The past several nights I have had instances where I wake up in the night and feel panicked. It hasn’t escalated into a full episode since Tuesday, but I’ve noticed now I have some enhanced anxiety about going to sleep.
Any tips on how to calm your anxiety to prepare to sleep? Or for how to handle when you do wake up in the night feeling panicked?
hey friend! I usually find a relaxing video to listen to when falling sleep. Search -Minds in Unison on YouTube. When I have woken up in the middle of the night with high anxiety- I go back to the video and do a little deep breathing. Sometimes, I’ll get myself up so as to not force anything. I’ll go to the kitchen, check the front door, the lights- anything to do and then go back to bed. Hope you have a wonderful nights sleep tonight! 😴
Thank you, friend! I’m going to try that tonight.
Great! Let me know how it goes. 🤗
I heard from my Dare app to remind yourself that it's a way of your brain cleansing itself. Try to look at it like "what adventures my brain will take me on tonight?" To take away the fear and anxiety off.
I have this exact problem too because my anxiety is usually ramped up in the mornings when I wake up.
There are a lot of meditation videos on YouTube that seem to help.
I listen to this yoga nidra guided meditation for sleep on occasion there are times I’ll wake up in the middle of the night and play it again to help relax me and fall asleep. It’s helped me a lot. Hope you can find something to help calm you down and relax you before bed.
I like Ally Boothroyd's vids on YouTube. I find her voice soothing. Someone on a different forum just turned me onto yoga nidra, and it's pretty groovy stuff...
Nice I’ll have to look at some of Ally Boothroyd’s vids. You can never have enough things to listen to especially if they can help you sleep! I listen to Molly Birkholm she has some vids on YouTube. That soothing voice def helps!
Like other people have mentioned, music can help. Have you heard of binaural beats? When we sleep, our brains go into different wavelengths theta being light dreaming then delta waves being deep sleep. By listening through headphones, each ear can get a slightly different frequency, creating a sort of audio-llusion. Here's a link to an article that explains it way better than me, sleepfoundation.org/noise-a.... I can't sleep w headphones so I miss out on some of these benefits, but I still find the music helpful in relaxing. I just search "theta delta sleep music" on YouTube and there's several 8-10 hour videos to choose from. I wonder what's waking you up? I take prazosin, a blood pressure medication that's also used to help treat PTSD and nightmares. It's basically eliminated my nightmares... Regardless, I hope you get restful zzz's tonite 😴
Meditation, meditation, meditation. You can find some good meditations on Spotify. There are meditations specifically for women. I had the same thing happen to me last summer. It was related to health anxiety. It took a lot of work, but I managed to work through it. I think you will, too.
Meditation using technology is fine as long as a person is not looking at the screen at night for long periods except to locate the meditation itself and the volume etc…
.prayer works well for me as I ask God to calm me… Belief in a higher power is a balm for the soul for many. I recommend any books , talks …etc by Richard Rohr (from New Mexico)
some folks take ten minutes after dinner to write down all their worries ( Worry time) so their mind does not focus on difficulties while trying to sleep.
I see a mental health professional for excessive worry. Some doctor’s offices provide this as a service …some counsellors can be found online but it is best to obtain a recommendation that they constitute a good company. Some hospitals provide courses on anxiety… Do check out the resources available.
All the best as I know sleep problems well.
hey there! How are you doing- did you have a better nights sleep?
I’m having a pretty good day today. Had a good session with my therapist. I slept okay. It was just hard to fall asleep at first and keep my mind quiet. How are you doing today??
that’s great! So glad you’re having a good day! I have my 2nd session with a therapist tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Did you try any of the sleep videos? I’m having an ok day- I’ve had better and I’ve had worse. Anxiety is ON today 🙄
I’m sorry your anxiety is still bringing you down today. I’m glad you’re meeting with your therapist again tomorrow and I hope that provides you some comfort and relief! I didn’t try a sleep video last night because for some reason even listening to the tones was bringing my anxiety up. I was having a persistent intruding thought last night that my drowsiness wasn’t from being tired but was actually a side effect of my new medication. Which is absolutely untrue but I couldn’t shake it last night. I’m hoping that tonight will be better.
I’ve had that feeling where you can’t even listen to something that’s supposed to be soothing. Hoping tonight will be sweet dreams for you! 💤
Change in sleep pattern
Anxiety 
Major Sleep Problem-Anxiety-Depression 
Anxiety 
