The Simple Thing That Cured My Anxiety-Induced Insomnia
Being overly strict about my nightly routine made all the difference.
The pandemic ruined my sleep schedule. Like most young professionals, I started working at home in spring 2020. With that adjustment to my schedule came a lot of blurred boundaries and days where I was staring at a screen for fifteen hours straight. Add to it the general anxiety I was feeling from when COVID-19 first started showing up in the US, and I was a mess. There were several days — weeks, even — in the spring and summer last year where I was running on little to no sleep.
I’m the kind of person who needs her sleep. I can’t function well with less than eight hours a night (and would prefer an extra hour or two, if I’m being honest.) When my anxious thoughts and underwhelming daily schedule were at their peak last year, I would go to bed and toss and turn for hours. I’d eventually give up on sleep entirely, grabbing my phone from my dresser and finally falling asleep with the screen still lit up in my hand. It wasn’t good.
Even my coworkers started to notice on our almost daily Zoom calls. I’d roll out of bed with four hours of sleep (or less) and slump to my kitchen-table-turned-desk in need of another twenty-four hours of sleep, but forcing myself to put in a full day of work…
