Sleeping Tips To Help With Anxiety And Insomnia
Look, coming from a twenty-something college student who struggles with general anxiety,
a terrible caffeine addiction,
abnormal hormonal repsonses,
the most irritable pms responses,
executive dysfunction,
maladaptive dreaming disorder,
and lung problems that make it hard to breathe while lying down…
Look, I’m just trying to say that I know how hard it is to get quality sleep.
So, if you struggle with anything that I do, here’s some helpful tips that’s worked for me and MAYBE will work for you. Don’t knock anything until you try it!
Sleeping Tips For The Anxious
#1: PREPARE FOR SLEEP BEFORE YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT IT
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The main problem I’ve been having lately is that I wait to wash up, brush my teeth, and pack whatever I need for tomorrow before I lie in bed. Then I lie in bed watching TV, thinking I won’t fall asleep because I don’t usually do; but before I know it, I wake up around 3:30 with my makeup still on, the TV still blaring, and my room in a mess!
SO, TRY THIS: If you want to go to bed at, say, eleven, then around 9pm, do your bedtime routine and pack as much as you can for tomorrow. Take your pills, put up your hair, and then go back to your phone or late-night hobby. Once that first wave of sleepiness comes, don’t hesitate to slide into bed, even with your phone, and just let your mind go where it goes. You’ll be more prone to falling asleep just because you know everything is already done and set for tomorrow, so.
#2: GET RID OF EXCESS ENERGY IN THE EVENING
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A Major Problem for me! I’ve found, especially in school, that the time I work out is super key to when exactly I am tired vs. all worked up. As much as I don’t like it, I do wait until the end of the day to workout. This way, I can give it my all and not worry about being too tired after to do anything, since I can just fall asleep!
SO, TRY THIS: Decide the time to work out that is best for you. If your busy schedule doesn’t let it fit in where you want it, than just adjust where you can. (If you’re like me and working out makes you extremely tired after, then you can try eating more throughout the day, or breaking up the workout throughout the day so it’s not all at one time.)
#3: TELL SOMEBODY WHEN YOU NEED TO BE UP IN THE MORNING
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I know this doesn’t work when you live alone. For that, I suggest having thirty alarms on multiple devices and placing them NOT in your bedroom, but literally down the hall and in a different room. Make sure it’s loud.
I have a great roommate, though, and we both know each other’s schedules well enough to know when the other should be awake in the morning. I can also ask her at times to wake me up if I’m not up by a certain time. This keeps me accountable, and it actually makes me better at waking up, because I have anxiety and it legitimately makes me feel bad thinking about her having to shake me awake, LOL.
SO, TRY THIS: Find an accountable buddy, even if it’s just your phone. You can even be accountable for each other going to bed on time!
#4: FIND A CONSISTENT SOUND TO FALL ASLEEP TO
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Some people swear by white noise, some by violin, some by the TV or the fan outside their room - I don’t care what floats your boat, as long as you stick to it. For me, I have a Youtube playlist of this group of reactors who watch The Office episodes and chat about them. I’ve seen the whole show, so I’m not invested in truly listening to them - I just find their voices soothing, and The Office is a show that makes me forget about any troubles in my life in that moment.
SO, TRY THIS: Find one “piece of sound” to try and stick to it for at least a week. Make sure, if it’s something on your phone like a playlist or video, leave it on the dresser and not next to you in the bed. Also, only listen to it for bedtime, so you can develop a habit of hearing that sound and having your body know that it’s time to fall asleep.
#5: UNDERSTAND ORIENTATION
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It sounds weird, but our bodies are more affected by small things than we know. Think back to when you last fell asleep and question: how were you positioned? Were you facing the door? Were you facing a window, and were the curtains closed or opened? Were you propped up on pillows, or was your face smushed into the fabric? These things matter because they can help or harm our mental and body reponses.
For instance, lying without proper support for your neck leads to soreness in that area when you wake up. Obviously, this causes irritation which can last throughout the day, and even all the way until your next sleep. If you face an open window, this can change your circadian rhythm, depending on when you go to bed/wake up and when light starts coming through the window.
SO, TRY THIS: Close the curtains and the bedroom door, make sure to prop your head slightly, and see what that does for your sleep for a week. I’m not saying this will fix things - and if anything’s impacting you negatively, then change it - but this simple change has done wonders for me in a) the amount of time it takes for me to fall asleep, and b) how my muscles feel in the morning.
THAT’S IT! I really hope these tips can help, but understand a lot of it is just trial and error. Be consistent, and you’re sure to build a routine that will get you that quality sleep we all desire.