Anxiety doesn’t know what time of day it is. It isn’t waiting to get worse for you at night, allowing you to feel calmer and more in control during the day. So, why does anxiety often seem worse at night? Why do you have a harder time controlling it when you’re trying to get some rest? There are a few reasons, and the more you understand anxiety’s impact at night, the easier it is to do something about it.
So, why does anxiety seem worse at night, and how can you combat the symptoms plaguing you while you try to sleep?
You’re Alone With Your Thoughts
One of the biggest reasons why anxiety seems worse at night is that you’re alone with your thoughts in a quiet place. During the day, it’s much easier to stay distracted. You might be focused on work, school, or taking care of your family. You can keep yourself busy, and your anxiety takes a back seat without you even realizing it. At night, it’s a different story.
When you’re lying in bed trying to get to sleep, everything around you is quiet and dark. You don’t have anything to distract you from your own thoughts or your worries. Therefore, your anxious thoughts can start to creep in and take over, making it nearly impossible to get to sleep. If you spend nearly every night tossing and turning because of those thoughts, it’s a major issue that needs to be addressed.
The Anxiety and Sleep Cycle
Unfortunately, anxiety and a lack of sleep can often go hand-in-hand. The more anxious you are, the harder it is to get to sleep. The less sleep you get, the more anxious you’ll become. You might even start to get anxious at night over your lack of sleep. The longer you lay in bed worrying about whether you’ll sleep or not, the worse your anxiety will become.
It can feel like a frustrating, neverending cycle that’s difficult to break on your own. That can eventually lead to other mental health issues, including depression. That’s another vicious cycle that is hard to break and can wreak havoc on your overall well-being and quality of life.
What Can You Do?
Thankfully, there are several steps you can take to combat the effects of anxiety at night. First, make sure you have good sleep hygiene. That includes establishing a nighttime routine to signal to your brain and body that it’s time to sleep.
Everyone’s habits are slightly different. However, some of the best things you can put in place include:
Have a regularly schedule sleep time. This includes going to bed and waking up.
Create an optimal sleep environment.
Cut out caffeine at noon.
Turn electronics off at least an hour before bed.
Just because your anxiety worsens at night doesn’t mean it isn’t present all day. While healthy sleep habits won’t necessarily ease your anxiety, they can make it easier to fall asleep, so your anxiety won’t have a chance to take over your thoughts. The best thing you can do is address your anxiety and work through it with a mental health professional. Getting to the root cause of it and learning how to manage your symptoms is one of the most effective ways to beat it.
If you’re struggling with anxiety and it seems to get worse at night, you don’t have to keep losing sleep and don’t have to deal with it on your own. Feel free to contact me for more information or to set up an appointment. Together, we’ll discover the underlying cause of your anxious thoughts and work on developing the skills you need to overcome your fears with anxiety treatment.