Can T Fall Asleep Anxiety

Why Does It Happen At Night

Anxiety is a normal human emotion characterized by feelings of nervousness and worry. You may find yourself experiencing anxiety during stressful situations, such as a first date or job interview.

Sometimes, though, anxiety may linger around for longer than usual. When this happens, it can interfere with your daily and nightly life.

One of the most common times when people experience anxiety is at night. Many clinical trials have found that sleep deprivation can be a trigger for anxiety. Historically, research also suggests anxiety disorders are associated with reduced sleep quality.

Treating your nighttime anxiety and addressing your sleep issues are important steps in improving your quality of life.

There are many symptoms of anxiety. Everyone experiences anxiety differently. Symptoms can happen anytime of the day, morning, or night. Common symptoms of anxiety include:

• feelings of nervousness, restlessness, or worry
• trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
• gastrointestinal problems

Another symptom a person with anxiety may also experience is a panic attack. A panic attack is an episode of extreme and intense fear, often accompanied by physical manifestations. The common symptoms of a panic attack include:

• a sense of impending doom
• increased heart rate and chest pains
• shortness of breath and throat tightness
• sweating, chills, and hot flashes
• dizziness or lightheadedness
• a feeling of detachment, or like nothing is real

Relieving Anxiety That Keeps You From Falling Or Staying Asleep

If sleep worries are getting in the way of your ability to unwind at night, the following strategies may help. The goal is to train your body to associate the bed with sleep and nothing elseespecially not frustration and anxiety.

Use the bedroom only for sleeping and sex. With many of us working from home now, it can be difficult to avoid, but if possible dont work, use your computer, or watch TV in your bedroom. The goal is to associate the bedroom with sleep alone, so that your brain and body get a strong signal that its time to nod off when you get into bed.

Move bedroom clocks out of view. Anxiously watching the minutes tick by when you cant sleepknowing that youre going to be exhausted when the alarm goes offis a surefire recipe for insomnia. You can use an alarm, but make sure you cant see the time when youre in bed.

Get out of bed when you cant sleep. Dont try to force yourself to sleep. Tossing and turning only amps up your anxiety. Get up, leave the bedroom, and do something relaxing, such as reading, meditating, or taking a bath. When youre sleepy, go back to bed.

What Is The Relationship Between Anxiety And Sleep

Serious sleep disturbances, including insomnia, have long been recognized as a common symptom of anxiety disorders. People who are plagued with worry often ruminate about their concerns in bed, and this anxiety at night can keep them from falling asleep.

In fact, a state of mental hyperarousal, frequently marked by worry, has been identified as a key factor behind insomnia. People with anxiety disorders are inclined to have higher sleep reactivity, which means they are much more likely to have sleeping problems when facing stress.

Sleeping difficulties have been found for people with various types of anxiety including generalized anxiety disorder, OCD, and PTSD. In several studies, over 90% of people with PTSD associated with military combat have reported symptoms of insomnia.

Distress about falling asleep can itself complicate matters, creating a sleep anxiety that reinforces a persons sense of dread and preoccupation. These negative thoughts about going to bed, a type of anticipatory anxiety, can create challenges to healthy sleep schedules and routines.

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At the same time, strong evidence indicates that sleeping problems are not only a symptom of anxiety. Instead, sleep deprivation can instigate or worsen anxiety disorders. Researchers have found that people who are prone to anxiety are especially sensitive to the effects of insufficient sleep, which can provoke symptoms of anxiety.

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What To Do When Anxiety Is Keeping You From Sleeping

Because anxiety is triggered by what we’re thinking and worrying about often obsessively the Good News is that we can help to banish the anxiety by changing what we’re thinking about. Sleep specialists often recommend the following tips for dealing with anxiety that is keeping you awake:

In many cases, the effects of anxiety on sleep are aggravated by poor sleep habits. So in addition to the above tips about dealing with anxiety per se, here are a number of general suggestions about things you can do to make it easier to get the sleep you need:

• Develop a regular sleep schedule, and stick to it. If you can, try to avoid staying up late and “sleeping in” on weekends, because a regular schedule is better for both falling asleep easily and feeling better during the day.
• Try to avoid alcohol, caffeine, smoking, and heavy meals in the evenings.
• Light significantly affects your sleep cycles, so increase your exposure to light during the day and reduce it at night by avoiding TV and computer use before sleeping.
• Try to create a bedtime routine that allows you to “wind down” before going to sleep. Make sure your bedroom is dark, quiet, and cool. Take a relaxing bath, and try to avoid thinking about stressful topics. Read a book, practice gentle yoga, or listen to quiet music before going to bed, rather than watching TV or exercising.

Try Not To Stress About Sleep

Did you know that actively worrying about sleep actually fuels insomnia?

According to Dr. Farrell-Carnahan, people who worry about getting good sleep will often have what she calls catastrophic thoughts.

We imagine the terrible things that will happen because of one bad night of sleep, placing pressure on ourselves to rest and thus making it harder to do so.

She recommends two specific tips for dealing with this problem:

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Repeat A Word Or Do A Mental Puzzle

One of the early, but effective solutions to overthinking and intrusive thoughts in bed is called âarticulatory suppression,â in which you would mouth a word at a rate that makes thinking about any other thought difficult â usually 3 to 4 times a second.

The underlying psychology is complex, but the theory is that mouthing a word requires a lot more mental power than just thinking it and the use of that mental power causes a blocking of the original intrusive thought. Choices of word for this method include:

• the word âtheâ2
• a nonsense syllable
• a proper name .

The only requirement is that it has no emotional significance to you . You can also extend the technique by:

• accompanying the word you use with a visualisation of a shape, like a triangle or square. This is particularly useful if your intrusive thoughts have a visual component.7
• adding a puzzle element, such as counting back from 1000 in certain âjumpsâ e.g. 1000, 993, 986, using âjumpsâ of 7 in addition to using a word, image or syllable.

Since everyone is different, it might take a few goes to find a process which works for you.

How Anxiety Can Affect Sleep

Lack of sleep can lead to increased chances of anxiety, but anxiety can also cause a lack of sleep. Unfortunately, the two can intertwine quite a bit, causing one to exacerbate the other.

Anxiety can have a negative effect on your bodys ability to fall asleep as your brain is in fight or flight mode, thinking of all potential outcomes for whatever is causing the anxiety. Furthermore, anticipatory anxiety and specific anxiety about sleep can lead to sleep disturbance and insomnia, which then creates a feedback loop that can make both conditions worsen. Insomnia can also make you more irritable and more worried, as your brain is not getting all the sleep it needs in order to function at normal levels.

However, its not uncommon to experience anxiety related to sleep. As Winnie Yu, a writer for WebMD noted in her article Scared to Sleep, sleep anxiety is a form of performance anxiety. Many people may stress about not getting enough sleep to function, but the stress alone of trying to sleep can cause people to sit awake for hours. Additionally, other fears such as recurring nightmares, fear of sleep apnea , and more can all lead to disturbed sleep.

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Reason #: Too Much Focus On The Day

Nighttime anxiety can be caused by over-focusing on stress before sleep. Knott says that this is because our body can perceive work stress, relationship issues, and social contact as dangerous, and prepare us to fight or flee. Being fixated on your worries during the day and anticipating stressful activities for the next day will make it more difficult for your mind to relax.

How To Fall Asleep With Anxiety: 23 Proven Mind Tricks

One of the leading causes of major sleeping disorders, like insomnia, are anxiety disorders. The prevalence of cases in which sleeplessness was associated with anxiety are numerous and oftentimes accompanied by phobias, panic disorders, and traumatic stress disorder.

Therefore, people who have anxiety also have a hard time falling and staying asleep.

Many people even develop sleep anxiety, which further affects their sleep pattern and sleep quality. The deal with sleep and anxiety is that both affect each other sleeplessness makes you anxious about not being able to fall asleep, and anxiety itself causes you not to fall asleep in the first place.

So, in the following paragraphs, were going to take a look at the best ways you can fall and stay asleep, even if you have anxiety.

But, before we begin, we need to point out that in order to take any advice from the Internet, you first need to consult the recommendations with your designated doctor.

Your doctor will see how these recommendations fit your therapy plan and whether they could help better your sleep.

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Try To Focus Your Mental Energy

In order to stop anxious and racing thoughts, try to focus your mental energy on something that you can imagine or something that you can see or hear in your bedroom, says Chloe Sica, a licensed psychologist in New Jersey and New York.

Sica suggests focusing on the white noise of a sound machine or a visual image that you find soothing, such as the crashing waves on a beach or the wind blowing the trees.

If you feel anxious or like you cant sleep, try getting up and gently moving such as walking around or stretching until you feel tired. Its important to avoid watching TV or using screens.

Write Down Your Worries

Palacios suggests writing down your worries before you get into bed each night. Ruminating thoughts happen because we continue to go over and over things in our minds, she says.

Writing down our worries and to-dos can help free up some space in our minds, Palacios says.

Writing ones anxious thoughts down is an excellent way to disconnect from them, says Po-Chang Hsu, a physician and medical content expert at SleepingOcean, a website that reviews sleep products. Many people also find the process itself soothing, which may help them wind down and sleep better.

You can try starting a nightly journal where you write down your thoughts each night before you go to sleep.

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Tips For Beating Anxiety To Get A Better Nights Sleep

Many people with anxiety disorders have trouble sleeping. That’s a problem. Too little sleep affects mood, contributing to irritability and sometimes depression. Vital functions occur during different stages of sleep that leave you feeling rested and energized or help you learn and forge memories. Sleep usually improves when an anxiety disorder is treated. Practicing good “sleep hygiene” helps, too. Here are some steps to take:

For additional tips and strategies for living with anxiety, buy Coping with Anxiety and Stress Disorders, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School.

Stick To A Consistent Sleep Routine

When it comes to falling and staying asleep, consistency is key. If you dont have a set bedtime, try to establish one.

Force yourself to stick to a routine and be in bed, with the lights out ready to sleep by a certain time every night.

In addition to sleeping on a specific schedule, it may help to establish some basic sleep hygiene rules about the way you sleep, wake and use your bed. For example:

• Limit your use of your bed to sleeping and sex. Avoid using your bed to read, work on your computer or watch television.

• Only go to bed when you feel tired. Dont use your bed as a sofa, or as a place to relax during the daytime.

• Get out of bed at the same time every morning. This helps to establish your day and means youll always go to bed after roughly the same amount of alert-type time on a daily basis.

While these habits might seem simple, they can have a big impact on your ability to relax in bed and fall asleep within a reasonable amount of time.

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How Does It Feel To Have Somniphobia

I usually get attacks of anxiety when Im just about to go to sleep. That point of going from awake to asleep as I slip into sleep I feel like Im dyingIts scary because I have shortness of breath, I start to panic, feel dizzy and disoriented. I can feel my heartbeat faster and it feels like its coming out of my chest. When Im really tired, its so difficult because every time I fall asleep, my body jolts awake even though Im exhausted, explains Poppy, a young adult patient who sought out treatment for somniphobia.

It sounds so irrational, and I realize that it is irrational, but the physical symptoms are so real that it makes it very difficult to go to sleepI would really like some help with coping with that anxiety and irrational fear that I am going to die every time I go to sleep because Im very tired.

For Poppy and others struggling with fear and anxiety at bedtime, there are successful treatment options. First, we want to review some basic information about somniphobia and how it is diagnosed. Then, we discuss the recommended course of therapy.

Getting Physical: Yoga Running Dancing Tai Chi

In order to get a good nights sleep and deal with anxiety, you have to act long before bedtime. Physical activity and regular exercise have been stated by medical professionals and researchers as one of the most effective ways of combating physical and mental conditions.

Physical activity can significantly reduce stress levels, improve cognitive function and help your mind and body to relax. Simply put, the benefits of physical activity and exercise extend to every aspect of your life, even beyond anxiety and sleep problems.

Studies have shown that a basic 10-minute walk can relieve the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

A 45-minute workout can help you combat anxiety completely for the day. The reason for this lies in the fact that physical activity elevates the mood by helping the body produce endorphins. These are the chemicals that act as a bodys natural painkillers, stress-reducers and of course, sleep promoters.

People who exercise regularly, and lead an active life are 25% less likely to develop or experience anxiety, as well as sleeping problems. Heres a list of best exercises you can do to decrease anxiety levels and improve sleep

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Improving The Sleep Environment

This may not be the most necessary step towards a good nights sleep, even with anxiety. However, by taking care of where you sleep, and how your sleep environment looks like can improve the quality of your sleep.

So, if you want to be comfortable, relaxed and to finally fall and stay asleep, improving your sleep environment will definitely help. Heres what you can do

How Can Healthier Sleep Habits Treat Sleep Anxiety

Sleep habits, or sleep hygiene, are your routines around bedtime that can affect your sleep. Your healthcare provider may ask you to keep a sleep diary for several weeks. This is a daily log of your sleep habits. It can help identify things that might make it harder for you to fall asleep or stay asleep.

Some common ways to improve your sleep hygiene include:

• Avoid drinking lots of fluids before bed, especially alcohol.
• Do relaxing activities before bed, such as meditation or listening to soft, peaceful music.
• Dont consume caffeine in the late afternoon or evening.
• Dont go to bed unless you feel sleepy.
• Go to bed and wake up at the same time each day.
• If you dont fall asleep within 20 minutes, get out of bed.
• Make sure your bedroom is comfortable, quiet and softly lit.
• Only use your bed for sleep and sex. For example, avoid watching television or doing work in bed.
• Set a goal of getting at least seven hours of sleep every night.
• Stop using electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
• Try not to eat right before bedtime. If youre hungry, have a light snack and not a big meal.

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