While it’s normal to experience anxious thoughts from time to time, anxiety and stress can quickly become a debilitating and disruptive problem. Understanding how to combat anxious thoughts and make sure they’re not resulting in any trouble sleeping is important. This is because the more anxiety causes trouble sleeping, the more your lack of sleep is going to result in spiked levels of anxiousness.
Thankfully, sleep anxiety can actually be very swiftly managed with the right tools for the job. From finding the best memory foam mattress for deep, uninterrupted sleep, to making sure you’re implementing healthy sleep hygiene practices, once you’re able to get a hold of your sleep anxiety, it’ll really quickly become a problem of the past.
What is sleep anxiety?
Simply put, sleep anxiety refers to the vicious cycle of anxious thoughts that might prevent you from going to sleep. This can include anything from fears about daily life occurrences to worries about nightmares.
The difficulty of anxiety is that it has a bidirectional relationship with sleep. This means that insomnia and a lack of sleep are often recognised as a symptom of underlying anxiety disorders, but have equally also been known to cause and exacerbate anxiety disorders.
Understanding this is going to make coping and dealing with your stress a lot easier. Starting with solving your trouble sleeping, anxiety disorders are actually very manageable when approached the right way.
How to stop sleep anxiety
If you’ve been struggling to deal with your sleep anxiety, there are a few surefire ways you can minimize how disruptive it is to your day to day life. The key is not to try everything at once, but simply implement sustainable habits one at a time. Here are a few simple solutions:
- Exercise daily, but choose when: Exercise can be a greatly beneficial solution to anyone who struggles with mental health disorders, but at the same time, choosing the right time to engage in exercise is important. Mornings or afternoons have been most proven to be an effective time to work, since otherwise, you’re likely to have raised your heart rate close to when your body should be winding down.
- Staying away from your phones and other devices: Exposure to blue light is guaranteed to keep you tossing and turning in bed, as well as getting you closer to anxious thoughts you don’t want to be experiencing. Notifications and other normal disruptions caused by tech devices can also be a mental disturbance as you’re trying to cool down and get to sleep, so try and keep away at least a few hours before bedtime.
- Avoid caffeine and rich foods: We all know coffee can energise and get us through tougher times when we’re looking for a little extra boost, but it can be extremely disruptive to a good night’s sleep. Since caffeine also naturally increases your heart rate, this can actually work to worsen symptoms of anxiety, so you’re better off staying away from it altogether.
Optimizing your sleep setup for deep sleep
If you’re struggling with sleep anxiety, it stands to reason you’re going to want to make sure you’re as comfortable and secure as you can be in your bedroom. Finding the best mattress size for your rest is a part of this.
Memory foam mattresses are a great choice for those who struggle with sleep anxiety and are looking to ensure they’re as comfortable as possible when they’re trying to get to sleep. If you have trouble sleeping and find yourself tossing and turning in bed a lot, then memory foam mattresses might just be the solution to your problems. Not only do memory foam mattresses have motion isolating capabilities that ensure you’re not disturbed throughout your sleep, they also usually strike a balance between pressure-relief and comfort that make them a highly versatile choice.
Memory foam mattresses are also a great choice for anxious sleepers who have to share their beds. When you have trouble sleeping through the night, it’s incredibly important to ensure you’re not being disturbed by any sounds or movements, including that of a partner’s. For the same reason, it’s important to check that your memory foam mattress comes with some kind of temperature regulation functionality, so that you’re not overheating at night or waking up due to a bad case of the night sweats.
To know whether a standard mattress size or style is best for you, it’s well worth testing out. Ensuring your purchase is covered by some form of warranty is a great way to feel secure and try out your memory foam mattress before vomiting to your purchase.
Sleep hygiene tips to calm you down
Even if you do have the best memory foam mattress possible for your sleep, one of the most important ways you can deal with any trouble sleeping you might have is to work on is by bringing a sense of discipline to your sleep hygiene.
Your sleep hygiene refers to the practices and habits you might choose to engage in leading up to your sleep. Scrolling through your phone moments before you lay down, for instance, is an example of poor sleep hygiene.
Those who struggle with sleep anxiety benefit greatly from practicing some form of meditation before they go to bed. Progressive breathing, also known as slow breathing, promotes parasympathetic activity in the brain, forcing your mind to slow down and unwind in a way that ensures deep, restful sleep.
Other healthy sleep hygiene practices include taking a warm shower right before you tuck yourself into bed, sipping on a herbal tea that might help with sleep and relaxation, or reading right before bedtime.
Whether it’s finding the best mattress for your sleep or simply implementing the above sleep hygiene habits, there are plenty of ways you can ensure you’re dealing with sleep anxiety. Those racing thoughts are going to be a problem of the past before you know it – prepare for deeper, more energising blocks of sleep soon.