0:10

This episode of The Anxiety podcast

0:13

is sponsored by Cozy Earth.

0:15

The world's leading bedding,

0:17

bath, and apparel company. Get

0:19

up to thirty five percent off-site wide

0:22

when you use the code at

0:24

cozy Earth dot com. Welcome

0:28

back to the anxiety slayer podcast. This

0:31

week, Ananga and I are responding to

0:33

a question from our private Facebook

0:35

group about sleep anxiety.

0:38

And the question that came in is, does anyone

0:40

else experience sleep related anxiety?

0:43

A bad night sleep for me at the moment

0:45

can trigger several more nights as

0:48

I worry about not being able

0:50

to sleep. Needless to say,

0:52

I then find anxiety lurking in

0:54

the background all day as well. Welcome

0:57

back for another episode in Hey,

0:59

Shann. Interesting

1:01

that we're speaking about sleep right now when

1:04

we have this new relationship with Cozy

1:06

Earth both you and I have been

1:09

struggling with a bit of

1:11

sleeplessness for a while,

1:13

and here we have a listener

1:16

who is in the in the same boat. Yeah.

1:18

I was really happy to respond to this question

1:21

considering the challenges I've had over

1:23

recent weeks. I felt I could tune into

1:26

the frustration it can cause

1:28

in that situation where when

1:30

you have one bad night, you can

1:32

start to think, oh, no. Is it

1:34

gonna be the same tonight? And then we

1:36

start feeling anxious about that?

1:39

It's a good question. And fortunately,

1:42

There's plenty we can do to

1:44

support it. The challenge between anxiety

1:47

and sleep goes both ways. Anxiety

1:49

makes the mind unsettled. Keeping

1:52

us awake, chewing over our

1:54

worries, and on the other side, sleep

1:56

deprivation can increase anxiety, so

1:59

we get caught in a loop. Of sleeplessness

2:02

and worry that can feel really

2:04

hard to escape unfortunately both

2:06

sides. Feed into each other,

2:09

and escalate the challenge. And

2:13

I can relate with that anticipation and

2:15

dread as bedtime approaches

2:18

because you're in that space of aw Shann. I

2:20

really hope that I get a good night's rest

2:22

tonight. But that

2:24

anxiety makes it a little bit

2:26

more difficult to relax. If

2:29

your mind is continuing in

2:31

that loop of anticipatory dread

2:35

Vander makes it that much more of a challenge.

2:38

Yeah. So we need to meet the

2:40

anxiety and take

2:42

action to dissolve it first

2:44

and foremost. Yeah.

2:47

And that's hard when we're tired. It's

2:50

challenging to do. I'll share

2:52

briefly my experience

2:55

in hopes that it's helpful. So

2:58

I've been experiencing carpal tunnel

3:00

syndrome all of a sudden

3:02

over the last couple of weeks. And

3:05

it's been waking me up in the night with

3:07

extreme pain. Anyone that's

3:09

ever had carpal tunnel will be able to relate

3:12

Right. I've not had it to this extent

3:14

before. I've had it before from working on computers

3:17

and mild cases, but this

3:19

is quite something. And

3:22

what I realized was the only way I could stop it

3:24

hurting was to get out of bed and stretch.

3:27

Do a bit of qigong, move my body

3:29

around. And of course, in

3:31

being tired and wanting to sleep,

3:34

I was sometimes leaving there too late

3:36

to deal with it because I was tired.

3:38

It kept me awake for several nights straight,

3:41

not completely, but it was waking

3:43

me up about every half an hour to

3:45

an hour. So

3:48

after a couple of nights, I found myself

3:50

standing in the corner of my room with my head.

3:53

In the corner of the wall just leaning on the

3:55

wall, honey. Because

3:57

I was so tired. It's so uncomfortable.

4:00

Vander I didn't know what to do with myself

4:02

because everything's worse at night. It hurts

4:04

more at night. The mind's more vulnerable.

4:06

Yeah. Bonneable, but also less

4:09

shepheritable. Mhmm. And

4:11

it's more challenging to do with things. So I just stood

4:13

there with my my hand feeling like it

4:15

had been shut in a window. I

4:18

thought, okay, this

4:20

isn't good. I can't do this

4:23

because I'm I'm starting to get stressed about

4:25

the pain. I need to do things differently.

4:27

And the first thing, of course, that came

4:30

was tapping, which we'll talk more about

4:33

later in this episode. But that

4:35

is what helps me get calm and

4:38

more comfortable Vander it's helped

4:41

improve the whole situation. It hasn't gone.

4:43

I'm still dealing with it, but it's improving.

4:45

And I'm very grateful for that.

4:47

So just sharing that. You know, I'm in

4:49

that place to be really aware at the moment

4:51

of how quickly we're affected

4:54

by poor sleep, how it goes into the next

4:56

day, how challenging it

4:58

is, how difficult

5:01

it is at night to take decisive action

5:03

when we might feel like we're not sleeping

5:05

at all, but we're also kind of half

5:08

asleep or a bit groggy.

5:10

We're not very present. We're not very

5:12

on it. Mhmm. So

5:16

really important to find

5:18

ways to address that

5:20

during the day to take whatever action we can

5:23

tell by ourselves when we're awake during the

5:25

day and to bring in tools

5:27

like typing, which make

5:29

the whole situation so much more

5:31

positive Vander takes that fear

5:33

of the fear away. And

5:37

anytime you can release the tension

5:39

and the expectation and the frustration,

5:42

all of that is gonna lead to a better

5:44

night's rest. Yeah. As

5:47

we can't control whether

5:49

we're gonna sleep or not, we can't flick

5:51

that switch. But we

5:53

can take steps to be as relaxed

5:55

and calm and positive as

5:57

possible, and that puts us in best state

6:00

to invite sleep or at least good

6:02

rest. Mhmm. Over

6:06

the past several nights, I've been falling

6:08

asleep easily. But waking

6:10

up around three or four in the morning and

6:12

and not able to get back to sleep, and that's

6:14

not usually the case for me. And

6:17

I found it really helpful to

6:21

just get my headsets. And

6:23

I've got a playlist

6:25

on YouTube of different

6:28

sleep recordings that are, you know, like,

6:30

ten hours long. And

6:32

figure out how to make the dark

6:34

setting and put that down Vander

6:37

then just be really sweet with myself, make

6:39

myself as comfortable as I can and

6:41

invite the the music to

6:44

to take me away. And

6:46

it's worked quite nicely.

6:48

But it did take a little

6:50

bit of time for me to go there. I

6:53

wanted to do the other do other things first.

6:56

With lavender or magnesium or

6:59

the CBD Sivyer that we had --

7:01

Mhmm. -- depending on what what

7:03

you're dealing with, waking up in the middle of the night for

7:05

me isn't as much about pain as

7:07

it is about hormones and

7:09

other things without getting

7:12

into that anymore. There are so

7:14

many choices that you can make, and

7:16

some feel so challenging.

7:18

And in this case, I was like, oh, my

7:21

headsets are like everything is fairly

7:24

close for me to make this happen

7:26

because I also worry that if I get up and do

7:28

too much, then I absolutely won't go

7:30

back. Yeah. Like, this won't happen.

7:32

Yeah. So I have found that music is

7:35

helpful. I have found that

7:38

the combination of

7:40

almond milk with some nutmeg

7:42

is helpful. And I

7:45

had some of that last night. I'll have that

7:47

again tonight, and I feel

7:49

like I'm getting back into my regular routine

7:53

again? Mhmm. Hopefully, because I had

7:55

a pretty good night last night. I I woke up,

7:57

but I was able to fall right back asleep.

8:00

Yeah. It really is something we have to navigate.

8:03

And what we tend to do is we go to the objection

8:05

because it's just not what we want to

8:07

experience, and it's a really difficult

8:10

thing to experience, and it affects our

8:12

anxiety in our next day so quickly.

8:15

But yeah, we need to be proactive.

8:18

And we experience some pain and

8:20

then I didn't get up and wake myself up,

8:23

but I had to get up and deal with it. So

8:26

I could get back to sleep. Mhmm. And

8:28

the CBD Selfhelp me has been

8:30

a real help with that. Initially, I was

8:33

just applying it to my wrist. And

8:35

then I decided to massage my whole

8:37

arm from the shoulder down with it, and I've started

8:39

doing that for the last few nights, and they've been the

8:41

best nights. So far, so I'm hoping

8:44

that's addressing the the pain and the

8:46

inflammation. We have to just keep

8:48

thinking, sometimes the mind will

8:50

say tried everything. It's not possible

8:52

to try everything. Right?

8:54

That's our mind feeling tired and defeated,

8:57

which is understandable on

8:59

the one Shann, but not helpful.

9:01

So we have to keep trying. Just keep trying.

9:04

Vander we also talk about acceptance.

9:08

And inviting rest

9:10

Vander realizing that when

9:12

we worry about not being able to sleep,

9:15

or the dread of the coming night or start

9:17

thinking about what might happen. We're we're suffering

9:19

twice. We're suffering before. And

9:22

during what may or may not be

9:24

unrestful sleep. And

9:27

it's our default setting to do

9:29

that. We we resist what we don't

9:31

want to experience Vander that it's us

9:33

into that loop of pain.

9:36

We need to sleep. We don't like

9:38

feeling anxious Vander it's always

9:41

worse at night so we start anticipating

9:44

the anxiety and being stuck awake. And

9:46

with that, more anxiety. And then our mind

9:48

becomes preoccupied with what we

9:50

don't want. It's understandable, but

9:53

it doesn't help. What does help

9:55

is what we just shared Vander that's

9:58

getting set up to be as relaxed home

10:00

and comfortable as you possibly can.

10:02

And we've had a couple of other episodes

10:05

where it will drop a link in

10:07

where we invite you to

10:10

have a bedtime routine, a bedtime practice

10:13

that can make you as comfortable as

10:15

possible. And preparing

10:17

for good rest. We'll share a little bit more about preparing

10:19

for good rest as well right now. Yeah,

10:22

really important to try and antidote

10:24

the mind from the dread of

10:26

anticipating, oh god, why if

10:28

I have another rough night? To

10:32

start preparing for better rest,

10:34

and we might need to do that earlier in the evening.

10:36

It can feel a bit high maintenance. I've certainly

10:38

been my maintenance program

10:40

in the evenings for the last

10:43

few weeks, but I can feel the benefit

10:45

of it. Mhmm. It's helping, so I'm

10:47

I'm sticking with it. But we might need

10:49

to start getting ready to settle down

10:51

a bit earlier. We need to

10:53

be careful that we're not putting drama in

10:55

our minds dramatic viewing, the

10:57

news, scrolling, caffeine, things

10:59

that are gonna Vander sleep,

11:02

the basics. Vander stay

11:04

out of your email as well if you

11:06

mhmm, work from home or if you

11:08

have a work email. Please don't

11:10

look at those at night. Speaking

11:13

from experience. Yeah. It

11:15

clicks our mind into a different state.

11:17

Doesn't it? It defers. Wait for state.

11:20

Stay away from Google, Googling insomnia.

11:23

The anxious mind's gonna start looking for

11:25

what might be wrong with us Vander all the

11:27

potential problems Vander that

11:29

are around insomnia. Keep

11:32

the mind away from that keep the

11:34

mind focused on the good things,

11:36

the positive things, what we can do to help,

11:39

and the fact that this is most likely a

11:41

very temporary situation. And there

11:43

will be lessons in her. There are

11:45

always lessons in these things about care,

11:48

tolerance, all kinds of lessons

11:50

come from these challenging situations, whether

11:53

it's physical pain, emotional pain,

11:55

there are always good teachings to

11:57

be found. And

12:00

to remember that our sleep patterns can

12:02

change throughout our lives for a number

12:04

of different reasons, and Most of them

12:06

are nonconcerning. They're just a part

12:08

of our human experience. Our

12:11

sleep could be affected by hormones, by

12:13

our age. And of course, by

12:15

anxiety itself. As

12:18

we mentioned, we have several podcasts on

12:20

sleep, so we won't be going into

12:23

sleep tips too deeply here, but

12:25

we will continue to focus on

12:28

calming the fear of nighttime sleeplessness.

12:30

Vander wanted to also share

12:32

the CBD website

12:35

at pure spectrum cbd dot com.

12:37

If it sounds like The

12:40

CBD Savv might be something you want to

12:42

try. You can get fifteen percent

12:44

off with a coupon code Sivyer.

12:46

At pure spectrum cbd dot com.

12:49

We don't share anything with you unless we've

12:51

tried it ourselves, and we've both had

12:53

a good experience with this product.

12:56

So if you're in pain, that might be something

12:58

you Ananga try. You have a really

13:00

nice muscle pain and

13:02

relaxing in the evenings. Which

13:06

leads us to our focus on relaxation.

13:08

Shann, just quickly

13:10

a few things to try before we get into

13:13

what really helps tackle the fear of

13:15

not sleeping, which is tapping.

13:17

You can try massaging your body with a relaxing

13:20

oil. And take a

13:22

warm bath with magnesium salts earlier

13:24

in the evening just unwind as much as you

13:26

Shann. Use essential oils like

13:28

lavender for calm, Follow

13:31

a gentle stretching or restorative

13:34

yoga practice again really

13:36

gentle. Slow, downtime

13:40

movements, and

13:42

after the brave will guide you through. A

13:44

tapping session for stopping the anxiety

13:47

about sleep. This

13:50

episode of anxiety slayer is sponsored

13:52

by Cozy Earth, the world's

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cozy earth dot com. That's

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cozy earth dot com. In

15:01

the second half of the episode today,

15:03

Ananga is gonna be walking you through

15:05

a guided tapping session. Tapping

15:07

for anxiety about not sleeping.

15:10

And for our patrons, you will have a full

15:12

tapping session available to you soon.

15:15

On the very same topic. I

15:20

do typing is good way to help you get

15:22

familiar with typing. But

15:24

it's important to remember that your

15:27

words are always the best words. So as

15:29

you gain your experience with tapping or you

15:31

tapping along with me. We

15:33

recommend you add some extra sessions using

15:35

your own words to describe your feelings.

15:38

I'm gonna use some General words

15:40

that I hope will be helpful, but

15:43

you might have some thoughts come up about. This is

15:45

what I say to myself when I'm worried about

15:47

not sleeping. So jot

15:49

them down and add them in

15:51

to do your own personal tapping. To

15:54

get the best results from this session, you can repeat

15:56

my words along with me out loud,

15:58

if you Shann, that will get the best results.

16:01

But you can also repeat in your mind

16:03

if you're tapping privately. Using headphones.

16:06

I'll keep the statement short I'll leave

16:09

a gap between my words for you to

16:11

repeat after me easily. Shann

16:14

will be repeating along your

16:16

side of the tapping as well. If

16:19

you're new to tapping and you need to know where the points

16:21

are, you can get them on our web site at

16:23

anxietyslare dot com forward

16:25

slash eFT. There's a diagram

16:27

there for tapping points. So

16:33

to begin, I recommend

16:36

doing this tapping early in the evening

16:38

you can repeat again at bedtime.

16:41

But if you're having an evening where you're starting

16:43

to anticipate and

16:45

feel some anxiety about possibly

16:47

not being able to sleep, then

16:50

the earlier you tap, the better. So

16:52

we start by tapping on the side of the hand

16:55

on the point that's nicknamed the Karate

16:57

chop point. Either side,

16:59

either hand doesn't matter, and

17:02

then just repeating after me, even

17:04

though I'm worried about not getting a

17:06

good night's sleep. Even though

17:08

I'm worried about not getting a good night's sleep.

17:11

I've had some bad nights, and I'm

17:13

anxious tonight will be the same. I've

17:16

had some bad nights I'm anxious

17:18

tonight will be the same. I accept

17:20

myself. I accept

17:22

myself. Even though I'm dreading the

17:24

night ahead, even

17:27

though I'm dreading the night ahead dreading

17:30

being stuck awake with anxiety, Vander

17:33

dreading being stuck awake with anxiety,

17:36

and my mind going over and over

17:38

things, and my mind

17:40

going over and over things I accept

17:42

myself. I accept

17:44

myself. Even though feel

17:46

frustrated by not being able to sleep,

17:50

Even though I feel frustrated by not

17:52

being able to sleep, and I'm worried

17:54

about feeling tired tomorrow, I'm

17:57

worried about feeling tired tomorrow. And

17:59

I'm worried about my anxiety being worse

18:01

tomorrow. And I'm worried

18:03

about my anxiety being worse tomorrow.

18:06

Accept myself. I

18:08

accept myself. I

18:10

know just wherever you are,

18:14

Set all your body down, take a deep breath,

18:16

just let your shoulders drop, let

18:18

your jaw relax, and we'll start

18:20

tapping through the points in the sequence. Tapping

18:23

on the top of your head, worried about

18:26

not sleeping, worried

18:28

about not sleeping, and the beginning

18:30

of the eyebrow, scared of a

18:32

night with anxiety, scared

18:35

of a night with anxiety, and

18:37

they're outside of the eye. Frustrated

18:40

that I can't sleep. Frustrated

18:43

that I can't sleep under the eye.

18:46

Worried about being awake with my mind

18:48

going over things. Worried

18:51

about being awake with my mind going over

18:53

things. Under the nose, worried

18:55

I can't sleep. Worried

18:57

I can't sleep, center of the chin.

18:59

Worried it's always going to be this way.

19:03

Worried it's always going to be this way.

19:06

Apollo Bone, all this anxiety about

19:08

not sleeping, all

19:10

this anxiety about not sleeping.

19:13

onto the arm, I'm treading another sleepless

19:16

night. I'm treading

19:18

another sleepless night Vander

19:20

take a deep breath in, and

19:23

release it in a long, slow, exhalation. So

19:25

you stretch out your arms, open your chest.

19:29

And we'll repeat tapping through the points again.

19:32

Top of the head. So worried

19:34

about not sleeping. So

19:37

worried about not sleeping, beginning of

19:39

the eyebrow, scared of a night with anxiety.

19:43

Scared of a night with anxiety. Outside

19:46

corners of the eye, I'm frustrated that

19:48

I can't sleep. I'm

19:50

frustrated that I can't sleep onto

19:52

the eye. I'm worried about being awake

19:54

with my mind going over things. I'm

19:58

worried about being awake with my mind

20:00

going over things the nose.

20:03

I'm worried about another night of watching

20:05

the clock. I'm

20:07

worried about another night of watching

20:09

the clock, center the Shann. I've

20:12

tried everything Vander I feel so frustrated.

20:16

I've tried everything Vander I feel so

20:18

frustrated. I'm so

20:20

anxious is going to be like this every

20:22

night. I'm

20:24

so anxious it's going to be like this

20:26

every night. And under the arm, my

20:28

mind is going over and over everything

20:31

I have to do tomorrow. My

20:33

mind is going over and over everything

20:36

I have to do tomorrow. Enough

20:39

the next follow the tapping Shann. We'll

20:42

start using new words to invite change

20:44

Vander affirm respect Vander

20:47

invite a different experience. So

20:50

tapping on the top of the head, it's

20:52

hard to quiet my mind. It's

20:55

hard to quiet my mind. Beginning of the

20:57

eyebrow, it's hard to relax my body.

21:00

It's hard to relax my body, side

21:02

of the eye. But I know

21:04

focusing on lack of sleep is just

21:06

making it worse. But

21:08

I know focusing on lack of sleep

21:10

is just making it worse. Under

21:12

the eye, I'm open to trying to relax.

21:16

I'm open to trying to relax Vander

21:19

the nose. I release this frustration. I

21:22

release this frustration, center of

21:24

the chin. I understand. I

21:27

can't control whether I sleep or not.

21:30

I understand. I can't control

21:32

whether I sleep or not. Colleagues,

21:34

but I can help myself release anxiety.

21:38

But I can help myself release anxiety

21:41

Vander the arm, and I can help myself

21:43

get as comfortable as possible Vander

21:45

relax. And

21:48

I can help myself get as comfortable

21:50

as possible and relax. Back

21:53

up to the top of the head, releasing

21:55

all this frustration. Releasing

21:58

all this frustration. Shann beginning of the eyebrow

22:00

calving my mind, calving

22:03

my mind outside of the eye,

22:05

breathing deeply. Breathing

22:07

deeply under the eye, relaxing

22:10

as much as I Shann. Relaxing

22:13

as much as I can the nose,

22:16

I know feeling frustrated doesn't

22:18

help. I know

22:20

feeling frustrated doesn't help the

22:22

center of the chin. I trust myself to

22:24

do the best I can with this. I

22:27

trust myself to do the best I can

22:29

with this, collarbone releasing whole

22:31

tension from my body. Releasing

22:35

all tension from my body the

22:37

arm, calming my thoughts, calming

22:40

my thoughts. And again,

22:42

nice deep breath in. Release

22:46

your breath. Drop your shoulders. Check

22:49

out your Get

22:51

yourself as relaxed and comfortable as

22:53

you can. Now

22:56

as we close this tapping session, you

22:58

can just tap the points through and let

23:00

your breath do the work for

23:02

you. To help your body relax

23:04

more. Release any anxiety

23:07

and looping thoughts from your mind just

23:09

feel more settled. And

23:11

in a more peaceful state

23:14

to avoid a good night sleep, to

23:16

tapping on the top of the head, take

23:18

a full breath in, and

23:21

release it. I'm

23:24

tapping at the beginning of the eyebrow. Take

23:26

a full breath in. And

23:29

release it. Vander

23:32

on the outside corner of the eye,

23:35

full breath Shann, and

23:39

release onto

23:41

the eye. Core

23:44

breathe in Vander

23:47

release Vander

23:49

the nose, big breath. And

23:53

release it. Vander

23:56

the chin, another big breath in.

24:00

And release. Now tapping

24:02

on the collarbone, this point is so important

24:04

for releasing Fear and

24:06

anxiety. So just spending an

24:08

extra moment there tapping, breathing

24:11

deeply, Filling your lungs

24:13

with air and blowing

24:15

the breath out through your mouth, releasing

24:18

all anxiety and all stress

24:21

from your mind. And

24:23

under the arm, a good

24:26

place to tap for feeling grounded and

24:28

stopping looping thoughts. Patting

24:31

firmly under the arm, big breath in,

24:34

and release.

24:37

you can repeat through that sequence

24:40

in your own time as many times as

24:42

you want to or need to.

24:44

And if you're wakeful in the night, you

24:47

can follow the whole session through or

24:49

just the tap and brief. Sit

24:52

yourself up for a moment. Get

24:54

as relaxed as you can. Tap

24:56

through the points Vander take deep breaths

24:58

Vander just let your body settle

25:00

down Vander relax without

25:03

anxiety. So

25:07

just to close the session, final

25:09

breath in, stretching and

25:14

releasing Vander just noticing

25:16

How much more relaxed do you feel now?

25:24

Thank you, Ananga, that was beautiful. A

25:27

longer tapping session will be available

25:30

soon at our Patreon at patreon dot

25:32

com slash anxiety slayer.

25:35

You can also try one of pure spectrum

25:37

CBD's products if you need a little extra

25:40

support. At pure spectrum

25:42

cbd dot com, and

25:45

use the coupon code slayer

25:47

for fifteen percent off your purchase.