Writing In A Worry Journal Made My Sleep Better

5 Ways to Use Journals to Help Soothe Your Worries and Sleep Better

It’s so frustrating: When it’s time to go to bed your mind starts racing.

You’re thinking about your to-do list, that thing you should (or shouldn’t) have said to your boss.

Or, how much you spent on that last shopping trip.  It seems to intensify at night, those voices in your head mulling over and over the same events.

Then you glaze at the clock and realize how late it is.

I can not begin to count the number of nights this has happened to me.  Does anxiety keep you from relaxing? Does your mind not want to stop and you can get the sleep that you need to be ready for the next day’s tasks?

There are a lot of different ways you can use a journal to help soothe your worries and get a better night’s sleep. Here, are 5 ways writing in a worry journal made my sleep better.

1. Write down your worries a few hours before bed

Whether you write in a worry journal in the morning or at night, you’re still going to experience some benefits. But, if you’re looking to sleep better, experts do suggest using your journal around three hours before you get into bed.

This enables you plenty of time to not only list your worries, but to analyze them. This is a crucial step in eliminating the worry in order to get to sleep.

The trouble with writing down your worries as you get into bed is it can take a while to process them. Instead, you’ll need to delve into the worry and figure out ways to tackle them head-on. writing in your worry journal makes you sleep better.  Writing at least three hours before bed, the brain will be much more relaxed.

2. Don’t go too in-depth

While it is important to analyze your worries, it’s also important to ensure you don’t go too in-depth with them.

Spend just a few minutes writing about each worry you have. If you go too in-depth, you risk becoming overwhelmed with it all. Stick to the main points, why you have the worry, how it makes you feel and what it is that you’re actually worried about.

Once you have these basics written down, it’s easier to start challenging and reducing them.

3. List your fears and concerns

List your fears and concerns then try to organize them into chronological order. Focus on the worries that are affecting you right now in the present. A lot of the fears and concerns we have are about the future. So, what concerns do you have right now that need to be addressed?

Once you have a list, go over each fear and concern and explore what you think is going to occur next. Then, write down what you fear is going to happen after that.

This gives you an idea of where your fear stems from and whether your fear over what’s coming next is justifiable.

4. Avoid judgments

One thing you may struggle with when you’re writing about your fears is judging yourself for them. Once you’ve identified them, they may not be as pressing as you thought, it’s easy to feel weak for allowing yourself to become stressed out over them.

Look at your worry journal as a safe place to vent your worries and concerns. You may want to try to avoid writing down your full emotions and fears. This causes you to censor yourself, and you won’t get the full benefits out of the journal.

5. Identify ways to view your worries differently

Finally, one of the main things that are going to help you reduce the worry and get a better night’s sleep, is identifying different ways to view them.

For each fear or worry you’ve written down, try and identify at least one other way you could view the situation.

So, if you’re worried about failing an exam, for example, try and switch your thinking to what if you pass. Think about the positive things that will happen. It’s so easy for us to focus on the worst-case scenario, but what about focusing on the best scenario which could happen?

The above are just 5 ways I have used a worry journal to reduce my worry and get a better night’s sleep. By making the most efficient use of a journal, it will decrease many of the fears you have.

Shirley Noah writes about stress relief, habits, and health solutions.

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