Anxiety and Sleep

[YojanaFitbit]

What do you know about anxiety and anxiety disorders? 😣💤

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health problem around the world. Anxiety is frequently connected to sleeping problems since worry and fear make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep through the night. 

Insomnia is a common symptom of anxiety disorders. Physically, anxiety disorders can provoke tense muscles, rapid breathing and heartbeat, sweating, trembling, gastrointestinal distress, and fatigue. Not all people with anxiety disorders have the same degree of symptoms or impact from anxiety on their everyday life. 

Some tips to calm anxiety and get better sleep:

• Building healthy sleep habits can make going to bed a more pleasant experience and facilitate a consistent routine to enhance sleep.
• Eliminating sources of sleep disruption like light and noise, and avoiding caffeine and alcohol in the afternoon and evening.
• Deep breathing, mindfulness meditation, and guided imagery are just a few approaches to relaxation that can help put your mind at-ease before bed or if you wake up during the night.

@Baltoscott @AmandaGeorge @SunsetRunner @ElaineJ27 @alexthecat @JayBees 

Any other tip? Leave your comment below. 🙂👇

[JayBees]

Avoid too much eating and or physical activity at least 3 hrs before sleep I find it helpful. I will have difficulties to sleep when I am exhausted (passed my tired point)

[YojanaFitbit]

Thank you so much for your comment @JayBees! 🤗 That's an excellent tip, I've noticed the same thing when I change my workout schedule. That doesn't work for me either. ✨ When did you notice this can help you? 

[AmandaGeorge]

Don't go to bed before you're tired, then read a book or magazine for a while to totally switch off from the day and signal to your brain that it's time to switch off now. 

Talk through your anxiety as it happens during the day, so that it's sorted before you want to sleep. 

Do something that wipes you out during the day (ideally before lunch) so that your body is begging to go to sleep by the evening. 

Avoid the age-old trap of letting your mind say "I should be asleep, but I can't" 'cos that'll result in more anxiety. 

Have a lavender scented bubble bath (NOT shower) an hour before you head to bed so that your mind can start to relax and switch off.

[alexthecat]

I wish I had tips to share. I'm interested to see what other people think about this subject.

I don't have a problem getting to sleep, but I often wake up too early and I can't stop thinking about everything I have to do the next day. It's really frustrating because the things I worry about aren't that important and, even if they were,  it's not like I can do anything about them at 3 AM. 

[YojanaFitbit]

@AmandaGeorge Amazing tips! I love all of them, I think that I will try the first and the last one. I've been having issues getting to sleep and my doctor says that it's due to anxiety, I thought he was exaggeration until I started reading more about this topic. Where did you get those ideas? 😊

@alexthecat If you wake up at 3 a.m. or another time and can't fall right back asleep, it may be for several reasons. These include lighter sleep cycles, stress, or underlying health conditions. Your 3 a.m. awakenings may occur infrequently and be nothing serious, but regular nights like this could be a sign of insomnia. Work stress is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to get in the way of a good night’s sleep. You can try some of the tip we mentioned here, it might increase your ability to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the workday.

Have you tried to make a to-do list? The act of writing down these uncompleted tasks decreases cognitive arousal, rumination, and worry. 🤗

[AmandaGeorge]

@YojanaFitbit - it's just what's worked for me over the years...I've been reading in bed since I was a teen getting stressed out about my exams lol

[YojanaFitbit]

@AmandaGeorge totally get it, I stress a lot too when I have exams coming. Thank you for adding your personal experience to this topic. 🤗

[Bartfliet]

I have some serious sleeping issues, just made a post about it. Staying a sleep is an issue, though recently I've found a way to get to sleep really easily. I use a white noise generator :). Might sound a bit weird, but it really works. Used to take me half an hour to an hour to fall asleep, with the white noise takes me maybe 5-10 minutes. 

[YojanaFitbit]

Hey @Bartfliet thank you for sharing the way you're using to getting to sleep. Yeah, it's not so crazy I read a study published in March 2017, where they found that pink noise helped adults get deeper sleep and improve memory since it reduces brain waves, which increases stable sleep. 😁👍

I tried to do so, but for some reason it didn't work for me. 🤔

[Bartfliet]

@YojanaFitbit Reason probably is that everybody is different and what works for some, won't for others. Life would be so easy if everybody worked the same way 😄 

[YojanaFitbit]

@Bartfliet so true, I always try new things since I like to research and read a lot of different techniques to improve my sleep thought. 🙂 Have you tried any of the tips I gave on my first post? I was just wondering? 😅

[SunsetRunner]

thanks 4 the tip

[Bartfliet]

I have, yes! I've tried everything under the sun at the moment :p. 

[YojanaFitbit]

You're very welcome @SunsetRunner. Glad to see you around. 😎

@Bartfliet what do think about this article? 🤔

[Bartfliet]

@YojanaFitbit  I think it makes some very good points, all points I've taken into account. The problem is mostely just staying asleep. I have a very fixed schedule of going to bed, make sure to take it easy and all that other stuff in the article. The problem just is that no matter what I do, I always wake up around 3-4AM unless I'm absolutly exhausted or if I go to bed before when I usually go to bed. Then I wake up even earlier... 

[Bartfliet]

@YojanaFitbit  Believe it or not, tonight I slept for 7:30h for the first time in 2 months! What I did different was, I went to bed fairly early, at 9PM, read a book, until about 9:40PM until my eyes were almost closing shut by themselves. Normally I would watch something on tv before bed. 

Weird thing is I've tried reading before bed and it didn't really change anything in the past. I'll try this out for a couple more nights and see if that was what made the difference, or something else I did that day. 

[YojanaFitbit]

😀🎉 ... this is something we need to celebrate @Bartfliet! I'm glad to know that you could sleep better at least for one night, this is a step to the right direction.

Waking up at 3 am and having issues to sleep again is very common for a lot of people, this is something that mentioned @alexthecat too. But I think that what really helps is how you feel when you're going to sleep, meditation is nothing else that taking a time to let your body to relax and feel happy and thankful for the day. I bet you were reading something that you like last night, 40 minutes it's a lot. Watching TV or having screen time in other device is not recommended before going to sleep 🙈 it can delay the release of melatonin so it pushes back bedtime and leads to less restful sleep 🙃.

If you enjoyed the other article, take a moment to read this one. It's really good. 😊👍 Just try not to read it in bed. 😅

[AmandaGeorge]

@Bartfliet - what sort of books were you reading before and what did you read last night?  I recommend either short stories or books with short chapters and definitely not hardback or anything that makes you think... the less you have to think while you're in bed, the better.  Also, where were you when you tried reading before?  I find that if I read down here in the living room, I'm wide awake by the time I get up to bed, so reading a magazine while I'm laying down and I've taken my glasses off and turned the main bedroom light off (I read using just the light of a bedside light so that it's not as bright and stimulating for my brain) is the last thing I do, so that I just put the magazine on the floor, curl up and I'm usually asleep pretty much straight away.  The less there is to stimulate your brain at night, the better!

[Bartfliet]

@YojanaFitbit Yes, I was fairly happy when I woke up :D. Weird thing was though, even though I slept (a lot) more then usually, I also felt very tired waking up!? That was a good read as well. Didn't know that daytime electronics usage also could impact sleep. Thing is, I work in IT, so I don't have too much choice in how much time I need to be in front of a computer 😅. 

@AmandaGeorge  I just started reading a new fantasy book, The wheel of time. Certainly not a short story. It consists of 14 books 😅. However it is an easy read if anything. The first time I tried reading, just like this time, I was just in bed, right before going to sleep.

I of course also ran more, and faster, then I usually do yesterday. So it remains to be seen if it was exhaustion or this new "ritual" before bed that was the key to getting this good nights sleep in.