How to Calm Your Mental Health Symptoms Before Bedtime

Many people struggle to get enough quality sleep each night. You might feel anxious, experience nightmares, or have other mental health symptoms that disturb your sleep. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “A third of US adults report that they usually get less than the recommended amount of sleep.” Professional mental health treatment can help you manage your symptoms using healthy coping techniques. Alter Wellness Care uses evidence-based and alternative holistic therapies to ensure clients create healthy routines before bedtime. 

The Importance of Quality Sleep

Quality of sleep directly affects your mental and physical health. If you have a diagnosed mental health disorder or untreated symptoms, sleep can impact the severity of symptoms. Partial hospitalization programs (PHP) provide a more structured treatment environment where you can learn healthy relaxation techniques and other ways to reduce disruptive symptoms before bedtime. 

According to the previously mentioned article by the CDC, “Not getting enough sleep is linked with many chronic diseases and conditions—such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and depression.” Lack of proper sleep also increases your risk of experiencing the following: 

• Car accidents 
• Work accidents or injuries
• Weakened immune system 
• Decreased ability to focus during high-stress activities

Moreover, your sleep quality significantly impacts the effectiveness of treatment when you enter a care program. Often, treatment programs encourage clients to establish healthy nighttime routines. Setting a bedtime routine reduces distractions and ensures you feel relaxed before falling asleep. Furthermore, lowering physical or emotional stress before bedtime decreases the risk of nightmares, night terrors, insomnia, and other sleep disturbances. 

How Do Mental Health Symptoms Interfere With Quality Sleep?

Some people have a tough time falling and staying asleep. You may lie in bed for hours trying to fall asleep or repeatedly wake up throughout the night. Professional mental health treatment can help you get better sleep no matter what sleep disturbance you experience.

Before you can move forward, you need to be able to identify the underlying issues interfering with your sleep. Mental health symptoms that impact sleep can include the following: 

• Anxiety 
• Depression 
• Paranoia 
• Panic 
• Manic episodes 
• Psychosis 

You might focus on future concerns or obsess over past regrets late at night. According to the CDC, “Studies have demonstrated an association between inadequate sleep and frequent mental distress, and sleep deprivation causes substantial negative health outcomes.” Ruminating on worries, fears, embarrassments, or other feelings may keep your body from getting the rest it needs to heal and thrive during recovery.      

The Benefits of Becoming Calm Before Bedtime

Mindfulness, meditation, and relaxation techniques like deep breathing before bed can significantly improve sleep quality. You can use phone apps, meditation recordings, or other tools to guide you through calming exercises. 

Calming your mind and relaxing your body before bedtime ensures better rest and does the following: 

• Decreases stress, making it easier to fall asleep more quickly 
• Reduces the risk of nightmares, night terrors, insomnia, or other sleep disturbances
• Makes it easier to fall back asleep if you wake up during the night 

Your emotional and physical health depends on you getting enough sleep to feel rested the next day. An average adult needs seven or more hours of uninterrupted sleep each night to maintain high sleep quality. The effects of poor sleep habits are cumulative and impact your mental health over time. You can reduce the risk of experiencing side effects of unhealthy sleep patterns by getting treatment for your mental health disorders and other underlying issues. 

What Can Help You Achieve Calm Before Bedtime?

Everyone has different things they find soothing. Some people may listen to music or meditate before bed. You can work with your therapist or another care team member to discover what activities or thoughts help you feel most calm before bed. Sometimes it takes trial and error to find the right routine to ensure you feel relaxed enough to sleep at bedtime. 

A few other activities people do before bed to clear their minds and achieve a sense of peace include:

• Journaling about the positive aspects of their day
• Removing all distractions by turning off the phone, television, or computer 
• Spending a few minutes connecting with loved ones
• Practicing various forms of self-care 

Only you know how your mental health symptoms impact your sleep. You can monitor symptoms and note anything that lessens them or makes you fall asleep more easily. Establishing a routine before bedtime is often the most essential part of changing sleep habits. Moreover, following a set routine can reduce stressors and ensure you have time to use all your coping techniques before going to bed. Alter Wellness Care will help you establish a healthy sleep routine during treatment that you can use to maintain your quality rest after you transition out of the program.

People often have difficulty shutting off their minds before bedtime. In addition, individuals with mental health disorders may struggle with symptoms before bedtime, making it harder to fall asleep. Creating a reliable and sustainable nighttime routine can help you reduce stress and increase your quality of sleep. Professional mental health treatment can help you establish healthy bedtime routines and learn practical coping skills for reducing or eliminating specific symptoms. Alter Wellness Care offers intensive outpatient and partial hospitalization programs for people struggling with substance use or mental health disorders. The care team can help you manage your condition and regain a healthy sleep pattern. To learn more, call our office today at (866) 311-3510.