How to Sleep After Seeing a Cockroach? (9 Tips)

In this brief guide, we will look at how to sleep after seeing a cockroach, as well as some other related questions. It can be difficult to sleep after looking at something disturbing as we all have our own fears so we also have some quick tips for you in this article.

How to Sleep After Seeing a Cockroach?

To sleep after seeing a cockroach, you can try some relaxation techniques, and try to find something you would like to watch, and try to distract yourself with it.

If you find yourself getting too worked up about the possibility of a cockroach in your room, you can try to clean out parts of your room that are too hidden and closed off, and it might help you sleep better to know that you have looked everywhere it could be and haven’t found it.

You can also try to get some cockroach spray, which helps to get them out, and there are also chalk like products that can be used to draw lines at a given location, and these act as a repellent that keeps the cockroaches away.

People also find that citrus repels cockroaches, so if you are dealing with a cockroach problem, you might want to get yourself something that smells citrusy, and that may keep the cockroaches at bay.

Cockroaches can be a nuisance but they don’t actually do anything to humans, they don’t bite, they don’t even try to stay on your body if you freak out when they accidentally venture onto you, so apart from the fact that they are gross, there is really no reason to fear cockroaches at all.

When you are having trouble falling asleep because you saw a cockroach, you might find it a little easier to deal with it if you remind yourself of the lack of threat.

Think of the absolute worst thing that could happen if a cockroach was around you, it can’t bite or hurt you in any way, so what is the worst you can imagine?

Most people would likely come up with two main fears, one is that the cockroach might go in their ear, or mouth, or that they will feel its prickly legs on their skin, and the latter is clearly nothing to be afraid of given that the cockroach will fly away literally the minute you move.

The former part of the fear people usually express is simply too rare to happen to most people, and the one or two reports there have been of cockroaches going into people’s ears and such were just that, one or two reports.

To sleep after seeing a cockroach you can remind yourself of just that, it is too uncommon to happen to you; think of all the rare things that could happen to you in that moment, how much is the possibility of those happening to you? 

When you start rationalizing your fear and removing the fear of unknown from seeing the cockroach and experiencing panic and anxiety, you may realize that the fear is actually baseless, because we get so caught up in just the fact that something we don’t want is happening that we forget why we started being scared in the first place.

If you’re facing this, it may be a good idea to seek the help of a therapist or other mental health professional. You can find a therapist at BetterHelp who can help you learn how to cope and address it.

The reality is that most people are merely afraid of the fact that it is icky when the cockroach gets on their skin, and that is hardly something to lose sleep over; think of all the other icky things that wouldn’t send you into such a frenzy, and rest easy knowing that the most risk you have is that something odd might touch you, at worst, at best, you will wake up already having forgotten that you had a visitor at night.

How to sleep knowing there is a bug in your room?

To sleep after seeing a bug in your room just remember that most bugs are not at all a cause for concern and that they don’t seek out humans and in the rare scenario that one of them bit you, their bites don’t really hurt very much or do anything.

Most people that get bitten by a bug don’t get more than an itch, and most people might be scared of bugs for the same reason they are scared of cockroaches or spiders, it’s because they are icky, and the fear you are experiencing may well just be disgust.

You might be scared to sleep after seeing a bug because you are spiraling at the thought of “what if the bug gets on me when I’m sleeping”, and the only way to not spiral out of control like that is to give in to that thought, and really think about all that could happen if somehow the bug did get on you.

This kind of thinking may be a part of a commonly used cognitive behavioral therapy technique called fear hierarchies, and these help the person map out what they are most and least scared of, and tackle these things with ease.

When you start thinking of the worst things that can happen, your frontal lobe and prefrontal lobes kick into gear, because you are using your executive thinking and planning and plotting things, and fear responses often get processed in parts in the prefrontal cortex too, so when you replace the feelings of irrational fear with careful consideration, you give your brain something to do.

Other than that too, most people continue to be afraid because they avoid thinking about whatever is making them afraid because they start being afraid of the thought too, and the minute you start thinking, you realize there isn’t anything to be afraid of.

When you start feeling like you can’t sleep because there’s a bug in your room, start thinking through why you can’t sleep; ask yourself what you are scared of, and list all the absolute worst things that could happen if the bug stayed where it is.

Once you have done this, list all the possible ways that it could be alright, all the good things like it could leave the room on its own, it could avoid you because it’s scared of you, even if it got on you might move and it could go away.

Other than this process, you can also try the following tips to sleep after seeing a bug:

  • If it’s hiding clean out some of the hidden places in your room
  • Spray some bug spray in your room and stay out of it for a while
  • Listen to a sleep podcast
  • Talk to someone on the phone or around you
  • Get up and walk around for a bit
  • Try to trap it and get it out
  • Listen to some music to distract yourself
  • Watch something dull and not that interesting 
  • Cover yourself up properly and close the windows
  • Engage in a repetitive task

Will keeping the lights on keep the cockroaches away?

Keeping the lights on might keep the cockroaches away, yes, because they like hidden and humid areas, which may be dark and damp too.

However, it is not a given that they will stay away just because your lights are on, so you need to take active measures to ensure that there are no cockroaches in your house to begin with.

How to prevent cockroaches in the bedroom?

To prevent cockroaches in the bedroom you may do the following:

  • Clean regularly.
  • Use citrus scented room freshener
  • Use essential oils like lavender, citronella and citrus.
  • Turn down your bed often.
  • Don’t leave any hidden corners or dampness anywhere
  • Cover your windows with screens or net.
  • Keep your bedroom well-ventilated
  • Close off any crevices or cracks.

Conclusion

In this brief guide, we looked at how to sleep after seeing a cockroach, as well as some other related questions.

Most people hate cockroaches, and with good reason, too, they are creepy and they feel weird, and the reports that they like humid and small places so they can crawl into your mouth or ears is something that tends to keep most people awake after they see one, but the truth is that those things are extremely uncommon, and those people don’t talk about what their hygiene was like before the cockroach visited either.

The truth is that cockroaches crawling into parts of your body is about as likely as you getting hit by lightning when you are lying in bed: second to none, and most people are not as much of an aberration from the norm as they think they are, which means that the cockroaches will stay away from you as long as you stay clean and keep your house clean as well.

If you have any questions or comments about how to sleep after seeing a cockroach please feel free to reach out to us at any time.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): How to sleep after seeing a cockroach

Do cockroaches crawl in your mouth when you sleep?

No, cockroaches do not crawl into your mouth when you sleep, because they know what dark humid place is human and what isn’t, and they are just as afraid of dying as you are of them going into your mouth.

Cockroaches generally avoid human beings even if they go roaming at night, which means that even if one landed on you for whatever reason, they will go away instantly the minute you move and they won’t come back once they realize where you are.

How do you get rid of roaches overnight?

To get rid of cockroaches overnight get a piece of duct tape and stick it with part of the sticky side on top and spread these strips all around the house.

This is considered to be one of the best home remedies for cockroaches and it can get rid of roaches almost overnight, or at the very least they can show you where the most of them are.

Do Roaches hide in mattresses?

No, cockroaches will not hide in a mattress unless your mattress is damp, old and full of holes, and you haven’t slept on it in a while.

Cockroaches are smart enough to know where they will be disturbed, and a mattress is not a place where they can live if it is in use, so if you use your mattress every day and turn down the bed regularly, they will not hide in it. 

Where do cockroaches go at night?

Cockroaches usually crawl out of little crevices at night, and sometimes they may come out in search of food or to mate at night.

Cockroaches are nocturnal creatures and they may usually spend their days hiding away in dark, protected spots around your home.

What are cockroaches afraid of?

Cockroaches are scared of citrus, so if you are afraid of cockroaches, try to have the smell of fresh citrus around, and they will likely avoid you as much as possible.

This is also a major reason why there are so many citrus scented cleaners in the market, because they are aimed at keeping the cockroaches at bay.

Citations

https://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/255767-lets-say-you-saw-a-roach-in-your-bedroom-right-before-bedtime/

https://cockroachfacts.com/at-home-remedies-for-roaches/

Was this helpful?

Thanks for your feedback!