Racing Thoughts Keeping You Up at Night? Try These Five Stress-Busting Tips

Are you tired of tossing and turning every night? Anxious thoughts and stressful situations may leave you feeling restless, especially at nighttime. As you wrestle with anxiety or stress, you will want to talk with trusted counselors in Richmond, VA to learn more about how to overcome these challenges and practice calming techniques. However, you will also want to make some simple changes to your nighttime routine to help you reach sleep quicker. These are a few things you can do to reduce nighttime anxiety and stress.

Stick to a Bedtime

Although this may be difficult to implement at first, you should come up with a bedtime schedule that works for you. Stick to this bedtime every night of the week, no matter what. In addition to falling asleep at the same time each night, you also need to be strict about your wakeup times. By making yourself get out of bed at the same time every day, you do not mess up your bedtime routine.

Pencil In a Workout

Try to implement activity into your day to encourage movement and tire your body. By exerting physical energy, you will be able to feel sleepy once you lie your head on a pillow at night. As a rule of thumb, you should aim to exercise in the morning or afternoon. When you wait until too late in the day, you can actually cause a burst of energy at too late of an hour, causing even more restlessness.

Keep Your Bedroom Cool and Dark

Your bedroom environment is also important to getting quality sleep. As you prepare for bedtime, you should turn off the lights and TV. Keep the room dark to encourage your eyes to get heavy. Also, if you keep your bedroom cool, you can get cozy under blankets, which can also help to soothe you towards sleep.

Avoid Caffeine

It is best to avoid stimulants late in the afternoon or evening to prevent these drinks and foods from keeping you up at night. When you drink coffee later in the day, it is meant to jolt your body and keep you awake, so it will. To get the best quality sleep, you should avoid caffeine at least eight hours before sleep. If you have panic attacks, it is also recommended to avoid caffeine all together.

Keep Your Phone Out of Your Room

Minimizing distractions in your room is also helpful in promoting a healthy sleep routine. By removing any lights, like TVs and phones, you create a bedroom environment that is more conducive to sleep. It can be easy to get caught up in a binge-worthy show or scroll through social media until the middle of the night, but you will want to keep these distractions out of your bedroom.

If you are looking for some guidance to work through your anxiety and learn to overcome your triggers, trust the counselors in Richmond, VA to help you. Contact Nadia Dhillon Counseling to schedule your appointment with our professional therapists today.