Episode description
Anxiety makes it difficult to sleep, and lack of sleep makes you more anxious. This episode will show you how it affects your nervous system, and 3 simple tips to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.
Here's what you'll learn:
-My own journey with interrupted sleep (I and my wife have been experiencing difficulty sleeping)
-The two types of interrupted sleep that i see at my clinic
-Why anxiety is a "doubly whammy" in terms of hurting your sleep
-The questions that the National Institute of Health created to analyze sleep anxiety
-The science behind why anxiety interferes with sleep
-The first set of questions that I ask patients who come in with difficulty sleeping:
- - “when your head hits the pillow, do you have trouble shutting your brain off?
- - "Does your brain start spinning with worry thoughts about the future?"
- - "When you can’t sleep, does looking at the clock make you more anxious because you start to worry that you won’t get enough sleep?”
-The medical definition of anxiety
-How anxiety creates nervous feelings and how that impacts your ability to get to sleep
-How to practice good sleep hygiene
-Why it's important to not check the news before you go to bed
- I walk you through a body scan, step by step, which you can perform while you are lying in bed. This will help you fall asleep quickly and enjoy more peaceful sleep, even if you are anxious.
-Why a body scan works so well
-What happened when I taught the body scan to a women's golf team at Yale
Links from video:
1. Research paper on anxiety, worry and autonomic system function: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...
2. Downloadable Sleep hygiene tips from the CDC: https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/about_sleep...
3. Guided body scan from Dr. Jud: https://youtu.be/ANZfVnjCmXk
To ask questions or suggest future topics, please comment below or connect with me on Twitter @judbrewer
Click here to subscribe to my Youtube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCi6b...
By subscribing, you’ll be notified of future daily updates and of my free weekly "office hours" anxiety Q&A session on Mondays at noon eastern US (12:00 EST)
Build your body awareness using mindfulness practices, like those in the free "Breathe by Dr. Jud" app, available on both Apple and Android devices.
Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/breathe...
Android: