With a pandemic, financial crisis and concern around the chance of an impending world war to deal with over the past few years, it’s no surprise that many of us are finding ourselves feeling anxious.

 With everything that’s happened since 2020, it’s easy to feel consumed by worry; whether it’s social media scrolling or simply watching the evening news, we’re constantly being bombarded with bad news.

 What’s more, when we seek out reassurance by constantly checking news sources and social media feeds, we can find ourselves compounding this stress and anxiety, indulging in an unhealthy “what if?” way of thinking. 

 This then all become a vicious cycle, and these negative feelings often manifest themselves at bedtime, leaving us tossing and turning and unable to sleep. 

 If you find your sleep is being negatively impacted by anxiety and stress, the important thing is not to panic. Remember there are simple steps you can take to get your sleep back on track, and we are here to help. 

 My top five tips for improving your sleep when anxious.

1. Reduce exposure to the news and social media. Spending hours staring at screens and consuming the news will not help your anxiety. So, allow yourself a daily window for updates. For example, 10 minutes of news first thing and 10 in the afternoon. Limit your time scrolling on socials too and remember to always make sure you’re only looking at trusted resources.

2. Manage your worries. At times like this it’s easy to feel out of control, and anxiety feeds on this feeling, but there are healthy ways to ‘control’ this worry. The easiest of which is putting pen to paper. Allocate yourself a 20-minute worry window daily, spending this time writing down your concerns. This will tell your mind you’re not ignoring your worries but acknowledging them at a time that’s suitable. Once this allocated time slot is up, move on and do something you enjoy. Then, if any further worries come up, simply take note of them and use your next worry window to think on them further.

3. Problem Solve. Each day look at the list of worries you’ve written down during your worry window and decide which of these you have control over. Then, problem solve and make a plan for them. This is useful when your mind is feeling out of control, as you can revisit your plan to reassure yourself that you are the one in the driver’s seat.

4. Acknowledge “what if?” worries. These are the kind of worries where our minds drift off thinking of worst-case scenarios. This way of thinking is very common, and we indulge in it as it helps us feel like we are preparing for the worst. However, the reality is we are just making ourselves feel bad. When writing these types of concerns down during your worry window, label them as hypothetical, and remember to not treat them like facts, they might never happen!

5. Remember, quality, not quantity, the eight-hour rule is a myth, so do not let yourself worry if you are not getting eight hours of sleep. You should focus on quality, deep sleep, not the number of hours you’re getting.