How can you start reducing sleep anxiety caused by performance pressure before an important day?

If you've struggled with long-term insomnia or sleep problems, the pressure to sleep well before an important meeting, presentation or personal event can increase your nervousness and make your existing sleep problems worse.

This is Part 2 of my four-part video series exploring sleep anxiety and the different patterns I regularly see in my sleep coaching practice. In this video, I focus on performance pressure, one of the most common reasons people with long-term sleep problems experience increased nervousness or anxiousness before important days.

Previous experiences of difficult nights, followed by days when you struggled to concentrate, made mistakes or didn't feel at your best, can gradually create worry about whether the same thing will happen again. But these experiences don't mean that every difficult night will lead to the same outcome the following day.

Performance-related sleep anxiety isn't always about work. It can also develop before holidays, travelling, family occasions or other important events. Understanding what creates that pressure for you, and recognising how your previous experiences influence your expectations, are important first steps towards reducing it.

I also explain how to identify when this nervousness begins, whether that's several days before an important event or just hours before bedtime. Rather than waiting until you're lying awake worrying about tomorrow, developing practical Sleep Skills can help you proactively decrease performance pressure, what-if thinking and emotional tension before they become more intense.

If you experience sleep anxiety alongside long-term insomnia, difficulty falling asleep, disturbed sleep or poor sleep quality in your 40s or 50s, this video will help you start understanding and reducing the performance pressure that can contribute to your ongoing sleep problems.

In the next video, I'll explore how sleep tracking, monitoring and overanalysing your sleep can increase sleep-related anxiousness.

If you're looking for personalised sleep coaching or support to fully overcome your long-term insomnia or sleep problems, you can arrange a Sleep Assessment appointment through my website.

Beatrix

Part 1 of this video series: Sleep Anxiety and Long-Term Sleep Problems | Why It Develops and How to Start Overcoming It - Click here to watch

It's always best to watch the entire video, but here are some chapters for you:

00:00 Introduction to why you have sleep anxiety before and important day

02:02 What memories you have of things not working out in the past

05:40 What causes the sleep anxiety or performance pressure to begin with

06:55 When does your sleep anxiety start to become noticeable

11:03 What to do differently as you approach your late evening or bedtime