Mental health deteriorates when people are facing a stressful situation, and very few things can be more stressful than a global pandemic. Most of us are feeling anxious right now with news of the Covid-19 virus flooding our regular newsfeed and our social media. So even if you do not get infected by the virus, your mental health is bound to be affected by all the news and information surrounding it. In such a situation, the daily activity that is affected the most is our sleep, and if we are not sleeping well, we are weakening our immune system, which in turn, increases our chances of contracting the illness. No, do not get worried about this, we have got your back. In today’s post, we will be talking about sleep anxiety treatment or how to sleep better when anxious.
Before we go into the tips for this sleep disorder, we need to understand how anxiety affects sleep. People have various worries, from money and health to relationships and careers. These worries keep us up at night as we cannot relax our mind which is obviously running helter-skelter because of these stressful thoughts. The most common sleep disorder associated with anxiety is insomnia. It is hard to fall asleep when you are worried. But it is also difficult to stay asleep, which is likely to cause fragmented sleep further resulting in sleep deprivation and daytime sleepiness. What is worse is that the lesser sleep you get, the more anxious you become, which means this is a downward spiral.
Now that we are clear about what we are dealing with here, let us focus on how to manage it better. Here are some tips including some sleep hygiene tips, that you can try in order to sleep through your anxious thoughts:
- Relaxation techniques
Meditation can go a long way in soothing that worried mind of yours. There are several apps that are available today which guide you through meditation and how to put an end to thinking in order to relax into sleep. Body scan meditation, self-love meditation, fear meditation, sleep meditation, etc. are some of the ways you can try.
- Breathing exercises
When we are anxious or feeling panicky, our breathing tends to become abnormally fast. By entering your breath and breathing normally again, you can put your mind to rest. Bring your attention to your breath, and see how it becomes slow and deep, putting your mind and you to sleep.
- Gratitude journal
Since your mind is obsessing over bad thoughts, why not divert its attention to good thoughts instead. Maintaining a gratitude journal is a great way to feel better about your life and yourself, which further helps lower your worries about life and the world around you. Every night before you go to sleep, jot down five things you are thankful for and let your mind think about these thoughts.
What do you do when you get anxious and cannot sleep? Share with us.
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