General worries and anxiety
Challenge
Navigating life can be a complex struggle. Relationships, friendships, family life, school, exams, and/or a changes in your life, such as moving home or school, can all contribute to anxiety.
The list of things to worry about and consider can seem endless, and you can guarantee that your brain will start to ponder these thoughts just as you are trying to get some shut-eye!
You might lie in bed going over in your mind what has happened and/or worrying about what might happen — or both!
Strategies
If you haven’t fallen asleep within 20 minutes of going to bed and you’re not feeling calm and relaxed, get up and try doing something else such as reading in a dimly lit room or listening to soothing music.
When you start to feel calm and sleepy, go back to bed and try to go to sleep. This way, your mind starts associating your bed with calm sleepy time, so that, over time, when you get into bed, your body automatically relaxes. Remember not to turn to an activity involving screens — this will wake you up more.
Try to relax
The next section has a list of different ways to help you to relax in bed and/or manage your worries outside of bed so they don’t get in the way when you’re trying to drift off to sleep.
If your worrying a lot in bed, it’s important to realise that staying awake and anxious in your bed leads the brain to associate your bed with being awake and planning/worrying (rather than associating it with sleeping).
This means that when you get into bed, your mind and body might immediately become anxious and/or wake itself up —this is the opposite of what we need!
Page last reviewed: 7 February, 2024