What To Do When Worry Keeps You Awake

1. Daily meditation: Having a daily meditation practice, be it mindfulness, a mental body scan or even chanting is crucial.
2. Away from the bed: If you are unable to sleep, try to change your place, as the bed has to be associated with sleep.
3. Sleep apps don’t work: Sleep apps are not to be relied on for sleeping, and one should cultivate our own body to be able to sleep without any aid like sleep apps or even sleeping pills.
4. Don’t try too hard: Sleeping is an effortless effort, and your mind and body has to be conducive for it to happen. Forced sleep is the primary mistake many insomniacs make. Sleep happens on it’s own if you allow it.

1. Eliminate distractions, like your smartphones or tablets, that hinder sleep by their radiation, constant notifications and the blue light they emit.
2. Don’t pressure yourself to sleep and instead focus on calming your mind and practicing mindfulness and relaxed breathing.
3. Mental body scan is an effective mindfulness meditation that promotes sleep, where one notices one’s breathing and various bodily sensations, while mentally scanning one’s body parts.

Stress is a biological response(or a reaction) to external changes and forces beyond one's resources. Signs of stress include a rapid heart rate, shallow breath, and an adrenaline rush.

Acute stress or temporary stress is normal and even beneficial. Chronic stress is linked to health concerns like heart disease and a weakened immune system.

Ways to Handle Stress:

• Exercise daily.
• Focus your energy on what you can control.
• Know that your stress response is unique to you.

Anxiety is the culmination of worry and stress. It is a state of body and mind which is stressed and worried for no apparent reason, like a response to a false alarm.

An anxiety disorder is an acute form of anxiety and a serious medical condition.

How to Handle Anxiety:

• Curb your sugar, alcohol and caffeine consumption.
• Calm yourself by deep breathing and refocusing on your body parts.
• Distract yourself by listening to music or a little exercise.

• Get up at the same time every morning.
• Write affirmations to tell yourself that your body knows how to sleep.
• Don't involve your over-thinking mind too much.
• Use your bed is for sleep and sex only.
• Don't lie awake for more than 20 minutes on the bed, and if you can't sleep, get up and try to do some calming activity like folding laundry.

Our body will take care of itself if left on its own. It is our mind which is the culprit, running like a motor, inducing low-grade anxiety inside us.

Sleep is not something you have to do, but something which happens naturally to you. If an insomniac forgets that he is an insomniac, he will have a good night's sleep.