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There are over a billion Internet searches on “anxiety,” which, according to Psychiatry.org, says:
“Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress and can be beneficial in some situations. It can alert us to dangers and help us prepare and pay attention. Anxiety disorders differ from normal feelings of nervousness or anxiousness and involve excessive fear or anxiety.”
Get this, although there are over a billion searches on “anxiety,” there are over five billion on “worry.”
WebMD says this about “worry:”
“Worrying is feeling uneasy or being overly concerned about a situation or problem. With excessive worrying, your mind and body go into overdrive as you constantly focus on “what might happen…. In the midst of excessive worrying, you may suffer with high anxiety — even panic — during waking hours. Many chronic worriers tell of feeling a sense of impending doom or unrealistic fears that only increase their worries.”
“Worry” can cause insomnia, making it hard to fall asleep. And, anxiety is often associated with sleep problems.
If you’ve ever awakened in the middle of the night or early morning hours to feelings of panic, you know what I’m talking about.
Although it’s impossible to “cure” the effects of worry and anxiety in this one article alone, we can reduce their stressful effects to protect our sleep and get better rest because a horrible night’s sleep only worsens things.
4 Great Tips To Reduce Stress for Better Sleep
Worrying about life and feeling stressed, especially these days, is easy. And if we’re not careful, we can easily be paralyzed into a state of fearfulness, even terror. Two significant sources of anxiety and stress are relationships and money.
Great Tip #1: Take Action
Doing nothing amplifies and magnifies feelings of anxiety and stress.
You must do something. Today.
You don’t have to “fix” everything all at once, but you must do something, even something small, today.
Why? Because doing something, even something small takes you from a place of helplessness to a place of control, where you’re controlling the situation instead of the situation controlling you.
The last, worst thing you can ever do is to do nothing – to sit there and wait for the “ax” to fall.
I know it’s hard, but try not to let life happen “to” you.
As long as you have free will and the power of choice, you can do something today to make things better.
Taking action transforms you from a victim to a warrior!
Yes, you might still get a little bloody and suffer some scrapes and scars, but you’re in the battle now, and you’re taking the fight to your “Goliaths!”
It’s your choice: Warrior or victim.
A warrior realizes that he might lose the battle, but he faces his “Goliaths,” believing with all his heart that he will win the war.
Take action.
Regarding whatever keeps you awake at night, list one or two things you can do today to rise up and “fight” back.
A lot of our worry and anxiety comes from sticking our head in the sand, avoiding important issues or taking action.
Denial, avoidance, laziness, and irresponsibility can all cause worry and stress. So if you want a different tomorrow, take a different course of action today than you’ve been taking to reduce the stress in your life and sleep better tonight.
Great Tip # 2: Transform Your Worries to “Challenges” and then to “Opportunities.”
Compare the emotional impacts of these words: worry, challenge, opportunity. Which word puts you in a better frame of mind to face your situation? Certainly not worry.
Try to reframe your worry into a challenge, and then try to reframe “challenge” into “opportunity.” Worry is about loss. Opportunity is about gain.
Great Tip # 3: Let it Go… At Least for Now.
The brain has a way of obsessing over worries, which can keep you from falling asleep.
Try writing your worry on paper before you go to bed. Give yourself permission to let it go until morning.
While it’s best to let go of your worries once-and-for-all, you can always give yourself a break by letting them go for a set period of time.
Great Tip #4: Live Today.
Bringing tomorrow into today creates worry and overwhelm.
Tomorrow will have its own challenges.
Live today.
Use today to do the next thing you have to do; take life one day at a time.
We tend to worry and feel anxious when we either bring the past or future into today.
Learn from the past and let go.
Have a vision for the future and let go.
Reduce stress by choosing to live in the present by putting your vision to work by deciding what to do next to make your life better.
Let your mind and soul rest so your body can sleep.
3 GREAT TIPS FOR GOOD SLEEP
Great Tip #1: Create a soothing sleep environment.
Your bedroom should be a safe haven—an oasis.
Make your bedroom a place where you can relax and wake up replenished. Maybe that means getting some noise-dampening curtains, a better mattress, or a cooler temperature. Whatever it is, you should be comfortable.
Great Tip #2: Use sound, water, or a sleep mask.
People are different. What helps one person fall asleep might keep another one awake. Those who grew up in the city need a little noise to fall asleep, whereas those who grew up in the country need it to be quiet.
Either way, try experimenting with a white noise machine, ambient app, or earplugs to seal out the noise if you like it quiet. You might even try wearing a sleep mask if too much light filters into your room.
Some people find a soothing hot bath or shower helps them relax and fall asleep.
Great Tip #3: Heavy blankets.
Some people who struggle with worry and anxiety use weighted blankets to soothe the body and reduce stress for help falling asleep; the pressure has a calming effect.
Reducing feelings of stress will help you sleep better and deeper. Taking action to deal with your worries, a.k.a. opportunities, and creating a relaxing sleep environment, are great ways to have less stress and to sleep better!
