How to help yourself when anxiety keeps you from falling asleep
Recommendations from a psychologist
How to help yourself when anxiety keeps you from falling asleep
Study your fear.
We asked a psychoanalytic psychologist to write recommendations on how to help yourself if anxiety keeps you from falling asleep.
What's harder?
I've started getting panic attacks about death before going to sleep. How can I help myself?
How to help yourself when anxiety keeps you from falling asleep
Recommendations from a psychologist
- Keep stimulating activities to a minimum before bed
Reading the news and scrolling social media can make your anxiety worse.
- A calm atmosphere in the bedroom
Take care of your melatonin. For example, turn off the overhead light after 9 p.m. and close the windows with blackout curtains.
Write down your thoughts and feelings in a journal before bed
This can help you free yourself from them. Make it a regular practice: set a timer, for example, for 15 minutes.
During that time, write down everything that comes to mind, without censoring it. Keep writing without stopping until the timer goes off, then close your notes and go about your business.
Study your fear of death
When we avoid a topic during the day, we run into it in the silence and calm of our bed.
Death is an existentially important topic. Every person reflects on it, to varying depths. Thinking about death is completely normal.
Try to understand what exactly makes you anxious. How did this fear start, and what keeps it going now?
