Introduction to Anxiety and Sleep
If your anxiety keeps you up at night, you’re in good company. About half of people with anxiety disorders experience sleep problems, especially insomnia, or difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep. This can be a challenging cycle to break, but understanding why anxiety affects sleep can help you find solutions.
Why Anxiety Affects Sleep
When you’re anxious, your body activates its stress response systems to prepare you to deal with the cause of the stress. This causes a spike in levels of cortisol (a stress hormone) in the body, which can lead to increased alertness, racing heart rate, and other symptoms that could keep you awake. Unfortunately, nighttime is rarely the time when we’re able to address our problems constructively. Sleep loss due to anxiety can lead to other health issues, including trouble learning and focusing, slow reaction times, emotional lability, and loss of productivity. Over time, sleep deprivation is linked to chronic health conditions like heart or kidney disease, diabetes, stroke, obesity, and depression.
Managing Anxiety for Better Sleep
To manage your anxiety and get better sleep, it helps to find ways to calm your mind and body both during the day and before bed. It’s essential to do things that relax you before bed and avoid things that might exacerbate pre-sleep anxiety and arousal. Here are five tips to help you manage anxiety symptoms at bedtime and get better sleep in the long run.
Seeking Professional Help
If your anxiety is making it hard for you to fall asleep, tell your healthcare provider or a mental health professional about the symptoms you’re having. They could offer you several treatment options, such as talk therapy or medication in some cases. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a common type of talk therapy, is an especially effective treatment option for both anxiety and insomnia. Guided by a mental health care provider, CBT can help you identify unhelpful thought and behavior patterns that make anxiety or sleep problems worse and replace them with more helpful ones.
Avoiding Stimulants Before Bed
Some people turn to caffeine to help them focus, but many people with anxiety find that overdoing it on caffeine worsens their symptoms. Not only can too much caffeine ramp up anxiety, but it can also keep you awake if you have it too close to bedtime. If you drink coffee, Coke, or another stimulating drink, stop your intake well before bedtime. This allows your body to metabolize the caffeine so it won’t keep you awake. The same goes for alcohol, which can cause or worsen anxiety. Alcohol may seem like a soothing way to self-medicate late-night anxiety, but it’s actually doing more harm than good. It can act as a stimulant right after you drink it and in low doses, and it will also fragment your sleep once you fall asleep. Avoiding alcoholic beverages at least three to four hours before bed is recommended.
Additional Tips for Better Sleep
Other strategies can help you manage anxiety and improve sleep. Establishing a bedtime routine, creating a relaxing sleep environment, and avoiding screens before bedtime can all contribute to better sleep quality. Regular exercise, mindfulness practices, and journaling can also help reduce anxiety levels throughout the day, making it easier to fall asleep at night.
Conclusion
Anxiety and sleep problems often go hand in hand, but there are steps you can take to break this cycle. By seeking professional help, avoiding stimulants before bed, and incorporating relaxation techniques into your daily routine, you can manage your anxiety and improve the quality of your sleep. Remember, it’s essential to be patient and consistent when working to overcome anxiety and sleep issues. With the right strategies and support, you can find better sleep and reduce your anxiety levels over time.