Maintain balanced sleep

In the same way that your body needs proper nutrients to run well, it also needs enough sleep (Linehan 1993b). Sleep is another source of fuel for your body, and without it your body does not run as well. When you don’t get enough sleep, your physical resources are greatly depleted, diminishing your ability to manage stress. Basically, when you are sleeping, your body restores its resources and builds up the mental and physical energy for the day. So, if you don’t get the full amount of sleep you need each night, your body won’t have time to fully restore your resources, which means that you will have fewer resources available to you to start your day. And that means that you will have fewer resources available for managing stress.

Have you noticed that when you don’t get enough sleep, you are more on edge, and things that normally wouldn’t bother you seem to bother you a lot? That is probably because you don’t have the same level of resources available to you for managing stress as you would normally have after a full night’s sleep and, thus, aren’t able to handle it as well. That is why getting a full night’s sleep every night is so important. And, one way to make sure you get enough sleep is to maintain a regular sleep schedule, going to bed at about the same time each night and waking up at around the same time each morning. Regular sleep means more resources for managing stress.

This, of course, is easier said than done. People with anxiety disorders often have difficulty sleeping, experiencing periodic bouts of insomnia, difficulties falling asleep, or early awakenings fraught with worry. One way to deal with these problems is to use what’s called sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene involves a set of strategies you can use to improve your sleep (Pallesen et al. 2001). Usually, the first step is to improve your sleep area by getting rid of clutter in your bedroom and making sure it’s an optimal environment for sleeping. Next, see if you can identify and change some of the factors that might make it hard for you to get a good night’s sleep. Some of these factors might include taking long afternoon naps (short naps are okay), using caffeine, watching stimulating television shows, exercising, using alcohol or drugs too close to bedtime, and eating a large dinner. Do your best to change your behavior to optimize your sleep. Third, maximize your sleep efficiency. Sleep efficiency is the proportion of sleep to the amount of time spent in bed. So, if you spend eight hours in bed but sleep only six of those hours, your sleep efficiency is 75 percent. Basically, the idea is to get that number as close to 100 percent as possible by avoiding activities other than sleep (sexual activity is okay) in your bed. Don’t work, check your e-­mail, watch television, or have important discussions in bed. You want your brain to make a connection between bed and sleep, not between bed and being awake.