Are you feeling restless and uneasy, doom scrolling through your phone, tossing and turning, and even taking medication to get more sleep?
Why is it that anxiety symptoms can keep us wide awake for hours through the night? It can get tiring and overwhelming to get inadequate sleep, night after night, and soon this restlessness starts to affect our mental and physical health.
Anxiety disorder is one of the most commonly experienced mental health issues that around 6.8 million adults in the US collectively go through. This mental health issue can disrupt our sleep and gradually lead to insomnia.
If you’re tired of anxiety affecting your sleep, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Let’s take a comprehensive look at how anxiety can take a toll on sleep efficiency.
Why Does Anxiety Affect Sleep?
It’s not uncommon for people to feel anxious now and then. Anxiety is an uneasy feeling that reflects our survival mechanism of “fight, flight, or freeze” when one is in the face of danger.
When faced with a certain fear, our brain is used to panicking and rapidly starts thinking of solutions to escape this situation.
It’s okay to get anxious occasionally, but this feeling can become a cause of concern if it gets too overpowering.
Why are anxiety disorders triggered? Our brains usually start generating anxiety once they encounter a specific trigger known as phobias. In this case, the brain instantly produces a dose of adrenaline that causes an individual to experience heart palpitations, breathing problems, lack of concentration, and irritability.
Other symptoms and effects of anxiety include sleep disorders like insomnia and sleep apnea. Around 70 million adults in the US have sleep disorders affecting their mental health, leading to even more severe anxiety symptoms.
Some people even have symptoms of insomnia which in turn causes them anxiety. This condition is called bidirectional comorbidity, when two different conditions exacerbate each other. If anxiety is a side effect of insomnia, it can be difficult to treat both of these conditions independently.
Why Do I Get Anxiety at Night?
Most people start to experience symptoms of anxiety creep up at night. This usually happens because the brain starts thinking about the day’s events that it didn’t previously have the time to process.
When we put things on the back burner, they tend to come to the forefront when we least expect them to. These worries become more prominent and loud at night and can keep the brain awake for hours.
Being under excessive stress and pressure during the day can tax the adrenal system and the hormones which help us fall asleep. So when all of that accumulated stress of the day starts to keep you awake at night, it’s an indication that you need to de-stress and take time out to relax.
Nighttime anxiety can disrupt the body’s natural rhythms and leave you exhausted for the next day. It’s important to take the time to unwind properly before bedtime and release any negative emotions or worries that might be bothering you.
How to Combat Anxiety for Better Sleep?
If you’re having trouble breathing, are feeling depressed and anxious, or have trouble getting out of bed in the morning, it’s recommended to seek help from a mental health professional as soon as possible.
A mental health professional will work with you to mitigate anxiety symptoms and may even prescribe medication if the condition becomes too overpowering to overcome.
However, if you’re looking for natural effective ways to minimize symptoms of anxiety and improve your sleep quality, here are seven effective tips that can help.
1. De-Stress Before Bedtime
If you get too overwhelmed during the day, you’re likely to feel too anxious at night to sleep if you don’t de-stress before going to bed.
Try de-stressing exercises to help yourself calm down and release any hidden tensions that could be weighing on your brain. Try journaling, deep breathing, or meditating before lying in bed. This will help your body feel a little more relaxed and sleep better at night.
2. Improving Sleep Hygiene
Sleep hygiene is establishing a proper routine right before bedtime. Nighttime routines can be different for different people.
For some taking a bubble bath, having an elaborate skincare regime, and doing yoga can be relaxing. While for some, reading a good book, lighting a scented candle, and doing crossword puzzles can be relaxing.
Find out what helps you release any stress and anxiety and incorporate those habits into your daily routine to unwind the right way.
Try not to use your phone before you go to bed since the screen’s blue light can stimulate your brain, making it unable to produce the quantity of Melatonin required for sleep.
3. Got to Bed at the Same Time Every Night
It’s important to regulate your body’s circadian rhythm to get adequate amounts of sleep at night.
Our body’s natural clock requires consistency. This is why it’s beneficial to go to bed around the same time every night to train your brain to get more sleep. This will also help you get up earlier and fall asleep much faster than before.
4. Don’t Lie Awake in Bed
Lying awake in bed will only give your brain a chance to think more anxious thoughts that aren’t even rooted in reality.
If you cannot fall asleep after lying for twenty minutes in bed, try restarting your nighttime routine.
You can also try dimming the light, taking a long warm bath, reading, journaling, meditating, or even using aromatherapy essential oils to help your brain calm down.
5. Cut Down on Alcohol and Caffeine
Alcohol and caffeinated drinks are stimulants and can keep you from falling asleep. Try to cut down on your alcohol and caffeine consumption before bedtime. Opt for warm milk or chamomile tea instead.
6. Remove Distractions
Making your sleep environment more comfortable and cozy is a part of good sleep hygiene. Make sure you don’t have any distractions in your bedroom that could be keeping you from sleep.
7. Try Mental and Emotional Release Therapy
While there are many different types of therapeutic techniques sleep therapists use to help people overcome insomnia symptoms, MER (mental and emotional release) therapy is one of the fastest, most efficient techniques to employ when negative emotions or limiting beliefs are found to be the root cause of sleep deprivation.
MER therapy is a clinically researched and proven technique to help people release suppressed emotions. This therapeutic technique is one of the most effective ways to help people access their internal memory storage system and let go of any emotions that could hinder them.
This technique is used to decrease symptoms of anxiety, teeth grinding, night terrors, phobias, and insomnia,
If you’re searching for qualified sleep coaches in Texas to get instant relief from insomnia, check out A Better Snooze.
As one of the leading sleep help service providers in Texas, we have a certified team of sleep coaches with extensive experience helping people overcome sleep problems and insomnia. Our sleep coaches have an in-depth understanding of mental and emotional release therapy and can help you overcome anxiety symptoms with this tried-and-tested technique.
Reach out to us today to get natural sleep remedies for sleeplessness.
