7 Tips to Improve Your Sleep for Anxiety Relief
Major Take-Aways:
Getting consistent sleep each night can be an important part of an anxiety treatment plan, and yet 1 in 3 Americans don’t get enough
Anxiety symptoms like racing thoughts can make sleep harder to come by, and yet not getting enough sleep can increase our vulnerability to anxiety as well, making for a vicious cycle
This article introduces 7 sleep hygiene tips that you can implement today to begin improving the quality of your sleep, while also reviewing the science behind why they work
Sleep: more than just counting sheep and catching Z’s
Oh, sleep, my first love— how I miss you while you’re away!
As a former graduate student, I know something about the effects of getting too little sleep, and as a therapist in Washington, DC I have noticed just how badly many of us are in need of more rest. According to the American Sleep Association, the average adult needs between 7 to 8 hours of sleep, with anything less than that resulting in sleep deprivation and accruing a “sleep debt” that is often harder to pay back than simply sleeping in on a Saturday morning. However, as many as a third of Americans don’t get enough sleep, making many of us more vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and other mental health concerns, along with a slew of chronic health conditions.
The relationship between sleep and anxiety is considered bidirectional, meaning that anxiety can affect the quality of your sleep and the quality of your sleep can put you at a greater risk for anxiety disorders. This can be something of a vicious cycle, as anxious individuals may find it difficult to get a good night’s rest when their mind is racing, thus leaving them sleep deprived and further vulnerable to their anxiety. Addressing both the quality of your sleep habits as well as the sources of your anxiety, for example by challenging unhelpful thinking patterns, reducing your avoidance behaviors, or practicing grounding exercises, can be an effective strategy for interrupting this dangerous cycle.
In this article, I summarize a few steps you can take immediately to begin improving the quality of your sleep and, as a consequence, to increase your body’s capacity to deal with stress and anxiety. Please note that these strategies apply to everyday sleep difficulties and should not be considered a substitution for treatment for underlying sleep disorders like insomnia or sleep disturbances like nightmares. Now, before we get in, a word about how sleep hygiene habits work.
How and why good sleep hygiene habits work
Sleep hygiene simply means establishing a set of good daily practices to increase the quality of your sleep and therefore reduce your risk for developing an anxiety disorder. You can think of it like washing your hands or coughing into your elbow— these are healthy habits you’ve learned to reduce the spread of infectious disease. Sleep hygiene tips fall into two broad categories for improving sleep: those which focus on biological factors that affect sleep and those which focus on psychoemotional ones. The biological tips are a bit obvious: they work because they directly affect biological processes that improve sleep. But I want to spend a moment sharing with you how the psychoemotional ones work so you can understand just how useful they can really be.
What salivating dogs taught us about ourselves
If you ever took an intro to psychology course, you’ve likely heard of Ivan Pavlov and his research with dogs. If not, the simple story goes that Pavlov was studying the physiology of digestion in dogs when he noticed his dogs salivated not only in the presence of their food, but also in the presence of the technicians who fed them. Pavlov began to reason that this otherwise neutral stimulus (the technician) became associated with a biologically potent stimulus (food) and for that reason began to share its biological response (salivation). This concept became known as classical conditioning, and it's a phenomenon that happens in our lives every day. Ever notice, for example, how when the weather begins to cool and the leaves begin to brown, you might begin craving pumpkin-spice-everything or other seasonal delights? The weather itself has little to do with pumpkin spices, but over time our minds have associated the two.
This sort of classical conditioning can be leveraged to our advantage in a lot of ways, but it’s especially helpful when we consider improving sleep. In this article, I’ll review a few tips for improved sleep you can put into place immediately and explain a bit about the science behind why they work from the perspectives of classical conditioning and our biology.
Sleep tip #1: Find consistency in the time you wake and go to bed
This is probably the simplest strategy on the list, but it’s an essential one nonetheless. When we were younger, this was pretty easy—our parents simply enforced a bedtime, knowing that if they didn’t, we might wake sleepy, cranky, and make for a real headache. Now as adults, we have the privilege of going to bed whenever we want—and yet, for most of us, we’re learning there was a wisdom to our parents and their strictness around sleep (even if it was just so they could get a break before bed!)
Having a consistent time to wake and go to sleep helps to establish our circadian rhythm, or the body’s biological clock that tells us when to wake and when to sleep. Regularity strengthens this rhythm and will make it easier for you to fall asleep at the right time and for you to wake with more energy. The trick is to maintain this consistency even on the weekends and even on days that you may be feeling fatigued and wanting to sleep in, unless of course you’re sick or really need the extra rest. While you may think of late mornings on the weekends as a time to “catch-up” on sleep, it’s likely that sleeping in will delay your bedtime that same day, thus prolonging the issue. Research also suggests that catching-up on sleep is harder than you may realize and that more routinely getting a full-night’s rest will be more useful to you in the long-term.
Sleep tip #2: Establish a bedtime routine
You’ve probably heard before that a sleep-time routine helps to improve sleep, but have you ever thought about why that might be? This is rooted in classical conditioning. As we begin pairing otherwise neutral stimuli like brushing our teeth or changing into PJs with the biological experience of sleep, we begin creating a neurological association with them. Now, when you brush your teeth, slip into your favorite pair of PJs, and sip your nightly chamomile tea, the mind becomes primed for sleep. These actions progressively signal to the mind that it’s time for bed, almost like how your computer will close its applications before turning off.
There are, however, a few ways to maximize this strategy:
First, you’ll want to establish a reasonably complex routine that you can keep with a reasonable amount of consistency. If your routine is too complicated, requires too much time, or involves jumping through too many hoops, you may not stick with it each night, thus weakening the association. Alternatively, if your routine is too simple, you may be missing opportunities to signal the brain for sleep.
Second, you’ll want these associations to be strictly limited to sleep. If you drink tea in the morning, for example, it may not be as helpful a cue to your mind to go to bed. Find cues that you already naturally associate with sleep, like relaxing scents or comforting textures, and limit their use to bedtime.
Lastly, you may want to find ways to incorporate more of the senses in your routine. This might mean engaging particular calming scents, dimming the lights, listening to soothing music or rain sounds, feeling the texture of your blanket or PJs on your skin, or tasting lavender in your tea. Each of these can create a unique signal to the brain to begin to turn down by relying on different neurological networks to do so.
Sleep tip #3: Limit the bed to sleep and sexual activity
Just as our minds can be conditioned to associate chamomile tea with sleep, they can be conditioned to associate the bed with any manner of activities. Our beds are generally the greatest constant when it comes to sleep, given we spend a near third of our lives in them, and for this reason can be our best bet at forging a strong sleepy-time association.
However, if we routinely watch TV, complete homework, respond to emails, scroll TikTok, argue with our partners, or otherwise do anything other than sleep from our beds, we run the risk of associating them with wakeful activities as well. This can be confusing for the mind and altogether will weaken the association of our beds with sleep— or worse, associate the bed in reverse with wakefulness.
A good rule of thumb is to limit the bed to sleep and sexual activity. If possible, you might even want to limit the use of your bedroom altogether with these activities. This means not partaking in any other activities while in bed, and limiting cues for these activities in your bedroom (e.g., removing the TV, charging your cell phone across the room rather than on a nightstand). In our increasingly digital and mobile world, that can be especially challenging to do, and phones more than anything are a faithless bedfellow. Nonetheless, there is probably no greater tip on this list, so take it seriously.
Sleep tip #4: Set an electronics curfew
This tip has to do with both associations and simple biology. As I discussed previously, our sleep is dominated by our circadian rhythm— the biological clock that tells our bodies when to wake and when to sleep. The circadian rhythm in humans is defined by exposure to sunlight, and as diurnal creatures, we wake with the sun and sleep when it goes down. This process occurs biologically: when exposure to sunlight ends, sleep-promoting neurons are activated and melatonin is released in the body. Melatonin is a hormone that helps trigger a cascade of biological responses that put the body to bed. You’ve probably heard of people taking it over-the-counter to help them get to sleep, but it’s produced naturally as well.
Modern-day electronics make use of what are called backlit screens. You’re probably using one now if you’re reading this by phone or on a laptop screen. These screens emit a blue light that essentially mimics sunlight and for this reason can significantly impair our ability to fall asleep. Pair this with the many wakeful associations we have with our electronics, and you’ve got a real issue on your hand.
Generally speaking, you’ll want to end your use of all electronics at least 60 minutes before bed. Again, this can be really hard to do, but it may help to establish a bedtime routine to complete during that time. Alternatively, if limiting the use of electronics doesn’t seem feasible to you, you may want to see if your devices have a nighttime filter. While this is still far from ideal, these filters generally remove the blue light from your screens, turning them into a sepia orange that more mildly affects the brain.
Sleep tip #5: Tossing and turning? Get out of bed!
By this point, you’re probably an expert in what it means to classically condition yourself for sleep, so I’m going to challenge you to think about this one before I explain it. Why might tossing and turning in bed be bad for sleep in the long-run?
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Ready? Okay. So as you might have guessed, this tip is also all about conditioning our minds to associate the bed with sleep and restfulness. If we’re tossing and turning, we run the risk of associating the bed with restlessness. Suddenly your bastion of peace and serenity begins to feel fraught, and we may actively begin to conceive of the bed and sleep as something stressful or something to be anxious about.
It’s normal to take time to fall asleep, and if you can, I really encourage you to not have any clocks within eye-shot of your bed during that time—these just worsen sleep anxiety. But if you find that you’re not falling asleep within 20-30 minutes of your head hitting the pillow, I encourage you to actually get out of bed, remain in low light, and engage with a soothing activity like reading, knitting, or sipping caffeine-free tea like a lavender or chamomile blend. During this time, you’ll want to continue to avoid all electronics, even as you might be tempted to hop on TikTok to pass the time. Once you’ve begun to feel drowsy and feel prepared for sleep, return to bed, and see if this helps. Don’t be surprised if it takes a few tries across the week for this to work; you’re likely working to break some pretty entrenched sleep habits, but you’ll thank yourself down the road for doing so.
Sleep tip #6: Avoid caffeine and other potential irritants near bedtime
Many substances affect the quality of our sleep, but caffeine before bed is a major culprit. Caffeine can make it significantly more difficult to fall asleep and reduce the amount of time we spend in deep, restorative sleep when we finally pass out. For us coffee lovers, this can be a bit of a vicious cycle— you’re tired through the day because you slept poorly; you drink a midday latte to get through the afternoon slug; and you end up restless before bed.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Caffeine has a half-life of about 4-6 hours, which means it takes around that time for the body to metabolize half of the caffeine that you consume. Caffeine is generally most active within the 30-60 minutes after it's been consumed (hello, cold brew jitters), but it lingers in the body and continues to affect the brain well-beyond that time. A general rule of thumb is to limit caffeine consumption to at least six hours before bed. If you’re hitting the hay at 10:00pm, this means cutting it out no later than 4:00pm, though limiting it to a morning cup of coffee or tea is likely ideal. Limiting the use of other substances like nicotine and alcohol can also be important for improving sleep.
Sleep tip #7: Get your body moving— just not too close to bedtime
This is last on the list because it’s regrettably the one I struggle with the most! Many Americans live far too sedentary lives, and our general lack of exercise can affect the quality of our health and mental health. Sleep is no exception, and particularly for anxiety-based sleep concerns, routine exercise can help to both address anxiety symptoms and sleep-related concerns. Exercise, in so far as it tires us out and causes the release of stress-reducing endorphins, can improve our sleep as soon as that same night.
Ideally, you’ll want to try and incorporate some form of exercise or movement regularly to improve your sleep. This could be as simple as going for a brisk evening walk or bike ride, and both aerobic exercise and strength-training have been found to be beneficial. Whatever the case may be, you’ll want to find something you enjoy enough to stick with it. Additionally, be careful to not exercise within 1-2 hours of bedtime if you find this affects your sleep quality, as the increase in body temperature and the release of endorphins may make it harder to fall asleep for a short time.
Has all of this talk of sleep made you drowsy yet?
Sleep is one of the most essential ingredients for managing our mental health, and yet it's often the first of our habits to go during periods of stress. Establishing a plan for getting more restful sleep can help you to better manage your mood and more effectively cope with anxiety, in addition to its other health and brain-regulating benefits. Working toward establishing these behaviors over the course of a few weeks and months will almost certainly help to improve your sleep! Nonetheless, if you continue to struggle with sleep or if your sleep is interrupted by persistent nightmares or PTSD-like symptoms, you’ll want to work with a sleep specialist or therapist to begin addressing these underlying concerns.
And with that, I bid you sweet dreams and goodnight!
Struggling with anxiety and wishing you could catch more Z’s? Need an anxiety therapist for anxiety treatment in Washington, DC?
I see rest as a revolution and would love nothing more than to work with you on improving the quality and quantity of your sleep. Check out my website to learn a bit more about me or visit my Contact page to get in touch.
