What’s Keeping You Up at Night?
It’s time to give yourself a break.
Do you have trouble falling asleep? Trouble staying asleep? Do you toss and turn, then wake up exhausted?
Whenever I talked to a doctor or therapist about sleep, these were the usual questions. My answer was yes. Yes, to all of them.
Sometimes, it could be physical symptoms like joint pain or a migraine that kept me up, but more often than not, it was a racing mind. Sleep would remain elusive when worrying thoughts crept in because there was nothing else to distract me. The silence and lack of distraction would allow every worry to feel like a weight on me.
I’m referring to those all-consuming thoughts that worm their way into your brain. Those thoughts that repeat over and over, refusing to leave. Refusing to allow sleep to take hold.
There are two ways to look at addressing these thoughts and the sleep disturbance they cause.
- Treat your anxiety.
- Reduce the factors that trigger your anxiety.
Some may find option one to be the easiest to embrace, while others may find the second option more appealing. For me, I spent years choosing option one and expecting myself to be okay with that. I held myself to the standard that if I treated my anxiety well…
