Getting a good nights sleep.

[LittleLionMan]

Hi all, only a little success story, but it's in regards to my sleep.

Sleep isn't something I've ever really had an issue with, but since my anxiety levels have gone through the roof, I've had night after night of staring at the ceiling.

I did a little research, and came to the conclusion that I was going to bed too late, and that was putting pressure on myself to actually get to sleep, which has the exact opposite effect to what I want.

Since the start of the week, I have been ensuring I have been active enough during the day, whether that means a long walk in the day time, or hitting the treadmill in the early evening, then eating my evening meal.
I then have a shower about 10, turn the lights out about 11:30, set a sleep timer on my tele, and close my eyes basically pretending as if I'm going to sleep, with no pressure because it's earlier, and it's working a treat.

It hasn't had a positive impact on my intrusive thoughts yet, but I'm hoping if I can maintain a decent sleep cycle it will begin to. Just an idea for anyone looking to regulate their sleep a bit better.

5298

[ankietyjoe]

Nice one.

Remember, things you are doing today will reap benefits in the future. There is no single thing you can do to recover, it's more about doing 100 little things regularly, for weeks/months on end.

Good, positive post!

[LittleLionMan]

Clinging to the positives.

Hope you are good.

[BrokenGirl]

I can totally relate to this as well. I've started to realise that I'm going to be too late, then I want to watch something to relax and unwind and by the time I'm ready to sleep it's much too late. Could be 1 or 2am.
Then I'm struggling to get up in the mornings because I haven't had enough sleep.
I've decided I'm going to bring my bedtime back a little bit every couple of days. Last night was the first night and I've given myself a time of 1:30am for now. I know that's still way too late but after a couple of nights I'll change that to 1am, then 12:30, until I get to 11ish.
I've realised lately that small steps with everything is what works best for me. So hopefully I'll be in a much better sleeping pattern in a few weeks!!

[LittleLionMan]

Honestly, I wouldn't even do it gradually.

The trick for me was that I had such a bad nights, that I was knackered! So instead of staying in bed, or trying to grab another hour, I was just getting up early-ish, knowing that I had to break the pattern.

If you can, do some exercise in the day, so that you are physically knackered, anxiety is knackering anyway, so we have that in our favour, have a shower or a bath or whatever you have, an hour before you plan to go to bed (the body slowly cooling down after a shower naturally makes you tired anyway in time), and then all you have to deal with is your mind. By going to bed early, it doesn't matter if you go to sleep or not, which means you don't have to TRY to go to sleep, which makes it far easier mentally, as you've taken the pressure off yourself. I leave the tele on with a sleep timer just so I have a bit of background noise, as I can listen in on the tele if my mind chatter gets too much.

Whether it continues like this for me remains to be seen, but so far so good.

[Scissel]

Excellent news - it will continue :)

[LittleLionMan]

Just got to figure out how to make the days as successful as the nights now! 🤣

[pulisa]

Just got to figure out how to make the days as successful as the nights now! 藍

Remember the hazards of "figuring out" things though, Phil...Over-analysis always leads to rumination, low mood and anxiety..

Good news and well done about getting a better sleep pattern though. Decent sleep is so important.

[LittleLionMan]

It's probably a similar principle to be fair, I sleep better when I do the right things, and then position myself to not care about about sleeping.

If I did the right things, the basics, for anxiety and then didn't care how I felt or what I thought, I would probably accidentally feel better to be fair.

[ankietyjoe]

Success/failure is the road to nowhere. Things just 'are'. Sounds like fluff, but remember that attitude.

You're just labelling things again, analytically.

[LittleLionMan]

That's what I meant by 'then didn't care how I felt or what I thought', learning not to care how I was feeling and not let these intrusive thoughts knock me around?

[pulisa]

I think the aim is to take the "intrusive" focus out of the thoughts and just to acknowledge them as "thoughts" without giving them significance. Without thinking too much about this process.

How can a thought knock you around if it's nothing more than a thought?

[LittleLionMan]

There's no way to answer that without bringing on the same cycle from previous threads, which I don't want... so I plead the fifth! Haha!

I do get your point though, it's just not that simple.

[Scissel]

I very much agree with Joe here. Predicting the future / anticipation (of success/failure) expectations can (often) lead into a Self-fulfilling prophecy - if your hope(s) are more worries. Better to 'go with the current' and change course once in motion. Expecting every day to turn out as we "expect' can be a recipe for disappointment. We get up out of bed and see what happens and take it from there :)

[LittleLionMan]

All my hopes are worries! Haha.

I agree, it's just difficult to stop your mind from anticipating a bad day isn't it. I think that's why my anxiety levels are so much worse in the morning, because I have a whole day ahead to 'struggle through', and I was desperate to get my sleep back, as I used to be a little better at night, knowing it wasn't long before I could get some sleep and give myself a break from it all.

[WiredIncorrectly]

After a good night sleep I always wake up refreshed. I had a good sleep last night and feel fantastic today.

[EmmaSmithLondon]

Nice one, Hope you good and healthy.