Summary of "3 Ways to Stop Sleep Anxiety"

Key Strategies to Overcome Sleep Anxiety

Stop Ruminating on Bad Sleep:
- Avoid excessive worrying about sleep and its consequences.
- Recognize that ruminating on past sleep troubles can exacerbate anxiety.
- Limit discussions about sleep problems with others to reduce focus on negative aspects.
- Audit your daily habits to identify situations where you dwell on sleep issues and reduce them.
- Consider eliminating sleep trackers, which can contribute to anxiety.
No Worrying in Bed:
- Distinguish between a "worry" (an automatic thought) and "worrying" (elaborating on that thought).
- Understand that while you cannot control worries that pop into your mind, you can control how you respond to them.
- Establish a "midnight plan" for when you find yourself unable to sleep, which could include reading, listening to audiobooks, or other relaxing activities instead of worrying.
Schedule Time to Worry on Purpose:
- Create a designated time to worry, which can help train your brain to worry less at inappropriate times.
- Set aside 10-15 minutes in the evening to write down worries on paper without trying to solve them.
- After the time is up, discard the list to reinforce that worrying is contained to that scheduled time.
- This technique acts as a form of exposure therapy, helping to reduce the fear of worries and enabling you to let them go more easily.