What to Do When You Have an Anxiety Attack at Night

Having an anxiety attack, especially at night when you’re trying to sleep, can be frustrating, scary, and hard to manage. But there’s always hope, ways to work through it, and get the help you need. Keep reading below to learn a few.

The Paradox of Acceptance

This might sound strange, but the first step when having an anxiety attack is to accept that you’re having an anxiety attack. I know it’s easy and tempting to want to resist the experience or try to convince yourself you’re feeling “fine” when you’re not. Doing so can lead to prolonging the experience and/or even making it worse.

Many try to force themselves to go back to sleep, which usually leads to tossing and turning and even more frustration. This can prolong the negative experience by spending so much time and energy trying not to feel what we’re already feeling, forcing our eyes to stay shut while the minutes and hours pass by, feeling the same or even worse.

Also, many who are suffering from anxiety will use external sources such as media, food, or even addictive and destructive processes, attempting to numb or get rid of the feelings. It might initially feel like it’s working, yet sooner or later, those feelings will return with greater force. Also, it can produce guilt or even shame over how we responded to those uncomfortable emotions.

This is why when you accept how you feel, you’ll be more able to take action, making things better as opposed to worse.

Writing It out As a Way of Working It Out

Anxiety can feel overwhelming with increased heart rate, shortness of breath, tension in the body, and a mind racing so fast we can’t even keep up. When we can give all that excitement a task, it can help us to feel more relaxed. One task that has proven to be helpful is journaling.

Ideally, write using pen and paper, as opposed to your phone or a computer, which will shine more light into your eyes and will likely keep you more awake, possibly increasing your anxiety.

Without worrying specifically what you need to say or think, just begin to write. You can start with something as simple as “I have anxiety, and I don’t know why.” Then begin to list out any things that might be concerning you.

Some of those things might be an uncompleted task, conversations you’ve had or need to have, or even a thought that keeps repeating in your mind during the day. You might not normally pay attention to those things. But they can cause havoc in your body and mind. That’s why it’s helpful to get all of that out of the mind and on paper. It’s been reported that tension starts to fade and calm will start to take over, even after 5-10 minutes of writing.

Pick up a book to bring down the anxiety and stress.

Sometimes reading can help. Reviewing a chapter in the Bible, a positive or uplifting story, or even a self-help book (as long as the content isn’t creating more angst) can all help create a greater feeling of calm and help anxiety to dissipate. Some have reported that after reading a few lines or chapters, they’re already beginning to feel a sense of calm and centeredness, thus becoming more able to rest and relax.

Pray

When it comes to reducing anxiety and stress at night, prayer is a powerful option. It can be effective to ask God to remove or lift the anxiety. Many report that it will help bring them more peace. Yet there is one important caveat that I’ve found helpful. When you pray and ask God to help you find peace and rest, add “If it be your will” to the request.

The reason is that if we are connected to our faith and believe that God knows more than we do about what we need or should do with our lives, there might be a greater reason why we’re having anxiety and are not able to sleep. Yet, it can be frustrating if there is a greater purpose to our anxiety, but we continually ask for alleviation from it, and there seems to be no response to our prayer.

However, I’ve seen many cases where seeking God’s guidance has been a consistent source of alleviation from anxiety and connection to the original purpose of that discomfort.

With that in mind, one might even ask, “God, please reveal to me what is creating this anxiety and stress,” and “Grant me the wisdom and strength to take action and make change.” Then afterwards we listen. Listening might be in the form of journaling, taking a walk, practicing deep breathing, or doing simple tasks around the home while paying attention to any guidance that might arrive.

Find the cause of anxiety to reduce the emotional effect.

Before looking at the final recommendation, it’s important to pay attention to some of the simple factors in front of us that we tend not to notice. Here’s a short list of things to address that might also help you reduce anxiety at night and improve your sleep.

• Paying attention to your diet during the day and especially the evenings.
• Look at any changes in medications that might be affecting your mood or sleep.
• Look at what you’re allowing into your mind around or close to the evening from social media, movies, or conversations.
• Examine how well you’ve been taking care of your health in general.
• Regular exercise, healthy nutrition, and spending time outside the home can all be simple solutions that reduce anxiety and improve rest.

Meditate on the Word

Finally, one of the most productive practices that I’ve seen for reducing anxiety and stress is meditating on the Word. We could write a whole book on this topic. But for now, we’ll just cover the basics.

There are many ways to do meditation or have contemplative practice. One way is to find a specific verse or prayer that has meaning for you. Then choose a phrase from that verse or prayer to repeat slowly with a steady pace. You might even continue to recite that verse while practicing slow breathing.

This can be a winning combination because when we practice slowing down our breathing, ideally 4-5 seconds on the inhale and 4-5 seconds on the exhale, we’ll begin to regulate our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. This will result in the body becoming calmer. This gives your mind something to focus on as opposed to trying not to be anxious.

You can replace “trying to calm down” with focusing on something that will eventually give you peace. In later articles, we’ll also talk about the idea of dual consciousness, which is a more advanced way to work with negative cognition and stress. But for now, if you’re able to notice the anxiety while also focusing on prayer and deep breathing, you’re likely to see a stress reduction.

But keep in mind it takes time to become calm and heal. This is why saying a prayer once and taking only a breath will not likely make the change you’re looking for. Rather, you might set a timer for 3-5 minutes and then check in after that. If you notice any improvement, this may be the right option for you.

If you need more help, find it

If you’re noticing that you’ve tried all the above options and not getting the relief you were looking for, then it might be time to seek professional help. After years of working with individual clients, families, business professionals, and First Responders I’ve seen how unprocessed trauma, accumulative stress, or unresolved challenges and issues can lead to anxiety, lack of sleep, and eventually cause mild to severe health issues.