Racing thoughts keeping you up at night? Heart pounding when you should be drifting off to sleep? You’re not alone. Nighttime anxiety affects millions of people, turning what should be peaceful evenings into frustrating hours of worry and restlessness. But there’s good news: you can learn how to calm anxiety at night and finally get the restful sleep you deserve.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore effective techniques to help you reduce anxiety before bed and create a calming nighttime routine that actually works.
Why does anxiety get worse at night?
Before diving into solutions for how to calm down anxiety at night, it’s helpful to understand why anxiety often intensifies after dark:
- Daytime stress accumulation: All the stress from your day can catch up with you as the day wraps up and you finally slow down enough to feel what’s been going on.
- Fewer distractions: Without the day’s activities to occupy your mind, anxious thoughts have more space to surface.
- Fatigue: Being tired can make you more vulnerable to anxiety and negative thought cycles.
- Darkness and quiet: The stillness of night can amplify worried thoughts.
- Sleep pressure: Worries about falling asleep can create a vicious cycle of anxiety-fueled insomnia.
7 effective ways to calm anxiety at night
Here’s how to calm anxiety at night:
1. Create a relaxing bedtime routine
One of the most powerful ways to calm anxiety before bed is to establish a consistent pre-sleep ritual. A calming bedtime routine signals to your body and mind that it’s time to wind down, relax, and settle into a state of peace and ease.
Your routine might include:
- Taking a bath or shower
- Reading a light book
- Gentle stretching
- Writing in a journal
- Listening to calming music
- Meditating
- Turning down the lights
Start your routine 30-60 minutes before bedtime and stick to it consistently. The key is finding activities that help you unwind and doing them consistently each night to train your brain for sleep.
Try listening to our Wind Down Active Transformational Meditation as you go through your bedtime routine to add an extra soothing touch to the process.
2. Practice EFT Tapping
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Tapping is a powerful mind-body approach that combines gentle tapping on specific acupressure points. The process is designed to send calming signals to your brain and nervous system.
Research shows that Tapping can significantly reduce anxiety levels and bring your body and brain into a state of deep calm. This can help break the cycle between anxiety and sleep issues.
It’s a powerful anxiety relief method that’s also been shown to help with insomnia and sleep issues.
Learn the basics of Tapping here or try our guided “Quiet My Racing Mind” meditation in The Tapping Solution App – it’s designed to help you turn off those racing thoughts that keep you awake at night.
And be sure to check out our tips and tricks for making the most of our sleep meditations in the app.
3. Write down your worries
Keep a notepad by your bed to write down anxious thoughts.
This practice can help:
- Clear your mind
- Prevent racing thoughts
- Create action plans for tomorrow
- Release anxiety onto paper
This technique works especially well when combined with EFT Tapping. When we give voice to our worries and name what’s making us anxious, we can then use Tapping to honor, acknowledge, and release our anxiety. The process helps us relax our mind and body while addressing our stressors, so we can truly let go and prepare for sleep..
So, try writing down your worries for bed. You can do a little Tapping right then and there, or you can come back to your list tomorrow and tap on whatever came up. When you neutralize your fears, worries, and stressors through Tapping, you prepare yourself for a better night’s sleep – so those worries don’t have to come back to haunt you in the middle of the night.
4. Practice deep breathing
Deep breathing exercises are one of the quickest ways to calm anxiety at night naturally.
Deep belly breathing, also called diaphragmatic breathing, is known to calm the nervous system and take us out of the fight-or-flight state we get stuck in when we are anxious.
Diaphragmatic breathing has been proven to reduce stress, lower heart rate and blood pressure, encourage full oxygen exchange, strengthen the diaphragm, and improve overall well-being.
Try this simple technique:
- Place one hand on your upper chest, and the other on your stomach, right below your ribcage.
- Breathe in slowly through your nose, feeling your belly expand.
- Exhale deeply and slowly through your mouth, feeling your abdomen fall
- Continuing breathing deeply, focusing on keeping your chest as still as possible while your abdomen rises and falls.
- Gradually increase the length of your inhales and exhales without forcing or straining, finding a rhythm that feels natural and soothing for you.
We’ve got an incredibly calming “Tapping + Deep Belly Breathing to Relax and Unwind” meditation in The Tapping Solution App that people swear by to reduce anxiety before bed.
Give it a try by clicking below on your mobile device (or searching for “deep belly breathing” in the app):
5. Use guided imagery and visualization
Visualization and guided imagery can be powerful tools for calming anxiety at night by redirecting your mind from worried thoughts to peaceful scenarios. This technique works because your brain processes imagined experiences similarly to real ones, so visualizing calm situations can actually help trigger your body’s relaxation response.
The goal isn’t to force yourself to relax or to completely clear your mind. Instead, this technique gives your anxious mind a gentle, peaceful alternative to focus on as you drift toward sleep.
For a guided experience, try this “Sleeping Under the Stars” visualization exercise in The Tapping Solution App:
6. Create a Sleep-Friendly Environment
Your bedroom environment can significantly impact how to deal with sleep anxiety. The more relaxed your space is, the more relaxed you will be.
Ensure your sleeping space is:
- Dark (use blackout curtains if needed)
- Cool (65-68°F is ideal)
- Quiet (use white noise if helpful)
- Clean and uncluttered
- Free from work materials
Consider adding calming, anxiety-reducing elements like:
- Soft, comfortable bedding
- Gentle aromatherapy (like lavender)
- Plants or nature elements
- Soothing artwork
7. Limit screen time
The blue light from devices can interfere with your natural sleep cycle and lead to more sleep issues and anxiety at night.
To reduce anxiety before bed and set yourself up for more restful sleep:
- Stop using screens 1-2 hours before bed (that means TV, gaming systems, computers, phones, etc.)
- Use night mode if you must use devices
- Keep phones outside the bedroom (or at least out of reach so you’re not tempted to scroll)
- Replace scrolling with calming activities like reading or gentle stretching
What to do during an anxiety attack at night
If you experience a panic attack at night, try these immediate steps:
- Acknowledge that it’s a panic attack and will pass
- Focus on your breath
- Use EFT Tapping for panic attacks
- Ground yourself by naming things you can see, hear, and touch
- Remind yourself you are safe
- Utilize your favorite of the 7 ticks and tricks from above to calm your mind and body and help avoid anxiety attacks in the future
Conclusion: Top tips for better sleep with anxiety
To maintain good sleep habits and break the cycle between anxiety and poor sleep:
- Establish a peaceful bedtime routine to help your mind and body unwind
- Practice relaxation techniques like Tapping, deep belly breathing, or guided imagery regularly
- Create a comfortable sleep environment
- Limit screen time
- Seek professional help if needed
Remember, learning how to fall asleep when anxious can take time and practice. Be patient with yourself as you develop new habits and find what works best for you.
Want to get started right now? Download The Tapping Solution App and try our “Quiet My Racing Mind” meditation to help calm anxiety at night naturally.
Here’s what people are saying about this session:
“This was the first time I’ve completed a tapping meditation and I loved it! I am truly in awe of how relaxed I became so quickly.” -Kellie
“I love this meditation. It calms me down immediately and I start to yawn while doing it (in a good way). I’m going to do it before bed every night.” -Debbie
“It’s 2.30 in the morning. I’m awake and my mind is jumping from one anxious thought to another. The more I practice this meditation, the easier it gets to introduce a Pause Button. That slows my breathing and relaxes physical tension . That reduces pain. I strongly recommend this one.” -Susan
Give it a try for yourself and let me know what you think in the comments below.
Until next time… Keep Tapping!
Nick Ortner
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