Connect with us

Mindfulness

Ease Nighttime Anxiety: Expert Tips for Better Sleep

Published

on

The struggle of trying to fall asleep, only to find yourself wide awake, is a common issue many of us face. A recent survey from the Sleep Foundation revealed that 44 percent of adults in the U.S. regularly have trouble sleeping due to anxiety.

“Constant worry can make us less present, less happy, and certainly sleep more poorly at night,” says Alex Dimitriu, MD, a physician board-certified in psychiatry and sleep medicine. “Thoughts, and especially worries, can continue to spiral as part of a vicious cycle.”

However, it’s important to remember that you don’t have to remain trapped in this cycle. We’ve consulted with several experts to identify common worries that prevent people from getting a good night’s rest and how to alleviate these stressors.

Many individuals find themselves obsessing over the tasks they need to accomplish the next day as soon as they lie down. Faith Reyes, LMFT, a licensed psychotherapist, suggests embracing this rather than avoiding it.

“Turn on the light, get out of bed, and write it all down. Having a plan reduces anxiety,” she advises. “If you’re feeling overwhelmed, making a to-do list increases your sense of control and motivation. Get tomorrow’s tasks out of your head and onto paper, so you can rest.”

Work-related anxiety is another common issue that can disrupt sleep. Gayle Weill, LCSW, a private practice psychotherapist, explains that this worry creates a cycle of rumination and anticipation, making it difficult to relax and unwind.

If your stress about going to work in the morning is hindering your sleep, Weill recommends seeking help from a therapist. “Through therapy, individuals can reframe their thoughts and learn strategies for managing performance anxiety on the job, or learn how to navigate having a difficult boss or coworkers, creating a more positive and manageable outlook for the next day,” she explains.

When you’re busy with work or other commitments during the day, you might find that your mind turns to larger existential worries at night, says Alex Oliver-Gans, LMFT, a San Francisco-based therapist who specializes in anxiety.

“Often these thoughts can center around the theme of life direction,” he notes. To prevent these worries from keeping you awake, Oliver-Gans suggests setting aside time during the day to address these thoughts in a deliberate, purposeful way, possibly with a therapist.

Financial anxiety is another common source of sleepless nights. The Sleep Foundation survey found that 77 percent of U.S. adults admitted to losing sleep over money worries, at least sometimes.

Preston Cherry, PhD, a financial therapist and accredited financial counselor, explains that the uncertainty of money keeps people anxious during the day and awake at night. “People want to understand the notion of ‘enough’ better: Do we have enough? What is our enough, and how do we get to our enough?”

To manage this anxiety and improve your sleep, Cherry suggests addressing your aspirations and finances with financial planning. “Preventing money avoidance by addressing your aspirations and finances with financial planning helps you find more peace with clarity and confidence, turning unknowns into better knowns and shaping the life you envision,” he explains.

Some people spend their time in bed at night replaying the day’s events in their head. When doing this, “they may begin to ruminate on something that happened earlier in the day,” and how they responded to it, according to Oliver-Gans.

This may include an argument with a spouse, a meeting at work that could have gone better, or even an email with a typo in it. Whatever the case may be, Oliver-Gans says it’s important to redirect your train of thought toward determining what you can do going forward instead of staying awake anxious over a moment that has already passed.

“Allow yourself to take on whatever lesson you feel you need for the future and note down anything you want to do to repair the situation the next day, and then recognize when you have done all you can for today,” he advises.

At the same time, other people may fixate on what they didn’t say during the day’s events. “Maybe you froze up in a recent interview, social situation, or business meeting—and the words you couldn’t find in the moment are flooding into your mind now,” Reyes says.

But beating yourself up over what you should have said won’t help you move on and get to sleep. Instead, try saying what you wanted to out loud while in bed, Reyes suggests. “Hearing yourself say the words can be a cathartic practice, and improve the likelihood you’ll be able to find your voice next time,” she says.

It’s all too easy for people to stay awake concerned about what problems they might end up facing with their health or safety. “We don’t have much control over the future, especially at the end of the day, and it’s hard to turn down for sleep when you’re feeling powerless,” Oliver-Gans explains.

But what can you do to stop ruminating over the unknown so you can get some rest? The San Francisco-based therapist recommends redirecting your thoughts toward what you do know. “Think about your strengths,” he says. “What’s gotten you this far in your life? You’ve dealt with uncertainty before—what in your history shows that you’re someone who can figure out problems as they come?”

Some of us don’t just battle one worry at night. Ashley Fields, LCSW, a mental health therapist based in Indianapolis, says thought flooding keeps people from falling asleep, too. “You may lay down and find yourself thinking about so many things that you don’t even know what you’re thinking about,” she shares. “Sometimes these are called racing thoughts.”

Racing thoughts may come out of nowhere and tend to “feel endless, unhelpful, and random,” according to Fields. One way she suggests managing this is through a technique used in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) called “Leaves on a Stream.”

“Imagine a stream of water flowing through a forest,” Fields says. “As you have a thought, you should imagine yourself putting that thought on onto a leaf and let it float by when it’s ready. This exercise helps you to notice all of your thoughts (positive, negative, and neutral) and separate from them.”

Sometimes simply stressing over not being able to sleep is what is keeping us up, Katelyn McMahon, MSW, registered psychotherapist and content strategist at TherapieSEO, notes. You may start to worry about how you’re going to feel tomorrow if you don’t get enough sleep.

There are several things you can do to try and reverse this thinking, according to McMahon. “People may find it helpful to listen to guided meditations, sleep stories, or relaxing white noise like waves crashing,” she says. “This can give your brain something else to focus on instead of giving in to anxious thoughts.”

Let us know what you think, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Source

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

" "