Anxiety often goes hand and hand with poor sleep.
The worse your anxiety, the worse your sleep, and the worse your sleep the worse your anxiety becomes the next day. Itās a brutal toxic cycle.
I know the breaking point of a human is not being able to sleep.
As a result, many of us have picked up bad sleeping habits or drug ourselves into an unconscious state to just wake up the next day not feeling rested.
If youāre anything like me, and most people in America Iāve suffered from sleeping issues my entire life. As a kid, I hardly experienced a good nightās rest and often didnāt sleep more than an hour or two, if at all.
Weāve covered before in-depth how Deep Sleep is the Antidote to Anxiety.
In todayās case, I wanted to show you 3 very simple things you can do to easily fall asleep as fast as possibleā¦
PS. Before we get started Iām running a group cohort for anxiety coaching group over the course of 9 weeks. Spots are limited: learn more.
1. Sleep Tranquilizer Breathing Technique
An exercise said to be the ānatural tranquilizer for the nervous systemā developed by Dr. Andrew Weil to help his patients rest their body and mind.
Slow, rhythmic, diaphragmatic breathing helps the body release muscle tension, lower heart rate, and rest the mind by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
By far the easiest way to practice this technique is to download an app called Breathwrk, available on both iPhone and Android.
I personally use this app almost every day and if you go to the blue sleep category and do the Sleep exercise for at least 5 minutes you will experience an immediate different state of mind to lull you to sleep!
2. Sleep Anchoring Exercise
I have yet to do this exercise properly and NOT knock it out in 5 minutes or less.
However, it requires a bit of training to do properly, as it uses your mind. If youāre a meditator and have been training your mind you might find this easier. Nonetheless, this is a powerful technique that can change your sleeping life.
How to Sleep Anchor:
- Pick 2 vowel sounds. Iāll choose EEEEEEE and AAAAAAA.
- Each time you inhale, play the EEEEE sound in your head.
- Each time you exhale, play the AAAAA sound in your head.
- You are NOT saying these out loud, you are simply playing this sound in your mind inaudibly.
- Repeat. You will notice within 1-2 minutes a sense of drowsiness almost like a hypnotic state. Donāt resist it and keep playing the sounds until you are unconscious.
- Trick here is to not stop doing the exercise at all. Many people who never trained the mind before, can often do this for a couple of minutes but then get distracted and forget to do the technique. If you can keep doing it, I promise youāll go to sleep.
3. Supplement GABA + Magnesium L-Threonate, or Tea
Chamomile tea, as well Yogi Soothing Caramel Bedtime tea is an effective drink to help coax your nervous system to slow down and shut down.
Additionally, you can supplement with the active form of Chamomile, Chamomilla instead if you donāt want to drink anything at bedtime.
Taking GABA and/or Magnesium L-Threonate has been shown to be effective for your brain overall as well as sleep. GABA is to calm any stress and slow your thoughts, while Magnesium ensures your nervous system works properly.
Magnesium helps to sensitize cells to the effect of insulin, from sugar in the blood and reduce inflammation. Magnesium helps us relax, supporting healthy sleep and reducing stress. All of these effects help keep our brain healthy.
The overwhelming majority of us are deficient in magnesium as most magnesium-rich foods are wildly under-consumed in most areas around the world.
Conclusion
š¬ I am opening my calendar right now to work with 1 more person 1-on-1 on an ongoing basis to manage anxiety and heal your mind more effectively.
Interested? Schedule a free call with me to see if itās right for you or not :)
PS. If you want to take the self-paced individual program, check out the details here: www.markmetry.com/program