Anxiety and Insomnia: 7 Proven Ways to Sleep Better Tonight

By Dr. Shahrnaz Mashkoor, Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

You’re looking at the ceiling again at 2 AM. Your mind won’t stop racing. It keeps going over conversations, stressing about tomorrow, or imagining problems that haven’t even happened yet. You keep thinking, “Anxiety is keeping me awake,” yet no matter how tired you are, you can’t get to sleep. If this sounds similar, there is a method to break this tiring cycle.

Every day at the Wellness Institute of Southern Nevada, I encounter patients who are dealing with the same cycle of anxiety and not being able to sleep. About 36% of persons with anxiety disorders also have trouble sleeping. Almost two-thirds of Americans believe that stress makes it hard for them to sleep. It’s a painful cycle: anxiety makes it hard to sleep, and not getting enough sleep makes anxiety worse.

In this article, we’ll talk about why anxiety makes it hard to sleep, what insomnia from anxiety looks like, and the best strategies to cure it. You will also learn simple, proven measures you can take tonight to relax your mind, reset your sleep cycle, and finally get the sleep you need.

The Anxiety-Insomnia Connection: Which Comes First?

It can go both ways. When you’re worried, your body’s stress response system stays on. Stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released by your brain to keep you awake and ready to respond. This made perfect sense for our ancestors, who were in danger, but while you’re lying in bed worried about your work or your relationship, this same biological response keeps you up.

On the flip side, insomnia caused by anxiety can then worsen your anxiety symptoms. When you don’t get enough good sleep, your brain has a harder time controlling your emotions. You are more inclined to blow things out of proportion, feel overwhelmed by small stressors, and worry more, which makes it even harder to sleep the next night.

Millions of people are stuck in this terrible loop. Statistics show that 19.1% of adults in the U.S. have had an anxiety condition in the past year. Sleep issues are one of the most prevalent symptoms they report.

Understanding Different Types of Anxiety-Related Sleep Issues

Not everyone who has anxiety has trouble sleeping in the same way. Depending on what makes you anxious and how you deal with it, anxiety can make you lose sleep in numerous ways:

Difficulty Falling Asleep (Sleep Onset Insomnia). This is when my anxiousness keeps me up at night. Your mind is full of fears, what-ifs, and thoughts that keep coming back. You can find yourself going over discussions in your head, planning for the worst, or feeling tight even if you’re tired.

Middle-of-the-Night Awakening.  Some people can fall asleep alright, but they wake up in the middle of the night with their minds racing or have an anxiety attack while they sleep. These awakenings at night might be especially upsetting because you’re already weary and your mind won’t stop racing.

Early Morning Awakening: Waking up hours before your alarm with anxiety flooding your system is another common pattern. Your mind immediately jumps to worries, and falling back asleep feels impossible.

Anticipatory Sleep Anxiety: This is when you develop anxiety about sleep itself. You start to worry about whether or not you’ll be able to fall asleep, which makes you even more stressed out and makes sleep harder to find. It’s a very horrible twist of fate.

How To Fall Asleep With Anxiety: Practical Steps You Can Try Tonight

Here are short, practical tactics that help many people calm chest-level anxiety and fall asleep:

1. Breathing reset (4-7-8 or box breathing) — Deep, slow breathing activates the parasympathetic system. Try this: 4 seconds in, 7 seconds hold, and 8 seconds out. Do this four times.
2. Grounding (5-4-3-2-1) — Name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 item you can taste. Takes the attention away from rumination.
3. Progressive muscle relaxation — Tense and relax body parts from toes to head to release physical tension.
4. Worry shelf — Put a notepad next to your bed. Set aside 10 minutes the next day to write down your worries. This will save you from trying to solve problems at night.
5. Wind-down routine (30–60 minutes) — Dim the lights, turn off the screens, and do something that doesn’t need a lot of thinking, like reading, taking a bath, or doing some mild stretching. Your brain knows it’s time for bed when you have a regular schedule.
6. Control the environment — a cool, dark, quiet room with soft bedding and no blue light.
7. Limit stimulants and alcohol — Don’t drink caffeine after early afternoon, and alcohol makes sleep poorer and anxiety worse over time.

You may start using these basic, low-risk tactics right away. Keep doing them if they help at all. Your body learns how to respond to sleep over time.

Best Available Treatment For Insomnia Caused By Anxiety

If short-term strategies aren’t enough, evidence supports the following layered approach:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) — first-line

Sleep experts advocate CBT-I as the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia that doesn’t use drugs. It looks at the thoughts (worrying about sleep), activities (sleeping at odd times and napping), and conditioning that keep people from sleeping. In weeks to months, a lot of folks notice real progress.

Targeted anxiety treatments

For a lot of people, treating their daytime anxiety directly (with CBT, exposure therapy, ACT, or medication when needed) makes it easier to sleep at night and keeps them from waking up. The best results usually come from combining CBT-I with anxiety therapy.

Medications & short-term aids

Sometimes, short-term medications like sleep aids or anxiety medications might stop a bad cycle. These are helpful as part of a plan, but they don’t usually work for long. Always use it with a doctor’s supervision.

Lifestyle & complementary strategies

Regular exercise, getting sunlight in the morning, limiting screens in the evening, keeping a regular sleep schedule, and cutting less on caffeine later in the day all help therapy work better. For some people, yoga, mindfulness, or breathing exercises can help.

When to See A Clinician

Make an appointment if:

• Sleep problems last more than 3 months or happen ≥3 nights/week.
• Daytime function is impaired (concentration, mood, safety).
• You have severe anxiety, panic episodes, or anxiety attacks during sleep.
• There are signs of other sleep disorders (loud snoring, gasping, falling asleep in the day). 

A clinician can rule out medical causes, recommend CBT-I, and discuss medication if needed.

Reclaim Restful Nights with The Wellness Institute of Southern Nevada

If you’re having trouble sleeping because of anxiety, start small. Set a bedtime, make a relaxing wind-down routine, and practice easy relaxation every night. But if you keep having trouble sleeping or panic attacks at night, you need help.

At the Wellness Institute of Southern Nevada, I use a holistic, evidence-based approach to treat both anxiety and sleeplessness. This includes therapy, lifestyle advice, and careful monitoring of medications. I am a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and a dual-certified psychiatric and family nurse practitioner. I can help you get back to normal and sleep better naturally.

To start your journey toward greater sleep and emotional health, email contact@WellnessLived.com or call 866-321-4640 immediately. We’ll work together to design a treatment plan that will help you feel like yourself again—calm, refreshed, and totally awake.

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