There is a close connection between anxiety and sleep. But you can reduce all sleep problems caused by anxiety if you exercise, reduce noise, calm the brain, avoid caffeine, among other activities.
With anxiety, it is very difficult to have a good sleep. Anxiety disorders adversely cause most of the troubles involved in sleeping.
Things like irritability, anger, stress, and depression are all symptoms of lack of sleep. But the root cause of all these is an anxiety disorder.
For your body to be energized and feel rested enough, you undoubtedly need a good sleep. Always practice the hygiene involved in sleep.
Anxiety can indeed impact your life in very many cases. With less sleep or lack of sleep, your mental, physical, and even emotional being can get in trouble.
Anxiety can disrupt your sleep if you don't know how to take care of it. The tips below illustrate how you can manage to sleep with an anxious mind.
Make Exercises Your Friend
If you want to improve your sleep and lower anxiety, try exercising daily, either in the morning or in the afternoon. Allowing your body to move relaxes the brain hence getting rid of the anxious feeling.
But again, be watchful with the exercising time because going to sleep immediately after a workout can keep you awake the entire night. Make sure you do it hours before your bedtime if you can't do it in the morning.
Daily workouts act as a treatment to sleep apnea and insomnia. At least get involved in any breathtaking activity, which in turn may make your body need some sleep.
But the perfect time for working out if you have a problem with your sleep is in the afternoon though not close to bedtime.
Have Limited Screen Time
Before you go to sleep, make sure you limit anything that may keep your brain awake. Switch off gadgets such as phones, TV, and any tablet.
These gadgets keep on emitting lights, which keeps your brain awake. Make sure you switch them off earlier before bedtime. Most preferably one hour before retiring to your bed.
You can also trigger your anxiety by doing some work before going to bed or checking some email. Your brain cannot rest or calm down after checking the emails or working before you resign to your bed.
You might have some sleeping troubles brought about by the anxious thoughts you have drawn from the email or work. It doesn't matter if it was good news or bad ones.
In case you are addicted to these gadgets, you can remind yourself of how to shut them down by simply putting an alarm before resorting to your bed. An alarm will always keep you alert as it will remind you that you need to rest.
If you want to calm your mind, you can read a book or listen to some cool music. Cool music will get you to sleep very gently, without any distraction.
Control Your Environment
Make sure that your sleeping surrounding is well taken care of. Getting a good sleep doesn't just come easily without putting the required efforts in controlling aspects such as sound, temperature, and light in your bedroom.
In other words, for you to fall asleep, your mind needs to be calm. And that calmness is found in the darker, quieter, and cooler room. Bedrooms with the mentioned aspects enhance calmness, which in turn improves the sleeping system.
To lower your body temperature, which makes you fall asleep easily, it is advisable to shower some minutes before retiring to your bed. You can easily fall asleep with the lowered body temperature.
Limit Caffeine Consumption
Though this might sound awkward, it is for your good if you want to experience a good sleep with no anxiety. Even if it is a must for you to consume the caffeine, make sure you don't lose sleep.
Take it much earlier in the day so that it doesn't hinder you from sleeping by increasing your anxiety. Also, avoid too much consumption of caffeine as it might pose some health problems to your body.
If you consume it during the day, you will have enough time to allow it to circulate well in your body before you retire to bed. And this is not just coffee. Avoid any caffeinated drink when preparing to go to bed.
Limit Alcohol Consumption
This may not go down well to alcohol lovers since alcohol is mostly consumed in the late evening. Yet, that is the exact time you should be preparing yourself to go to bed. Make sure you take your alcoholic drink much earlier before bedtime.
Alcohol increases your heart rate and can make you stay awake very long. Therefore, it's wise to take in some booze much earlier before bedtime. And avoid taking too much booze since excessive consumption can be harmful to your health in general.
Also, try as much as possible to consume a lot of water during the day to cool off your body. Drinking much water before bedtime will not allow you to have enough sleep that you require. Since you will be awake most of the time as you make several trips to the bathroom to empty your bladder.
These bathroom trips will make you anxious and alert throughout the night, therefore denying the good sleep. Attend to everything much earlier during the day, starting from consuming some water.
Try to Calm Your Mind
Several techniques can help you relax as you calm your mind down several hours before bedtime to improve your sleep. Some of the relaxation techniques which can bring calmness include yoga, mindful meditation, and breathing exercises.
You can take a simple walk when you have any break time either at work, home, or school.
The relaxation response will be much easier at night if your mind has remained calm during the day. So always ensure you practice mind relaxation during the day to achieve the required calmness at night.
Seek Professional Help
It becomes challenging sometimes to get over anxiety to improve your sleep. You can switch off all the surrounding gadgets such as phones and TV but still find it hard to get some good sleep.
Do not shy away from seeking a doctor's assistance or even consulting the experts to help with your anxiety issue. Some disorders are not easy to diagnose at home, and expert help is needed most of the time.
Seek medical attention if possible because problems involved with sleeping and even anxiety can be treated. You simply need a rest after a long and exhausting day full of activities, and anything that interferes with such a luxury needs a professional touch.
Apart from the doctor and the counselor, you can get advice from your family members and friends who might have experienced the same. Ask them how they got over it.
Maybe they may have some solutions you are seeking. This can go down well with your financial being since you will not have to pay for any fee. Take any advice you're given seriously and don't give up if something does not work.
Set Some Idle Time before Heading to Bed
You can have some good time for idling before retiring to your bed. Getting to bed immediately after certain activities such as eating will make you wallow in your bed before getting some good sleep. Make sure you sit down as you meditate how the day has been before you go to sleep.
You can even have a book and a pen as you note down your daytime achievements and also write down your programs and expectations of the next day. This will make it easy for you to remember the task awaiting you on the following day.
Also, don't involve yourself in something that can deprive you of some sleep like paying your pending bills, which can induce you with anxiety forcing you to stay awake throughout the night.
Set Some Regular Sleeping Time
Create a routine time for sleeping every day. This will help your body to adjust and cope with the sleeping rhythm. The circadian clock of the human body functions better when you sleep and get up the same time daily.
Ensure you don't wake up in the wee hours since this can hinder your body rhythm. And with the body rhythm triggered, you will lose sleep and develop anxiety.
Setting up a routine in everything you do helps you focus and ensure that you achieve your targeted goals. And sleep is not left behind, since creating a conducive routine for sleeping and waking up can really wade off the anxiety and improve your sleep.
Read more, 10+ Helpful Tips: How to Reset Sleep Schedule
Avoid Emotional Issues before Sleep
Emotional issues can keep you awake for even the whole night. The said issues cannot let you fall asleep as long as you are worried about something.
They can make you develop anxiety, which in turn can trouble your sleep. In case you feel like you are not comfortable in your bed or are not ready to catch some sleep, jump off your bed and do something that can generate some sleep like reading a book or doing some yoga.
Don't try to pressure yourself to get some sleep. Also, ensure that your bed or your sleeping room is up to the task. This means that you need to practice good sleeping hygiene in the bedroom.
Your bed should only be meant for two things: sleep and sex. Falling asleep are not that easy, so it requires an emotion-free environment. Do not try to work on your bedroom or even watch TV since you may develop anxiety because of certain tasks and news leading to lack of sleep.
Have Priority on Your Daily Activities
Quality sleep means resting after daytime activities that took a toll on you. Ensure you prioritize what you can do to do away with anxiety at the end of the day. Your time and energy should be spent on the most important obligations.
Break down those large tasks into very smaller tasks that can be manageable. And if you feel like you cannot manage the task at hand, it is wise to refer to someone to help you. Don't burden yourself with something which is beyond your reach.
Your daily activities relate very well with your sleep at night. Going to bed without accomplishing a task, either assigned to you or you have assigned yourself to accomplish, derails your morale, and interferes with your sleep.
So, make sure you put a priority on accomplishing your assignments before descending to your bed. By doing so, you will catch sleep without any disruption.
Make Sure You Get Adequate Sleep
To improve your focus, concentration, and recharge your brain, you need a good sleep. Lacking enough sleep can create anxiety and ruin your mood.
Make sure you have enough sleep, as recommended by the experts. This will also boost your psychological being hence enhancing your focus during the day and also at night.
Your priority at night should be getting enough sleep. Set the required time to sleep without any disturbance, which is eight hours. Do this repeatedly, and your body will finally adopt it.
And also, try as much as possible to stay away from the clock if you wake up in the middle of the night. Checking the clock will bring anxiety in the middle of the night, yet you still have several hours or minutes to rest.
Related, How Much Deep Sleep Do you Need?
Conclusion
Sleep plays a very fundamental role in the well-being of your body. And anxiety and stress can derail hence preventing you from getting the much-needed sleep. But with these tips that help improve your sleep pattern, you'll probably save yourself from anxiety.
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