How can I sleep better if I have an anxiety disorder?
Anxiety often gets in the way of a good night's sleep. In this video, psychologist Dr. Tamar Chansky, who specializes in anxiety, offers some surprising ways to leave stress outside of the bedroom so that you can catch some restorative Zzz's.
Transcript
It's really important to get into a habit of relaxation to help you with your sleep.
So you don't want to be on your computer right up to the moment before you go to bed. [MUSIC PLAYING]
When we go to bed at night, if we haven't taken care of our anxiety during the day or our stress, guess
what's waiting for us when we climb into bed? All our worries. And so what you want to do is to create times during the day
when you are checking in with your worry so that your taking care of it when you're at your best.
When we go to bed at night, we're tired. We're not at our best. So what you can do is create what I call worry times.
A couple of times a day, make an appointment with yourself that you're going to think about, what are the things that are stressing you out
or that you're worried about? You can write them on one side of the page. And on the other side of the page, think about how you can really handle those situations.
Or are those situations even likely to happen? Do you need to be prepared for them.
Then when you go to bed at night, you can just fold the paper back so you have just your realistic thoughts there.
And that can help you, if worry starts to come in, to consult the solutions that you've already
come up with and say, I've already taken care of this. It's really important to get into a habit of relaxation
to help you with your sleep. So you don't want to be on your computer right up to the moment before you go to bed.
You have to have some kind of downtime or unwinding time. You can do that lots of different ways.
You can do some breathing and relaxation, listen to calm music, have a cup of tea, use aromatherapy.
Really, what you want to do is get into a routine so that just like with brushing your teeth, your body anticipates when you brush your teeth,
oh, we're going to be going to sleep soon. It already starts to sort of downshift so when you start to pour your cup of tea
or put on that music that's relaxing or pick up that novel that you're reading, those are also cues to let your body know that you're
ready to shift into sleep mode. [AUDIO LOGO]
anxiety depression
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