Night anxiety

@MrsNmaeBelle
Sounds like your mind is still active at sleep time, and it prevents you from fall asleep. Several reasons lead to insomnia. Worrying about can not fall asleep is also one of them. If after 20 mins trying still can not make you fall asleep, it is better to get out of bed, or the worry may lead to anxiety and frustration.
When the sleeping problem is seriously influencing your life, it is better to seek help from professionals. Wish you have a good sleep soon.

Hi. I've had that happen to me a lot. It's common. And it's okay. I've had times in the past where I had nighttime anxiety that seemed to last weeks at a time. If there is something you are anxious about, maybe work on resolving it or seeking some help about it. If it is just anxiety about wanting to fall asleep, then here are a couple tips: think about alertness as being on a spectrum. At one end we have sleep, calm, peacefulness, in the middle we have normal alertness, at the other end we have worry, anxiety, panic, anger. We can move up and down this scale of alertness. We are more alert when we are problem solving, we are less alert when we are not. Anxiety is a problem-solving tool. It makes us more focused, more energized, more alert, more vigilant, and gives us a negative feeling to motivate us to action. All great and reasonable things. When we set up a goal of trying to fall asleep, we sometimes might be turning on our problem-solving anxiety to help us reach to our goal. This is obviously and ironically counterproductive. So how do we fix it? Well we need to suspend negative judgments about being anxious and about the possiblity of insomnia. If we judge these to be problems, we naturally want to try to solve them. So realize they are not problems, thinking that they are is just a misunderstanding. So just think of things neutrally. And then just let yourself naturally move down the spectrum of alertness until you are asleep. You will fall asleep. You can get over this. Insomnia used to be a big issue for me. I even found therapy for it. But it passed. Now I sleep great (most of the time : ) ). You'll be fine. You're not alone. It'll get better. Wishing you great, restful sleep.

@MrsNmaeBelle

I spent months suffering from the inability to sleep, or sleep well. I had TONS of issues going in my life and when my brain is on - it's ON. I hate when I wake up in the middle of the night because it's always a struggle to get back to sleep.

Here are a few things that work for me.
1. When it's time for bed, do not go to bed thinking "Oh no, now I'm going to struggle to go to sleep." Just think that it's time for you to retire to your bedroom.
2. Make sure your bed is exactly how you want it. Pillows, sheets, blankets, everything fresh and clean, or maybe not, and kind of messed up. I like to use scented sprays (lavendar) and I also use essential oils.
3. Sometimes I use a favorite scented lotion when I'm in bed - just something nice and relaxing. Give my skin some nice treatment after a hard day.
4. I smile. I watch something funny on TV. (I know, they say no screens at bedtime.)
5. I play games - phone, puzzle book - whatever. I don't read much, though I know some people do, and that's just as good.
6. I listen to white noise that I like, I play meditation and calming "games" where a lot of times I fall asleep before I get through it.

It's a matter of enjoying that present moment in bed - not about sleeping. About just being happy in bed, reading a book, watching a TV show, playing a game. Enjoy that moment. Keep everything else away and just enjoy that time. It makes it a lot easier to fall asleep.