Tips for Beating Anxiety to Get a Better Night’s Sleep

The fact that lack of sleep is damaging for both your mind and body is nothing new. Even children know how important it is to sleep for an adequate duration each day. Yet, millions of people fail to get the right amount of sleep every day due to various factors. 

The factors that prevent people from achieving sound sleep can range from physical and environmental issues like polluted air or body ache to mental problems like anxiety and depression. The latter is often very difficult to overcome, simply because it takes a lot of effort to refocus and redirect your energy towards sleep when your mind is occupied or worried. 

Anxiety is one of the primary causes of sleep deprivation amongst American adults. And the number of adults suffering from anxiety is also whopping high – that’s right! 40 million adults in the US suffer from anxiety. 

If you suffer from anxiety disorder and just can’t get enough sleep at night despite trying, you’re right where you should be! Here at Sweet Island Dreams, we explore various powerful sleep and relaxation aid to help you achieve optimum health via excellent sleep quality. Keep reading to learn some effective ways to deal with anxiety before bedtime. 

Tips to Deal with Anxiety Before Bedtime

Here, we have listed the important tips to deal with anxiety before bedtime.

Perform Breathing Exercises

Breathing exercises are not just great stress busters. They also help tackle anxiety and panic attacks. However, you need to know how to breathe deeply. 

First, lie down on your bed flat on your back. Keep one hand on your stomach, so it’s right below your lungs. The other hand should go to your chest. 

Take in long and deep breaths such that your stomach fills with air. Exhale through pursed lips and keep repeating a few times. 

Freshen Up Before Sleeping

Going to bed after a bath often feels much better than just hitting the bed right after returning home. 

Run a warm water bath and soak yourself in for a few minutes. Clean up thoroughly because getting rid of the grime and sweat from all day can be hugely therapeutic too. Use some essential oils like peppermint if that helps you relax. However, if you are allergic to essential oils, stay away from them.   

If you’re not in the mood for a bath, a shower will work just as well. The goal is to go to bed clean. You should ideally also brush your teeth and perform your skincare routine (if you have one) before bed each night. 

Doing all of this will help you relieve anxiety effectively.

Avoid Consuming Media Before Bed

With smartphones around us, it becomes pretty hard not to check the last few messages or chat with a friend before bed. People also aimlessly scroll down their social media feed or watch videos/movies before bed. Doing so can be highly harmful to your mental peace and therefore sleep.

Try to avoid using your smartphone for anything a few hours before going to bed. Even if you have to, stick to replying to friends’ messages. Never take on any extra work you have to finish before bed every day. 

Also, do not watch television before bed either. Staying away from all forms of media is crucial to transitioning into a state of rest from the chaos of the entire day. 

Do Not Keep Lying in Bed

If you cannot find peace of mind despite trying everything from meditation to exercise, you may not fall asleep hours after lying in bed. If it’s been more than 20 minutes since you lay down and you can’t fall asleep, wake up and do something else. 

Some relaxing activity will help remove your mind from the stress preventing you from sleeping. Plus, you might get some time to explore things you love, like painting or listening to music. 

Conclusion

With our anxiety relieving tips above, getting a good night’s sleep should be possible for you. We understand that it’s challenging to keep troubling thoughts at bay, especially at night, because you have an empty brain with nothing to do. However, self-control and mindful activities can help you avoid all that. 

Have any more questions about relieving nighttime anxiety? Or do you have a specific routine that you follow to reduce your own tension before bed? Share everything in the comment section down below!