Have you ever been so anxious and worried about something that you simply can’t switch off when you lie down in bed? You toss and turn as you can’t stop thinking about what happened earlier. I’ve been in this situation all too often. When the quiet of night comes, it’s easy for worrying thoughts to soon creep in. It’s like we’ve been so busy all day that the minute we stop and think, all our concerns come flooding in. Trying to fall asleep when you’re feeling anxious can seem impossible sometimes, but I’ve devised a few techniques myself that I hope will help you too.
1. Exhaust Yourself
You probably think “I’m already exhausted!”, but I’m talking about real hardcore exhaustion of your muscles. Since I was an early teen I’ve hit the weights. As well and being great to shape your body, exhausting your muscles can put you into a quick and very deep sleep. When you put your muscles under a great deal of stress, they need even more rest to repair. As this process happens, they require tons of energy to do so, leaving you exhausted. Whenever I’ve had a heavy weights session in the evening, I find myself lying down at around 9pm and simply drifting off. The best way that I have found to do this is to give everything you’ve got when you workout.
You have to totally exhaust yourself.I’m talking about heavy leg workouts that engage your big muscle groups, not a light jog around the block. Although you may find it a little difficult to get up the next morning, you will find that you simply fall into sleep without having any time to worry about anything. Exercise, of course, raises body temperature, and it is thought that the reduction of body temperature after this phase helps to induce sleep. That’s why I usually like to workout in the evening. It’s more convenient, and I’ve found it helps me to fall asleep like a baby.
2. Put That Device Down
This is something that I always talk about but I’m going to say it again here for your benefit. Please put the devices down way before bedtime. I used to find that when I tried to sleep after looking at Facebook, I’d always feel more anxious. I’d still have the images of others doing things in my mind and it would always make me feel inadequate. Social media is something that connects us together but also can create a lot of excess anxiety that we don’t need. If you’re worried about something or someone and you’re looking at other people showing off what they have on social media, it only makes you feel worse.
Stop comparing yourself to others, especially before you try and go to sleep. Where I would look at Facebook in bed up to the point I turned my light out, I now go into my room and stick my phone on charge before I get into bed. If my phone buzzes whilst I’m lying in bed, I don’t bother looking at it until the next morning. Nothing on your phone is as important as your night’s sleep.
3. Commit To Thinking Of Only One Thing
Because anxiety and worry can strike when you’re trying to go to sleep, you can find that you have lots of different thoughts rushing through your mind. You ruminate about the day’s events, and try and put right any worries you can think of. This in itself is exhausting! Instead, I have found that committing to myself to think about only one thing has helped me to subconsciously focus on falling asleep. As human beings, we like to think that we are fantastic multi-taskers. However, as human beings, we need to be reminded that we cannot think about two things at once, it’s just not in our biology.
For example, try and think of what you did for your last birthday whilst thinking clearly of the statue of liberty. Can’t be done right? Trying to spin lots of thoughts is exhausting when you’re not trying to get to sleep, it’s even worse when you are trying.
4. Get Assistance
Trying to fall asleep when you’re anxious can be like trying to ride a bike through sand. Because we know that focusing on thoughts or worries will only stop us from going to sleep, you can use assistance to focus your thoughts and realign what you’re thinking about. You can do this using guided relaxation music. It’s really simple to do, and it can get you into the relaxed state that you need to be in. I’ve personally used tracks from the Guided Meditation Site in the past. Don’t let the name make you think that it’s all about meditating though. They offer relaxation tracks with natural sounds, affirmations, and track specific to helping you get into the mindset for sleep. For example, this is a great track to play at bedtime that will help calm your mind and drift you off into a deep sleep.
5. If All Else Fails, Get On Up!
Sometimes you have to know when to quit, in my personal experience. If you wake up in the night, it can sometimes be really hard to fall asleep again. I have always found it difficult to go back to sleep once I’ve woken up, and have found that by getting up and getting moving can be a good thing. Okay, maybe not at 1am every night, but if you wake up with racing thoughts at let’s say, 4am or 5am, it might do you a world of good in the long run. I’ve always found there to be something truly relaxing and grounding about getting up at a time like this. It feels like you’re the only one in the world awake. It’s almost like ‘having a break from everything’ before the rest of the world gets going.
Whenever this has happened to me, I have then had a great sleep the following night. You bring forward your bedtime and get an earlier night than you normally would of. So what can you do with yourself at a time like 4am? Well, of course, you can watch TV, but it might be wise to use your time more productively. You can try and get a task done that you’ve been putting off. By ticking off a task first thing in the morning, you can get a little ‘win’, which helps to set the tone for the rest of the day. This task could be anything, tidying up, sending that email, or doing exercise.
6. Get It Done Before Bed
When you can’t sleep because you feel anxious, it’s important to try and ‘tick off’ the things that are causing you to worry. If it can be done now, just try and do it. For example, if you’ve fallen out with a friend, you might be thinking about it whilst you’re trying to fall asleep which obviously doesn’t help. Why not say sorry to them before you go to bed? There’s nothing worse than taking an argument to bed with you.
Whatever it is that’s keeping you up at night, if it can be sorted out then and there, just try and do it.
7. Could It Be The Caffeine?
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a coffee fiend. However, it’s important not to drink too much afternoon. I’ve always found that caffeine doesn’t give me much of a physical boost, instead, it seems to only stimulate my mind. The problem is, I’ve always drunk too much coffee after midday. This wreaks havoc with trying to rest at night. I’ve found that substituting my coffee intake for something else has helped me to mentally switch off at night. One of those things is green tea. Not only has it got great excellent antioxidant properties, but I also find it refreshing and I enjoy the taste. You kind of feel like you’re doing your brain a favour when you drink it. Try it out yourself and see how much lighter you feel in the afternoon;
8. Write Your Worries Down
Sometimes you have to dump what you’re worried about onto paper. You have to let that energy out so it’s not inside of you when you’re trying to sleep. The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, instead it can be transferred from one thing to another. This means that even though you might still have things on your mind, you can transfer some of your worry energy into something else. That’s why journaling can work so well. By writing down on your worry list, you can ‘dump’ some of that energy onto paper.
Find out how to keep a journal for anxiety here.
If you have any other tips of getting to sleep when you’re anxious, I’d love to hear them in the comments.
Here’s to your success,
Sean