How can I overcome insomnia? - Video transcript

Hey guys, I'm Kristen, the anxiety therapist, thanks for checking out my vlog today. I'm going to be talking about insomnia, which is closely linked with anxiety and I figured this would be a good week to discuss this topic since we just had daylight savings time and I'm sure a lot of us have found that our schedules were a bit thrown off this past week.

Um, so insomnia affects our circadian rhythms and that is our body's internal clock, right? It follows a 24 hour cycle and it basically lets us know when it's time to be awake and when it's time to go to sleep. And our body produces a hormone called melatonin which builds up and then at night it makes us sleepy.

So the first thing to be aware of when it comes to insomnia is that we want to make sure that we have good sleep hygiene. So just like you take a shower every day or brush your teeth twice a day, hopefully. Um, you know, sleep hygiene is sort of what lets our bodies and brain know that it's time to wind down and that it's almost time to, to get some sleep.

So, um, what we want to do is try to make sure we go to bed and wake up at the same time every day. I recognize this can be really challenging when it comes to the weekends, but it doesn't have to be perfect as close as you can get it to going to bed and waking up at the same time the better. Um, we also want to make sure we're not exposing ourselves to screens for at least an hour before bedtime.

I know now they have these features where you can sort of dim the blue light and that can be helpful. But ideally we just, we don't want anything that's going to be kind of overly stimulating. So no phones, no TV’s, no iPads, anything like that for about an hour before bed.

We want to keep the light dim in our bedrooms and um if you lay down to go to sleep and you can't fall asleep within about 20 minutes, then go ahead and get up out of bed. Don't just stay there and toss and turn, get up, go to a dimly lit room, maybe read something boring and then after a few minutes try to return to bed and go go back to sleep.

Our bed really shouldn't be used for anything besides sleep. So you don't want to watch tv in bed, you don't want to do work on your laptop in bed. You know, these are all things that kind of make it unclear to our brains what our bed is intended for. We want our brain to make the correlation um that our bed is, is purely intended for sleep.

Um a few additional things is to try not to eat for several hours before bedtime. Um you might want to cut out caffeine later in the day and then alcohol really interferes with our ability to sleep deeply. You know, we might be able to sleep, but if we have had a few drinks before bed, we're not going to sleep as well as we would otherwise.

Um I'd also recommend not watching the clock often. We get so fixated on, oh my gosh, I have to get up at whatever time that means I have, if I fall asleep right now, I'm only going to get six hours of sleep and we get so worked up.

Um just about this idea of falling asleep immediately that it actually has the opposite effect and it creates more anxiety and more insomnia. So try not to look at the clock, maybe turn it away if you need to and try to shift the way you think about sleep. You know, okay, if you fall asleep right now, then then that's great.

But if you don't, what's the worst that could possibly happen, you're going to be a little bit tired the next day, right? Not the end of the world. Um if anything that will just make you fall asleep more easily the next night, so try to, to sort of reframe um, the anxious talk that occurs when, when we can't fall asleep.

Um, if you have trouble falling asleep, I'd also recommend maybe doing a few minutes of meditation or listening to what's called a sleep story before bed. A lot of the meditation apps have these, the calm app headspace. I really like insight timer as a meditation apps. So play around, see what works for you.

Um you can also do a brain dump where a lot of times when we lay down to go to sleep, we have all of these racing thoughts right? So a brain dump is essentially just taking all of those thoughts and dumping them down on a piece of paper out so they're not continually swirling around in your head.

Um it can also be helpful to keep a note pad next to your bed. I know I'm somebody who if I think of something that I need to get done the next day, I i stress about forgetting and so if you keep a note pad next to your bed you can jot it down. Like I have to remember to make that dentist appointment tomorrow that way you're not stressing about trying to remember it the next day.

Um working out also really helps with promoting healthy sleep. So ideally you want to work out in the morning. If not, no, that's not the end of the world, but just be sure that you're not working out too close to bedtime because you don't want to sort of get your heart rate up before you're meant to go to sleep um and be sure to get a lot of sunlight during the day.

You know, that's really going to promote a healthy circadian rhythm. I know especially here in Chicago in the wintertime sunlight, it's hard to come by. Um they do make vitamin d. Lamps. Sometimes they're called happy lights. Um I have mine right here.

It's just a little light that you can keep on your desk or wherever and just expose yourself to that light for 10-15 minutes a day. Um not only does it help to wake you up a little bit and and expose you to that sunlight effect but it also that vitamin d. Also helps with mood.

It's a it's a mood enhancer as well. Um we tend to be in the deepest sleep between 2 to 3 a. M. And so um that's why we often find ourselves getting sleepy around 2 to 3 in the afternoon as well because it's sort of this um this 12 hour cycle. So just be aware of that that you know you're you're bound to kind of uh find a low in late afternoon and um to just think about how to kind of manage that.

So maybe take a 10 minute walk outside again if you can avoid caffeine. That that's better. But um I know some people like a cup of coffee or soda late in the afternoon. Um but that could be a good time to use the um vitamin d. Lamp and and just kind of give yourself that little energy boost so that's pretty much it for sleep hygiene and um circadian rhythms.

So hopefully you found this video helpful and you can give some of these techniques to try and hopefully you'll find that you're sleeping better very soon. Have a great week and I will see you next Friday.