If I could sort out my insomnia...

[ZMan]

Then I feel I'd be much much closer to having anxiety out of my life.


The thing is, I get my worst bouts of panic/anxiety at night, and while they have calmed down a lot recently, it's the nights where I'm in bed for 11pm/12 that set me off, because I have ample time to lie in bed and think/not sleep/notice one irregular heartbeat and hence the cycle commences.

Hence, if I stay up to 2am on the internet, and then take like and hour and a bit out doing crosswords and the like before going to bed then I'm normally shattered and more prone to sleeping without thinking. Sometimes I also have a movie on my ipod which I watch in bed if I still can't sleep.

While this system works well, a good amount of sleep and a good sleeping pattern is essential for combating anxiety, so please can someone give advice on how they handle night-times.

Thanks

[jothenurse]

I tend to fall asleep right away because I am so tired, but then I wake up frequently during the night (with hot flashes), an elevated pulse, and some anxiety. I usually need to calm myself and then hopefully fall back to sleep, with it happening every hour or two. I usually sleep with the tv on and watch that when I wake up, or read a book or do a crossword puzzle if need be.

[CrazyCatLady]

Best advice I ever had for insomnia: Don't do anything except sleep in bed. You should associate your bed with sleep, nothing else. If you can't sleep - get up, go read for a bit, then try again. Watching tv does not relax you very well cause we empathise with what we are seeing, plus you know how long it is/want to see end etc. You do not need to see the time, turn all clocks away from you. What is the latest time you fall asleep? 4am? then go to bed at 4 am till you fall asleep at 4am. Then go to bed at 3:30am till you sleep at 3:30am, then 3am etc etc.

This really helped me x

[CrazyCatLady]

Oh, and write a list of your anxiety before you go to bed, sit on couch and read aloud over and over until it becomes boring - like " i'm going to trip over my skirt tomorrow, i'm going to trip over my skirt tomorrow..." it will be so monotonous (sp, sorry!) that you won't care about tripping over the darn skirt, you're so bored of the idea now.