7 ways to appease your night anxiety

Sweet dreams are more like a pipe dream at 12 noon, and you still cannot stop worrying about all the work you have to do, the bills you need to pay, the argument you have with your sister and the feeling that you may, probably, certainly die earlier than you should because of a lack of sleep.

Experts say that almost everyone experiences this kind of panic in the middle of the night at a given moment. “The most basic and common reason why we are concerned about the night is due to the decrease in the quantity of distraction and activity that we have,” explains Michael G. Wetter, clinical psychologist and director of psychology in the division of adolescents and young drugs for adults at the UCLA Medical Center. “Our mind comes out of the road, and there is nothing to guide us and keep us on the right track and concentrated and feel productive.”

So what should you do with your racing thoughts at night? To struggle until the sun rises? Open your laptop and start eliminating your task list? Where to find a way to put these unwanted beds in bed?

We asked Wet Plus and other experts to share their favorite ways to calm night anxiety.

Taille “worrying time”

A few hours before going for the night, set a timer and spend five minutes for two lists. On one, note everything that worries you who is under your control: you forgot to call the veterinarian, you did not sign the permission slip of your child, you have not finished responding to all your emails. On the other hand, save things for which you can do nothing, like the possibility that it will rain during your vacation next week.

“Make everything go down on the page, like Word Vomit,” explains Leah Kaylor, clinical psychologist and author of the next book If sleep was a drug: the science of sleep optimization.

Find out more: The best way to treat insomnia

When the timer is triggered, put the list of unfinished tasks in your control in your work bag or on your desktop, where it will serve as a task list for the next day. “You say to your brain,” hey, I heard you, and I don’t want these things to be unfinished either, “explains Kaylor. “” Now look, I have them on my task list. “”

Then tear the paper where you have saved everything outside your control and throw the tiny flaps. (Or burn them, if you promote theaters.) “You say to your brain,” I heard you, and now I need you to get along. We can’t do anything about it, ”says Kaylor. Otherwise, your concerns will continue to escape, she adds. Once you have noted them, “they will leave you alone” because your brain will be happy that the situation has been recognized.

Make mental gymnastics (positive)

Trying to clear your mind is not always the right approach to anxiety. An occupied brain maintains anxiety from a distance – so distract yourself with soothing mental exercises. One of Kaylor’s favorites: invoke every detail of the intrigue of a television program, a film or a beloved book. “Try to put yourself in the weeds about it, as if there was this brilliant episode and you lost the script and you needed to pass it,” she said. “It gives your brain something to do: what was the bottom like?” What did the characters wear? What was their tone of voice and body language? ”

You can also play alphabet game, which involves choosing a category – stars at the shopping center, animals, vegetables, baby names – and finding a word for each letter from A to Z. It’s fun, it’s creative and it requires enough brain to divert your attention from stressful thoughts, says Kaylor. These types of exercises are so soothing that people often tell him that they don’t even do so half the alphabet before falling asleep.

Press your five senses

Keep something textured by your bed, like a smooth stone, which you can touch as soon as you start to worry. It is also a good idea to get into the habit of sipping fresh water, listening to sweet ambient music or finding other ways to melt you via your five senses.

“For many people, including myself, the feeling of cool bed sheets points out:” Ok, that’s the time I can simply melt, “explains Wetter. “Sometimes we reject the power of our own sensitivity.” You anchor yourself in the present moment can move you away from spiral thoughts, helping you feel comfortable instead, he adds.

Get out of bed

Staying under the covers can strengthen the association between bed and stress. “My golden rule is that if you know that you are not going to fall asleep in the next 15 to 20 minutes, you should get up,” says Kaylor. Ideally, you will move in a dark room, because the lively lights signal in the brain that it is time to wake up. Then do something “very boring”, she advises. “Maybe it looks like adult coloring books, or simply to be folded completely with laundry.”

The key is to avoid anything that your brain can register as exciting, as watching an action movie or reading a book that you will want to finish before dawn. “Do all the boring activity that you have selected until you felt sleepy, then come back to bed,” explains Kaylor. Some people will have to enter and get out of bed several times overnight, she adds, but over time, you will train that the room is to sleep only-not a place where anxiety lifts its ugly head.

Question the 3 -hour distortion effect

When you start to turn on everything under the sun – or the moon – Make yourself that night thoughts are often exaggerated. What could be an ordinary concern at 2 p.m. is transformed into a caricatured version of itself at 2 am which feels beyond impossible and insoluble.

Wetter suggests repressing these thoughts saying: “If it always feels urgent in the morning, I will face it then.”

Find out more: What doctors really think of Sleepmaxxing

“It’s not that you were unaware,” he said. “You are just not going to act at that time, because it would be an act of impulse.” Customers often describe the dismissal of emails or try to rectify everything that keeps them at night, which they regret the next morning, when daylight narrows these problems to their normal stature.

Keep a comfortable comfort script

If you are inclined to awaken in a panic, Wetter suggests keeping a note written with a soothing message or an assertion affixed to your bedside table. This is another land setting -up technique that he found helps people are away quickly. Your note could say something like: “you will take care of it tomorrow”, “it is not as important as you do”, or “everything will be ok”.

“It’s your mantra – your statement,” he says. “It is your own state of self that says:“ It will be fine for the moment; You can face it later. This helps to trigger this feeling of reasonability, rationality and calm. »»

Refash how you think when you wake up

When you have launched and turned for hours, you will probably become even more anxious of the idea that your exhaustion will ruin the next day. Refrale this catastrophic thought, urges more humid. Waking up during the night is a “natural variation” of everyone’s sleep schedule, he says, and the less you put the pressure that you put enough rest, the easier it becomes to fall asleep.

He compares it to the same acceptance framework which is useful when you are stuck in traffic: you cannot jump from the car and jog on your destination, or to flex your muscles and push other vehicles forward. This means that you can either choose to be anxious and succumb to an agitated mood, or accept the fact that you are going to work when you get there. “You can be angry, anxious and distress, or you can accept it and say,” Listen, I’m going to be late. ” Let me listen to music or a podcast or make a phone call that I would have made later in the day, “he said.