or have symptoms that may be medically urgent, contact local emergency services or crisis support. In Ireland, call 112 or 999 or go to the nearest emergency department; you can also read the HSE crisis guidance. Medication decisions need to be discussed with a qualified prescriber.
Sources and review. Published or updated in May 2026. This page is educational and uses public-health, guideline, peer-reviewed, or professional sources where clinical claims are made.
- HSE: Sleep problems – tips and self-help
- AASM clinical practice guideline: behavioural and psychological treatments for chronic insomnia
- American College of Physicians guideline: chronic insomnia in adults
- Alvaro, Roberts and Harris 2013: sleep disturbance, anxiety and depression systematic review
- NICE CG113: generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults
- HSE: Get urgent help for a mental health crisis
- Haverkampf: Connectedness
When resources are not enough on their own
Resources can help with orientation, but anxiety often needs a steady human conversation when it is persistent, impairing, frightening, or linked with panic, sleep, health worries, relationships or work. These routes connect the information here with therapy-focused next steps.
Related Guide: Social Anxiety
If fear of being judged, watched, embarrassed, or exposed is central, the fuller guide on social anxiety may be a useful next route. It covers shyness, avoidance, body symptoms, therapy options, and when to seek more support.