How to Make Sure that Anxiety Doesn’t Wreck Your Sleep
Have you ever had the experience of lying awake in bed for hours unable to fall asleep because you can’t slow or calm your mind? Or woken up in the middle of the night and been unable to fall back asleep because you are tense, restless, or the worry cycle has started back up? These are signs that anxiety may be affecting your sleep.
Anxiety can be a major sleep disruptor. It can interfere with our ability to fall or stay asleep, produce disturbing or stressful dreams, and lead to diminished sleep quality overall. As the Sleep Foundation notes, a negative loop can result as lack of sleep can lead to worsening anxiety. So how can you avert this pattern and ensure that anxiety does not wreck your ability to get a restful night of sleep? Keep reading for some suggestions.
Before Bedtime
Our ability to get a good night of sleep is impacted by our behavior throughout the day and before bedtime. Whether you experience anxiety or not, it can be helpful to get into a routine of good sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene, as defined by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, refers to healthy habits that can better your ability to fall and stay asleep. Here are some helpful sleep hygiene strategies to try implementing:
Maintain a consistent sleep schedule. Going to bed and getting up at roughly the same times everyday trains your body to be able to sleep within certain hours.
Cut off caffeine consumption at least 8 hours before you intend to go to bed.
Exercise during the day, but avoid heavy exercise in the few hours before you go to bed as it can make it harder to wind down and get sleepy.
Avoid alcohol, or if you are going to drink try to stop drinking a few hours before bedtime. Though alcohol helps some people fall asleep, it becomes activating as our bodies metabolize it and can disturb our natural sleep rhythms.
Establish a nighttime routine. Plan to step away from screens at least 30 minutes before you want to go to sleep. Engage in activities that you find soothing or relaxing to help your mind and body settle, like reading, gentle yoga, or taking a hot shower.
Falling Asleep
You have set yourself up for success by establishing good sleep hygiene, and now it’s time for the main event: actually falling asleep. Below are a few tips to help make it happen.
First, do not go to bed and try to fall asleep until you truly feel sleepy. The longer we lay in bed not sleeping, the more opportunities we give our minds to get active and our anxiety to pick up. Stay with the quiet and relaxing activities you are doing as part of your nighttime routine until you feel tired enough to fall asleep.
Also, be mindful of anxious and self-sabotaging thoughts you may be having around sleep leading up to bedtime. If you have not slept well previous nights, it is common for catastrophic thoughts about how you won’t be able to sleep and will therefore be nonfunctional/get sick/lose your job because you can’t focus, etc. to pop up. Try to stay grounded and neutral, letting these anxious thoughts pass and focusing instead on the fact that it is a new night, that you don’t know what will happen, and that it could very well turn out just fine.
Last, try to make your bed and bedroom as comfortable as possible. Think about what you need to facilitate good sleep and set up your environment accordingly. Don’t hesitate to get a few tools to help if you need, like an eye mask if your room isn’t completely dark, a white noise machine to drown out street noises, or lightweight sheets if you get hot easily in bed. Ideally, if you are already sleepy when you get in bed and your bed is a welcoming place, sleep will come easily.
What to Do If You Can’t Fall or Stay Asleep
We’ve all been there. Sometimes despite our best efforts we just can’t get to sleep. It’s okay! Do not just keep lying there waiting to fall asleep. As noted above, the longer we stay in bed when we are unable to sleep the more anxious and active our minds tend to become, which makes it even more difficult to fall asleep.
If after 20 minutes you have not fallen asleep, get up out of bed and go do something quiet and not activating. Examples could include practicing deep breathing or meditation, writing in a journal, or coloring in an adult coloring book. Once you feel sleepy, go back to bed and try again. Repeat this process if necessary. Use the same steps if you wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep for more than 20 minutes.
One note of caution: many of us turn to our phones if we can’t sleep. Understandable, but not productive! The light electronic devices emit is activating for our brains and will make it even more difficult to get to sleep.
When to Seek Help
If anxiety is consistently preventing you from getting good quality sleep, or if you have tried some of the strategies mentioned in this post and they are not helping, it can be beneficial to seek out therapy. Anxiety treatment can help you address the root causes of your anxiety and its various manifestations in your life, including problems with sleep. Want to learn more about how therapy can help you reclaim your ability to rest? Contact me today to get started.
