Do you struggle with anxiety at night? Or find yourself having dreams filled with anxiety. Whatever the case may be, attempting to sleep when you’re anxious can be hard to do. Some people find themselves waking up with anxiety attacks and others might deal with anxiety before bed.
In today’s blog post were going to be sharing with you several tips and methods you can use to help calm your anxiety and get a better night’s rest. Keep reading to learn how to deal with anxiety while sleeping!
Reading before bed
Reading has many benefits, and one among them is its ability to help you sleep. Research suggests it may help:
- Ease stress
- Relive insomnia
- Improve sleep quality
- Promote longer sleep duration
A lot of the time when anxiety arises, we feel a strong surge of overwhelming emotions and thoughts. Reading may help you distract yourself from these thoughts and calm anxiety, helping you relax and fall asleep as needed.
Listening to music
Music has been long seen as a way to escape from the world and to some extent - deal with emotions. And according to the Sleep Foundation, music can calm the autonomic nervous system. As a result, people may experience reduced blood pressure, slower breathing, and a lower heart rate.
Because of this effect, it may help you relax both physically and mentally. It’s also a great way to distract yourself from overwhelming and anxious thoughts that might be consuming your mind.
Breathing exercises
Breathing exercises are probably one of the most convenient ways to calm yourself at any moment. Although there are many different forms of it, most of them are basic and easy enough to follow and do.
For a beginner, just try taking deep and slow breaths through your nose, then out your mouth. This will help engage your body’s natural relaxation response and it can help to bring you to a state of calmness.
Meditation
Meditation comes in many different forms, but itcan help relieve stress and fight insomnia. Whether you choose to do guided or body scan meditations, whatever the case may be, they’re effective and they’re used frequently to help with sleep.
The core concept is to observe and accept your emotions and thoughts as they come. And when they do - recognize them, then bring yourself back to the present moment with a specific anchor like your breath or a body part.
Warm bath or shower
Taking a warm bath or shower could help for several reasons. For a long time now, both have been considered effective ways to destress and calm yourself.
In fact, it’s said a warm bath can improve your mental and emotional health. They’re linked to decrease stress hormones and more balanced serotonin levels, serotonin helps to regulate our mood and it even plays a role in our sleep modulation.
Closing thoughts - How to sleep when you’re anxious
We’ve all been in the position of dealing with anxiety before bed to some degree. Whether you deal with it often, or only from time to time, it can make it difficult to fall asleep and get the rest you need to be functioning at your very best!
Finding a healthy way to relax your body and mind is the best possible solution to calming anxiety before bed. When you’re able to deal with anxiety as it arises at night, you’ll be able to sleep better and function at better the next day.
BetterSleep can help with a variety of other methods including hypnosis, bedtime stories and more. Kick your anxious thoughts to the side with BetterSleep today!
