Night Time Anxiety — Transcription
Hi, lovely people and happy Tuesday! Today we’re going to talk about “Night Time Anxiety” because I have actually heard this a lot from people that they experienced this anxiety that hits right before they’re ready to go to sleep. I know that there are times when you’re ready to lay down, you’re super tired for the day and your head hits that pillow. And then you think of that thing 10 years ago, that happened. That makes you super anxious. Why does that happen? I don’t know, but hopefully it can help you with some coping skills to combat that.
So the first thing I would recommend is to keep a pad of paper and a pen next to your bed. I would suggest not using your phone for this, just because when you’re ready to go to bed, the blue light on your phone actually messes with your sleep. So you really don’t want to be near your phone or be on your phone before you go to sleep anyways. So keep a pad of paper and a pen next to you. And then write down anything that you feel like you’re anxious about. So did something happen during your day where you maybe felt anxious about? Or are you thinking about something that you have to do tomorrow that you feel like you’re already starting to be anxious about? Write it down. This gives you permission to put it on paper. So it’s out of your head, out of your mind and you don’t have to think about it. It can really help with that. So anything that you feel like you’re anxious from that previous day or that you’re anxious about the next day, write it down – so you have it written down. Give your mind permission to not have to think about it.
The next thing would be to really have a good sleep hygiene routine. This basically means every night, do this routine to help you to sleep. So you should be sleeping, going to bed at the same time, every night, waking up at the same time every morning – even on the weekends. It doesn’t have to be the exact same time, but try to keep it as close as possible. Don’t sleep until 1:00 PM on the weekends. And then you have to get up at 6:00 AM for work the next Monday. It’s just not going to work with your sleep habits and your mind is going to be all messed up. So really try to keep that same nighttime routine. Again, don’t have your phone out. Don’t be on your phone, even if you’re on the nighttime mode, it’s really distracting.
If you’re scrolling on TikTok for hours, then all of a sudden it’s 3:00 AM and you’re not sleeping. So don’t do that. Try to keep your phone away. You can maybe watch TV for a little bit or read a book, which is probably the best thing you can do. Listen to some mindfulness meditation on your phone where you can just put it on the app and it’ll turn off when it’s done – things like that to help you to just get ready for bed. And just anything else that is a part of your routine, do that every night to make it the same. So if you say I’m going to get into bed by 10:00 PM and then trying to get to sleep by 10:30 PM. That can be helpful to just make sure you’re in bed by 10:00 PM each night.
So hopefully some of these help, but again, sleep anxiety or nighttime anxiety is very common. You just have to figure out what that routine is. What are you thinking about? And just try to calm your mind before bed do 5 or 10 minutes of mindful meditation or progressive muscle relaxation. There’s a lot of great scripts online or Spotify that you can listen to or read to help you figure out how to do these things, just to relax your body, so you can have a good night’s sleep. Because we all know if you don’t have a good night’s sleep, the next day is, is not going to be good. So hopefully that helps. And I will see you all next week. Have a good one!