While lying down on your back, relax all the muscles in your body as much as you can. Inhale slowly through your nose, concentrating on filling the bottom of your chest cavity with air. You should see your stomach rise instead of just your chest. Do this in a slow, controlled manner, taking 8-10 seconds. Hold your breath for 1-2 seconds. Relax and let the air escape your chest at a natural rate. Repeat this process until you feel yourself drifting back to sleep.
Lying on your back, close your eyes and focus on how your body is feeling in the present moment. Focus on your feet, relaxing all the muscles in them and letting them sink into the mattress. Try to imagine the individual muscles in your feet, from your toes to your ankles, and unclench them. Move up into your calves and knees. Working your way up from the ankles, relax any tension you might be holding in your muscles and simply let your legs lie there. Move up into your thighs, doing the same. Move on to your buttocks, then your lower back. Spend some time on your chest and abdomen. Focus on your breathing — deepen your breaths and concentrate on the inhalation and exhalation processes. Move on to your hands. As you did with your feet, imagine all the many small muscles in your hands and relax them one by tone. Begin with your fingers, then your palms, then your wrists. Move on to your upper arms, then your shoulders. Relax the muscles in your neck, where many people carry much of their tension. Relax the muscles in your jaw, which you may be keeping clenched unconsciously. Move on to your eyelids and cheeks. Let you whole skull sink back into your pillow. Once you’ve done a relaxation inventory of your entire body, try to drift back to sleep.
Lying down in bed, close your eyes and concentrate on your toes. Flex your toes backwards, toward your face. Hold that position for ten seconds. Relax them for ten seconds. Repeat the process ten times, then try to drift off to sleep again.
Lie down in bed and close your eyes. Take a deep breath to fill slowly fill your lungs, drawing air into the bottom of your chest cavity. You should see your belly rise, not your chest. Say “Om,” holding the “o” sound for as long as is comfortable. Focus solely on the three dimensions of the mantra — action, feeling, and sound. Think about those three things until everything else falls away. Rest for one second in silence. Repeat until your anxiety has waned.
Ask yourself, “Are these thoughts productive? Will they help me reach my goals, or are they just useless, circular, obsessive thoughts?"[3] X Research source If they are productive thoughts, let them work their way out. You may feel relaxed, having worked toward a solution to a problem you had during the day. If they are negative thoughts, don’t let yourself indulge them. Acknowledge that thinking these thoughts will have no positive effect on your life, and force yourself to stop thinking them. This is very difficult, and will take a lot of practice and will power. You may not be successful at first, but over time, with effort, you can learn to control whether or not you let negative thoughts keep you awake at night.
Begin with the more obvious, generic positive affirmations like “I am a good person”; “I believe in myself”; or “I will have a good day tomorrow” Repeat a handful of these affirmations to yourself until you feel slightly relaxed by the process of repetition. Move on, then, to more specific affirmations that pinpoint the root of the anxiety that is keeping you awake. Examples might include: “I will find the man/woman of my dreams. " “I will find a better job soon. " “I am happy with my body. "
Describe your sleep disruption to a medical professional and ask for their advice on what medical condition might be causing your problem. This will likely involve a blood test, and if the doctor discovers a medical issue, their suggested treatment might range from a simple change in your diet to surgery. To avoid acid reflux, skip foods like citrus, chocolate, fatty and fried food, garlic, onion, tomato, spicy foods, and drinks containing caffeine. Over the counter medications for acid reflux or heartburn will not treat the underlying cause of the problem, but will spot-treat the symptoms if taken before bedtime.
Use the National Sleep Foundation’s template for a sleep diary. Take a few minutes every day to fill it out, making sure to be thorough and to not skip any days. Analyze the data from your sleep diary. Look for any patterns: do you sleep through the nights on the days you exercise? Does watching TV before bed result in interrupted sleep? Are particular medications causing sleep interruptions during the night? Change your day-to-day habits based on the patterns you pick up to set yourself up for regular, uninterrupted sleep.
Take a bath or shower. Read a book or listen to relaxing music. Meditate.
Don’t look at any screens for one to two hours before you’re going to go to bed every night.
If background noise is unavoidable — for example, if you live in an apartment with thin walls and noisy neighbors — try sleeping with a soothing, regular background sound that will drown out the irregular noise. A whirring fan will do the trick, as will phone or computer apps that play soothing sounds like rain falling or the ocean’s waves breaking on the shore.
