During my struggles when dealing with my anxiety disorder, I found that when my sleep patterns are solid my anxiety soon goes away. When you’re suffering from basic everyday anxiety or from extreme anxiety, you need to focus on getting your sleep. That’s really easy to say and really hard to do when you are stressed out and anxious.
You can use medications to help you get to sleep, but then your sleep is not as good. If you just can’t get to sleep naturally, then medication may be the only way to get some sleep. Some sleep is always better than no sleep however.
I’ve gone from stages of crippling anxiety to a perfectly normal stage of anxiety after one night of sleep. This is how important your sleep is.
Tips for Getting Some Good Sleep
1. If you can’t sleep, try not to worry about and make things worse. Your body will only go so far before it you will doze off at some point. Don’t worry that you only sleep for 5-10 minutes and wake up with a flood of anxiety. This is normal if you have extreme anxiety. If you are in that state you must not be afraid to go the doctor and get some help in the way of medication. Usually one Ativan will put you to sleep if you take it before you go to bed.
2. Don’t fight it. If you can’t sleep don’t worry about it and whatever you do don’t go to bed and lay there awake stressing about it. Go to another room and watch some bland television, or read a good book. If you are suffering from extreme anxiety then you will have trouble concentrating on the television program or the the book but that’s ok. Just keep watching or reading and eventually you will doze off to sleep – even if it’s just a few minutes, like I said above. It’s all good when you doze off. Just remember that you body will always bring to the point of getting at least a little sleep.
3. What to do when you try to sleep and your mind just won’t let you. If you are suffering from extreme anxiety you will notice the following symptoms. You will try to sleep, and you will move really slow from lack of sleep, but you won’t be able to sleep. You lay down on a bed in a quiet room, and every time you feel like you are about to fall asleep, you’ll get another rush of anxiety, and wake up in a panic. Don’t let this freak you out and cause you more anxiety. This is normal from extreme anxiety sufferers.
If you are having this symptom of extreme anxiety then it’s important to get yourself to the doctor and get some professional help. Your doctor will very likely prescribe some medication to put you to sleep. You may sleep for a very long time and that’s great!!!
Once you have had a couple days of sleep you have a great window of opportunity. You may have some of the extreme symptoms of anxiety, but you will feel better, and this is your chance to get everything back on track.
Now – when you have had some sleep, wake up and IGNORE any scary thoughts or anxious feelings. Let the anxious thoughts and feelings come. Don’t fight them. Just except them and let it go. Remember, this to shall pass. Just get up from bed and find some healthy food that sticks to your ribs (such as oatmeal) and get that done. If you are suffering from extreme anxiety then eating may be a problem as well, so get some long lasting food inside you and focus the next few hours on doing something. Find a job or mundane household duty that take very little concentration and do it. Getting on your hands and knees and scrubbing the floor or baseboards is a good example. Why? Because as you are busy cleaning you will feel the sense of accomplishment, you will be making your body tired which helps your next slumber, you are getting some exercise which is great for you and your heart is gently picking up pace, and you will likely sweat from the mild exertion. All this will help you when it’s time for your next bit of sleep.
4. Once you begin to sleep, don’t worry about it if you are sleeping allot. Your body has been going will very little sleep during your high anxiety and depression during the last days or weeks. Your body is just catching up. Let your body catch up. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep. Just remember to keep yourself busy when you wake up, and don’t just sit around stewing over your condition. You are on your way back to your healthy normal pattern.
5. If it’s possible, try and go to work no matter how hard that may seem. If you have a job where you have to focus and concentrate, then you might not be able to, but if you can find jobs at work that are manually laborous then take those jobs. The interaction with other people will help you deal with your anxiety. If your employer is completley insensitive to your condition, you MUST inform them of what you are going through and explain that you want to work, but you need jobs are in the “grunt work” category. If you manage to go to work, then great. This will help you sleep the next time you get ready to slumber. If your boss or your employer does not have these kinds of jobs and is possible unsympathetic to your situation, then you need to get away from that job and take a stress leave. Use every possible avenue to get away from work and still maintain your monthly paycheck. Give yourself time to recover from your episode of anxiety and/or depression. Give yourself to time to slowly get back on track.