How to stop night time anxiety

11 Sleep Anxiety Tips: How To Calm Anxiety at Night

*This article is for general information purposes only and is not intended as medical or other professional advice. Visit the links within the text for sources. Casper has not independently verified the sources.

While some of us may toss and turn some nights, every night can be a restless night for others. If you’ve ever struggled with sleep anxiety, you know the feeling of anxiously watching the clock as you worry about not being able to fall asleep and waking up sleep-deprived the next day.

There are many statistics that reveal Americans’ struggle to sleep on a regular basis. As it turns out, anxiety and sleep are connected in a number of ways. Fifty percent of those who are sleep-deprived say that their anxiety impacts their ability to sleep at night.

It’s important to understand how anxiety can affect your ability to get a good night’s rest. This guide covers what sleep anxiety is, the effects of anxiety-induced sleep deprivation, and science-backed tips for decreasing anxious thoughts, as well as how to set yourself up for better sleep.

What Is Sleep Anxiety?

Sleep anxiety is a type of performance anxiety that involves a cycle of anxious thoughts before going to bed, many of which involve unease, nervousness, and worry. While there are dozens of tasks to occupy your cognitive functions during the day, your brain can often struggle to keep itself busy at night, thus resorting to any anxious emotions and thoughts.

Anxiety can lead to an endless cycle of stress and poor sleep. If you often experience nighttime anxiety, it may be hard to tell whether you’re having trouble sleeping because you’re anxious or you’re feeling anxious because you can’t sleep.

According to research, sleep and anxiety go hand-in-hand. Having anxiety can cause sleeping problems and make it difficult to sleep, but sleep deprivation can also trigger anxiety. If you’re unable to sleep, you may dread going to bed and waking up feeling even more sleep deprived.

UC Berkeley researchers suggest that the lack of sleep can ramp up regions in the brain that trigger excessive worry, which provokes further anxiety and makes sleep even more elusive

What Are the Symptoms of Nighttime Anxiety?

Symptoms of nighttime anxiety take on many forms, as it is experienced differently by everyone. Dr. Pierrette Mimi Poinsett, pediatrician and medical consultant for Mom Loves Best, says, “Before bedtime is no different than anxiety during the day. The difference is that you may be more aware of anxiety at night as fewer other stimuli are co-occurring.”

While sleep anxiety is individual to each person, some of the most common symptoms include:

Trouble falling and staying asleep
Trouble concentrating
Feelings of restlessness and nervousness
Gastrointestinal problems
Nightmares and night terrors
Hypnic jerk (twitching)

Another symptom of sleep anxiety is panic attacks. This involves an episode of extreme fear that’s characterized by a sense of doom, increased heart rate, sweating, dizziness, shortness of breath, and a feeling of detachment that could occur before or during sleep. After experiencing a nighttime panic attack, there can be anxiety about getting another attack, making it harder to fall asleep.

What Happens When Anxiety Interrupts Sleep?

When anxiety causes inadequate sleep, it can go beyond the tiredness of a regular all-nighter. Poinsett says that anxiety can be a trigger for sleep deprivation, creating a vicious cycle that can further affect your sleep pattern.

While the impact of sleep anxiety is largely individual, some common effects of sleep anxiety include:

Negatively impacts your mood
Leads to poor performance at work or school
Disrupts learning and attention
Increases chance of depression
Reduces cognitive reaction times

A small study even found that those who have insomnia are four times more likely to develop depression.

In addition to mental health issues, those with sleep disorders can be at risk for other health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, stroke, diabetes, and obesity.

How Can I Overcome Anxiety at Bedtime?

If anxiety or disrupted sleep occurs often in your day-to-day life, these simple strategies can help you relax your body and mind and ease yourself into sleep. Changing your pre-sleep habits takes time and patience, but adapting to these changes may help you fall asleep with less sleep anxiety over time.

1. Practice Good Sleep Hygiene

Dr. Nikki Lacherza-Drew, licensed psychologist and owner of Vici Psychological Care, suggests engaging in proper sleep hygiene to help get better sleep. Lacherza-Drew says, “If you have a routine and engage in appropriate sleep hygiene on a consistent basis, your mind will be less likely to go down the rabbit hole of anxious thoughts.”

Sleep hygiene refers to various habits that are necessary for good sleep quality. To practice good sleep hygiene, Lacherza-Drew suggests:

Limiting screen time before bed
No major physical activity or heavy meals close to bedtime
No caffeine or alcohol near bedtime or after a certain time in the afternoon

Other easy ways to practice good sleep hygiene include:

Soaking up the morning sun
Limiting power naps to 20 minutes
Keeping your bedroom dark and cool
Following a consistent bedtime routine

2.

Practice Meditation

According to Dr. Clara Lawson, medical doctor at USA Hemp, practicing meditation can help calm anxiety before bedtime. Additionally, research has shown that diaphragmatic breathing relaxation techniques can lead to significant reductions in anxiety before bedtime.

Start with as little as a few minutes of sitting quietly and focusing on your breathing. Learning to silence your mind and meditate can help navigate stress during the day and before bedtime. If you have trouble meditating, try these relaxing yoga poses to help your body prepare for sleep.

3. Exercise

Lawson also suggests using exercise to calm pre-bedtime anxiety because it reduces the production of stress hormones. Regular exercise has been shown to help people fall asleep faster and more soundly. Even a moderate-intensity workout like a brisk walk can improve sleep for those with chronic insomnia.

While getting exercise can be a great way to practice good sleep hygiene, Dr. Howard LeWine, editor in chief of Harvard Men’s Health Watch, says, “You should avoid vigorous activity for at least one hour before bedtime.” If you’ve been struggling to fall asleep, you may want to skip the late-night sweat sesh and opt for a morning or afternoon workout instead.

4. Set Aside Time for Winding Down

If you’ve been struggling with sleep anxiety, Dr. Fran Walfish, family and relationship psychotherapist, suggests “creating a routine that winds you down and gets you in the mood for sleep.” This can include things like dimming the lights, listening to calming music, or taking a warm bath.

Walfish also suggests opting for activities like light reading in place of a TV or computer, as using a screen can “ tend to rev up anxiety and excitatory thresholds versus relax and calm you down.”

The best nighttime routine allows your mind and body time to slow down before you turn off the lights. Allot at least 30 minutes to take a bath, read a book, listen to a podcast, or play quiet music. These “transition rituals” can condition your brain to associate certain actions with preparing for sleep.

5. Avoid Stressful Activities Before Bed

Amber Weiss, licensed psychotherapist and founder of Transformative Mindset, says, “Creating some form of a transition from daytime to sleeping is highly recommended.” According to Weiss, you can’t expect the mind to go to sleep on demand. Instead, you need to allow time for the brain to transition, just like we transition to go outside or when we get home.

The goal is to reduce the nervous thoughts in your head so your mind is clear, calm, and positive before you head off to sleep. This can entail leaving the office, work, news, and social media exchanges for earlier in the day to create buffer time between work and sleep, setting yourself up for better rest.

6. Write Down Your Worries on Paper

According to Juanita Wells, director of clinical development at New Method Wellness, putting your thoughts down on paper can “help us remain accountable to ourselves, our feelings, our purpose, and plan. ”

Instead of letting thoughts and to-dos swirl around in your brain, write them down so that your brain has a game plan for the following day. Wells says that writing down your anxious feelings, especially through stream-of-consciousness journaling (writing whatever comes to mind), can help ease anxiety before bed.

In addition to calming pre-bedtime anxiety, research shows that journaling can also help you fall asleep more quickly. To get started journaling, just snuggle up with your notebook and some cozy pillows and let your thoughts take it away.

7. Avoid Lying in Bed Awake

If you’re lying in bed for more than 20 minutes and still can’t fall asleep, it might be time to give yourself a do-over. While it may feel counterintuitive, Lawson suggests leaving your bedroom to do a sleep-inducing activity, like having a cup of tea or reading a book. This conditioning, known as stimulus control, can reduce the time it takes to fall asleep.

If you’re going to try stimulus control, it’s important to remove yourself from your bedroom environment. This helps give you a mental reset when you try to fall asleep again.

8. Limit Screen Time

Did you know that our laptops, phones, and tablets emit blue light that tricks the brain into thinking the sun is up and suppresses melatonin? To combat this, try avoiding screens for one to two hours before bedtime to minimize sleep interruptions.

If you’re unable to part ways with your phone before going to bed, you should consider using a blue light filter to minimize the amount of stimulating blue light you see before trying to hit the hay.

9. Set Your Environment

Controlling light, sound, and temperature in your bedroom can increase your chances of calming your mind and falling asleep easily. A sleep-friendly environment should be quiet, dark, and cool — between 60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit, to be exact.

If light is keeping you up, using a dimmable glow light can be a great way to get yourself in the mood for sleep. Additionally, while white noise may be your go-to background sound to fall asleep, research has shown that pink noise can also help make it easier to focus on your sleep.

10. Get a Bed That Fits You

When you sleep on an uncomfortable mattress, pressure points build up on your body, causing you to toss and turn. A supportive mattress and pillow provide support to the contours of your body and neck, and keep you cool and comfortable for sleep.

For drool-worthy sleep at a price point that won’t break the bank, you may want to check out the Casper Original Mattress. Engineered for cool, comfortable sleep, the Casper Original provides targeted layers of support and unique cooling perforations so you can spend less time counting sheep and more time catching Z’s.

If you’re looking for that sleeping-on-a-cloud experience, the Casper Nova Hybrid may be the right option for you. As our most top rated mattress, the Casper Nova provides sturdy support with a velvety soft top layer so you can sleep worry-free.

11. Use a Weighted Blanket

Weighted blankets are a type of heavy blanket that typically weighs between 5 and 30 pounds. They’re known for producing calming effects by mimicking the feeling of a hug using deep pressure stimulation. Because weighted blankets can help increase serotonin and melatonin while decreasing cortisol, they have been shown to promote feelings of calmness and peacefulness.

What Causes Anxiety Before Sleep?

According to clinical psychologist Emily Knott, “Anxiety before bedtime often takes the form of a phenomenon referred to in psychology as pre-sleep arousal.”

Knott says that pre-sleep arousal may cause the body and nervous system to enter a state of heightened awareness that may take the form of “problem-solving, thinking about your own thoughts, focusing on stimuli in the environment such as noise and light, and ruminating about the consequences of not being able to sleep.”

While there hasn’t been extensive research conducted on sleep and anxiety, there are a few reasons why your anxiety may be worse at night. Here are possible causes.

Reason #1: 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.

Reason #2: Fear

Some people feel scared, worried, and sad at night. The stress can cause your body to experience an adrenaline rush, which exacerbates your anxiety and prevents you from relaxing before bed.

Reason #3: Rapid Thought Patterns

Those who have anxiety tend to experience quick-moving thoughts that are difficult to calm. The longer those thoughts go on, the more anxious people feel. Poinsett says that these rapid thought patterns can turn into a vicious cycle that affects your sleep pattern throughout the week.

Reason #4: Poor Sleep Cycle

According to Lawson, insomnia and anxiety share a strong relationship, meaning sleep problems or insomnia can cause anxiety and vice versa.

If you’ve always been anxious or struggled to fall asleep, you may have developed a pattern of poor or interrupted sleep. This makes your body most susceptible to stress and insomnia.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

Research also shows that sleep disorders occur in almost all psychiatric and anxiety disorders. Some of these include:

Generalized anxiety disorder: Worry over everyday events, making it difficult to relax.
Social anxiety disorder: The anticipation of social situations can often prevent sleep at night.
Compulsive-obsessive disorder: Research suggests that intrusive thoughts and fears can keep people up when they’re trying to fall asleep.
Post-traumatic stress disorder: The constant re-experiencing of traumatic events can induce nightmares and rob people of sleep.

Sleep vs. Anxiety

While experiencing anxiety is a normal occurrence, it becomes a concern when it interferes with your ability to sleep. Anxiety at bedtime may be the result of an anxiety disorder or just from overall unrest. What we know so far is that sleeping problems can lead to anxiety, and anxiety can create more sleeping problems, creating a vicious loop.

If anxiety is affecting your sleep, it’s possible that lifestyle changes and better sleep hygiene can help. If you are unable to overcome anxiety with these adjustments, it’s best to speak to a health professional. No matter the method, it’s important to alleviate the anxiety to get the sleep you deserve.

Infographic

How To Calm Your Anxiety at Night – Cleveland Clinic

It’s bedtime, and not a creature is stirring…except for your racing mind, that is. Why is it that even after a relatively anxiety-free day, our minds sometimes go into overdrive when our heads hit the pillow?

Psychologist Susan Albers, PsyD, talks about how to calm anxiety at night and even prevent it from happening in the first place.

Why do you get anxiety at night?

When you lie down at night to unwind, your brain turns to all of the worries it didn’t have time for during the day. Frequently, this anxiety revolves around worries you can’t solve in the moment.

“All the things that have been put on the back burner come to the forefront of your head,” Dr. Albers says. “Without competing demands for your attention, these worries often get louder and more pronounced.”

Chronic daytime stress puts your body into overdrive and taxes your hormones and adrenal system, which are directly linked to sleep — so sleep troubles may be a red flag telling you to address stress during your waking hours.

Nighttime anxiety can trigger a vicious cycle: A bad night’s sleep leads to exhaustion the next day and disrupts your body’s natural rhythms. “This makes you more vulnerable to anxiety during the day that can bleed into the night,” Dr. Albers says. And so the cycle repeats.

Settle into your routines

When it comes to sleep, routine is your best friend.

Eating at the same time every day helps regulate your circadian rhythms.
Eating breakfast signals that it’s time for your body to wake up.
Regular daytime exercise releases endorphins and decreases levels of cortisol, the hormone behind stress.
Going to bed at the same time every night teaches your body to get sleepy around the same time.

But if you want to lessen nighttime anxiety, it’s still important to implement a specific nighttime routine.

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“You can’t expect to go from 100 mph and then suddenly stop,” Dr. Albers says. Instead, institute a 30-minute transition between bedtime and the rest of your day.

Try quiet, tech-free activities that reduce your cortisol levels and help ease you into sleep, such as:

Taking a bath.
Reading a book.
Journaling.
Doing yoga stretches.

Try these pre-sleep snacks

If you’re worried you’ll be too worried to fall asleep, head off nighttime anxiety with these all-natural tricks:

Drink tart cherry juice or eat a bowl of tart cherries. Studies show that tart cherry consumption can help you sleep for up to 85 minutes longer because they’re a source of melatonin, a sleep aid that reduces inflammation in the body.
Make a mug of chamomile tea. This ancient herbal tea has been clinically shown to help reduce anxiety and promote sleep.
Pop a Brazil nut or two. These big, buttery tree nuts are one of the world’s best sources of selenium, which can help your thyroid run smoothly and thus aid in sleep. Just two Brazil nuts have been shown to be as helpful as a selenium supplement.

Try not to consume caffeine late in the day, whether in coffee or elsewhere. “Be mindful of what you’re consuming,” Dr. Albers says, “because too much caffeine can exacerbate existing anxiety.”

Put your phone to bed

Just say no to doomscrolling before bed — the practice of taking in a barrage of bad news online. “Give your phone a bedtime before your own,” Dr. Albers advises.

And if anxiety keeps you awake or wakes you up, resist the temptation to break this rule and start using your phone. Your phone’s blue light signals your brain to turn back on, ultimately making it even harder to get to sleep.

“This is a No. 1 no-no for helping you fall back to sleep,” Dr. Albers warns.

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If you can’t sleep…

If you wake up with anxiety in the middle of the night, these practical tips can help you stop tossing and turning:

Write it down. Keep a journal next to your bed where you can jot down your worries. “This helps you to detach and let it go,” Dr. Albers says.
Try an app. Apps such as Calm, Headspace®, or the Cleveland Clinic’s Mindful Moments share relaxing sleep stories to help soothe your mind.
Listen to soothing music. Studies show that relaxing tunes can calm your autonomic nervous system, which leads to slower breathing, reduced heart rate, and lower blood pressure, all of which help you sleep.
Get up but stay calm. If you simply can’t snooze, it’s OK to get out of bed — just be smart about what you do next. “Choose an activity that is relaxing rather than a task or activity that turns on your brain full-throttle,” Dr. Albers says. She recommends routine, low-engagement tasks such as packing your lunch and folding the laundry.

And try to avoid self-medication with food, alcohol, or sleep aids, which can provide short-term help but won’t get to the root of your issues.

Meditate on it

“Your breathing patterns are a signal,” Dr. Albers says. “When your breathing slows down, it sends a message to your brain and body that it’s time to go to sleep.” She suggests this 4-7-8 breathing technique from Dr. Andrew Weil:

Gently part your lips.
Exhale, making a “whoosh” sound as you do.
Silently inhale as you press your lips together for a count of four.
For a count of seven, hold your breath.
Exhale for a count of eight, and make the whooshing sound again.
Repeat this four times as you first start; work up to eight repetitions.

Finally, if nothing seems to help your nighttime anxiety, check in with a physician or therapist, who can help get to the bottom of underlying medical conditions or anxiety disorders.

As you (try to) fall asleep, remember: Mindfulness is key. Rather than worrying about the future, focus on what’s within your control right now — like getting to sleep.

6 Ways to Relax for Anyone Who Can't Sleep Due to Anxiety or Panic

Surely you have at least once experienced sudden anxiety in the middle of the night - due to an unpleasant memory, heavy thoughts about tomorrow, or a terrible dream. In such cases, it can be difficult to fall asleep again or just calm down for a start. We retell The Ascent's material with tips on how best to act in such a situation.

Remember the simplest thing - your breathing

We often do not accept advice that seems obvious and too primitive to us. However, in many ways, proper breathing is the key to peace. To recover a bit, sometimes just focusing on how you breathe is enough. As you inhale and exhale deeply, try to feel how your body relaxes. If you want variety, take a look at our selection of relaxing breathing exercises.

Be mindful of your sleeping position

Everyone has long known the importance of a routine before and during bedtime. Following simple rules helps the body recover and rest. Yes, it is important to go to bed and get up at the same time and reduce phone use half an hour to an hour before bedtime. However, the position in which you lie in bed is equally important.

After restoring your breathing, do not forget to return to the position in which you are most comfortable falling asleep. Also be mindful of what positions you are most uncomfortable in - some, for example, experience sleep paralysis (a state in which a person thinks he is awake, but cannot move, as if he is paralyzed) when sleeping on his back.

Throw out the thoughts that are bothering you

When anxiety overtakes us before going to bed or even wakes us up, we often spend a lot of time trying to solve everything at once, at least in our head. Sometimes it is more effective to get out of bed, walk to the table, take out a piece of paper and write down everything that bothers you.

If you have any specific experiences, write them down to remember, and make a pact with yourself that you will definitely think about everything tomorrow. You will return to your list with more sleep and a clearer mind.

Turn on the light

Darkness often increases anxiety. It may seem childish to turn on the lights to calm down, but it's a quick fix that gives you a nice sense of control. In the end, it's better to calm down and laugh at yourself, rather than spend hours wondering if you see an ordinary shadow or a scary monster.

Talk to someone

Even if you don't live alone, there are days when you don't know who to ask for help. At such moments, it is useful to come up with an alternative company for yourself, it does not even have to be real. Some find it helpful, for example, to talk to an imaginary friend or a spiritual figure. Choose those personalities and heroes that you find soothing.

If all else fails, don't force yourself to sleep

Sometimes we just can't sleep - that's okay. You may even feel that physically your body really wants to rest. However, if no exercise helps, just relax and accept that you are unlikely to fall asleep right now. Spend your time doing something else - clean the room, turn on a documentary series, do whatever feels important and necessary to you. Yes, in the morning you will be sleepy, but you will not become angry that you spent three or four hours falling asleep.

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How to stop worrying and start sleeping?

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It happens that people cannot fall asleep because of the habit of constantly being on the alert. Those who have moved to a new apartment, or, for example, young parents, may encounter such a condition - your baby has already grown up and sleeps sweetly until the morning, but you seem to have completely forgotten how. The most unpleasant thing is that realizing that the morning is approaching, you panic more and more. How to establish the correct mode? Knowledge of psychology will help you!

6 simple rules to make falling asleep easier:

No stimulants before bed - such as caffeine, smoking and junk food!
Comfortable conditions - comfortable mattress, optimal temperature in the room, darkness and silence if possible
Things that help you relax, such as daily meditation or yoga
Don't go to bed until you feel sleepy
Staying up too long
Do not sleep during the day

And this, of course, is not all - after all, the main list of recommendations can be supplemented.

Useful tricks and subtleties:

If you are unable to sleep, get up and do your preselected boring activity for at least 20 minutes. This will help you switch. Just keep in mind, reading in bed will not work.
No "sleep crutches" such as alcohol or sleeping pills! This is important because nothing should undermine your belief in your own natural sleep mechanism. In addition, artificial remedies usually help for a short time - and the rest of the night you just toss and turn and feel absent-minded the next day.
Do not rely too much on pills, otherwise they can become an integral part of your life.
Don't complain about your sleep to anyone. This can also affect your belief in your own ability to sleep well. Psychologists are sure that what you tell about your dream comes true. Better program yourself with statements like "I usually sleep very well." In time this will become true.
Do not look for excuses and try not to compromise about the regime - for example, do not stay overnight at a party if this can adversely affect the quality of your sleep.
Don't look at your watch at night . This can make you panic even more. What matters to you is how well you feel the next day, not the number of hours you spent sleeping.
If you often start to worry while lying in bed, find something that calms you .
Learn more