Social phobia affecting me at night too

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I have social phobia and social anxiety what affects my day to day life greatly, but now it is starting to affect me at night too.

What I mean is, nearly every night I briefly wake up at some point half asleep thinking that my privacy is invaded by either a stranger or someone I know (apart from family), and I'm laying there panicking that this invisible person in my room is going to catch me topless and it will be embarrassing. I do sleep topless, except for in the cold weather, and yes when I have my pajama T-shirt on I don't wake up feeling like this at all.

The other night I remember briefly waking up and then I sat up with the covers pulled up to my neck so that my top half wasn't showing, and I was staring around the room feeling really anxious and thinking, ''oh my God, there's people in here and I'm topless, what am I going to do? My clothes are in another room!'' Then I suddenly realised it was just my own room so I laid back down and went to sleep again.

Also I have strange dreams of being out in public without no clothes on and not realising that I'm in the nude until later, and then I'm like, ''oh my God, I didn't realise I was this naked until just now! How could I have come out without wearing any clothes?! I am going insane!''

It happens about once in the night, sometimes twice, but possibly every night, maybe a night might come where it doesn't happen. It's been happening for the last six months or so, and I'm wondering if it is familiar to anyone else. What could it be? Is it due to my fear of embarrassing myself in public?

It may interfere with melatonin levels, but I sleep with a dim light on so that I can scan the room when I wake. Maybe you mean invisible literally, though.

I go through occasional periods where I feel like people are trying to break in.

I have had the nudity dreams when I feel vulnerable. You could probably google that because I think that is a common dream.

Thank you. I have Googled it, and saw this interesting piece of information what applied to me the most:-

The sentence in bold really describes me so well that I immediately felt quite relieved when I read it. Like most Aspies, I do not have the upper hand in most situations, even if I'm reading advice about my problems online, it usually hints that I'm doing something wrong and everybody else are in the right, which makes me have to explain myself in so much detail that the post gets too long and nobody bothers to read it.

I am also insecure about how I look. Despite the fact that I'm slim and have a boyfriend, I still feel very insecure about my image, probably caused by having so many bad experiences with people in public, like having people stare at me for no reason or feeling that people laugh at me really makes me feel self-conscious. Also I am insecure about how I act and my personality too. Maybe that's all to do with having the feeling when I'm half asleep of being seen by somebody or in an embarrassing situation.

I think that your dreams of being naked in public and your sudden panics where you imagine somebody will see you topless, and the fact that you don't have them when you're wearing your pajama top, are related to your deep insecurities. Maybe you need therapy. You might try wearing your top when you go to bed, and see if that helps.

Undressing in gym or going to a nudist beach sound like some of the ways to combat your anxiety of being naked, but of course it won't challenge diet and exercise when it comes to making real changes (if they're even needed in the first place of course). I remember having a dream in which I had the wrong number of testicles, but I was 12 at the time I think? Funny how I still remember it. I usually laugh at stupid dreams if I can even remember them.