Anxiety can affect your child’s sleep — and yours too. But trouble falling asleep and staying asleep doesn’t just make you and your child tired. That lack of sleep can lead to more physical and behavioral problems as well.  

You can help your child get better sleep by teaching them skills to reduce anxiety and get better sleep.

In this article, you will learn to understand the link between anxiety and sleep, and we’ll give you practical advice to help your anxious child fall and stay asleep.

How anxiety affects sleep in children and teens

It’s little surprise that anxiety affects sleep. Worry and fears can make it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep during the night. A lack of sleep can worsen anxiety and stress, creating a cycle of sleeplessness and anxious feelings.

Having trouble going to sleep or staying asleep are common symptoms of anxiety. Anxiety at night can keep a child or teen from falling asleep or staying asleep. And worries about even being able to fall asleep can complicate matters, creating a sleep anxiety that reinforces a sense of dread and preoccupation about going to bed.

While sleep problems are common in children and teens — up to 30 percent have problems sleeping at night — anxiety affecting sleep puts your child or teen at risk of behavior problems and can hurt their physical and mental health.

The physical, mental and behavioral consequences of chronic sleep deprivation in children and teens are profound. Not getting the recommended amount of sleep can negatively affect your child or teen’s mood and their ability to think, manage emotions, learn and get along with adults.

Additionally, not getting enough sleep puts children and teens at these health risks:

• Increased risk of accidents or injuries: Drowsiness or fatigue is linked to at least 100,000 traffic accidents each year.
• Reduced self-control: A lack of sleep decreases a child’s or teen’s ability to exercise self-control — over one’s emotions, impulses and mood.
• Substance use: Research shows that sleep-deprived teens are far more likely to use stimulants like caffeine and nicotine to get through the day but also to deal with sleep-related negative moods by self-medicating with alcohol.  
• Risky behavior: Teens who aren’t getting enough sleep are also more likely to engage in unprotected sex and reckless driving than teens who get seven or more hours of sleep a night because they lack impulse control and suffer from impaired judgment that leads to poor decision-making.
• Depression: Less sleep correlated with higher levels of depression and in turn, those kids with more depression had problems falling or staying asleep. It’s a vicious cycle — lack of sleep affects mood, and depression can lead to lack of sleep.

How to help a child with anxiety who can’t sleep

If you think your child’s or teen’’s anxiety is affecting their sleep, start by talking with them about why they are having problems sleeping.

Are they worried about school or other stressors? Afraid of being alone in the dark? Anxious about a class or a conflict with a classmate?

Knowing these things will help you help your kids.

Once you know what’s going on with sleep and anxiety in your child, you can use behavioral techniques and updated sleep routines to help your child move towards sleeping independently or more restfully at night. Here are four things you can do to help an anxious child sleep.

1. Encourage bravery

Validate your child’s fears by letting them know you understand this is their worry, and remind them of your support.

Encourage bravery in small steps. For example, if your child is afraid of sleeping alone at night, you may start by sitting in a chair next to the bed, holding their hand, instead of lying down next to them.The next thing could be to move the chair farther away, followed by sitting outside the door to get more distance away from the bed.

Tools to encourage bravery include:

• Making a game and awarding points.
• Creating a sticker chart that helps you notice patterns (such as if Sunday nights are more difficult), track progress, and motivate you and your family to try to stick to your schedule.
• Rewards for progress toward achieving their goal.

2. Practice relaxation techniques

Relaxation techniques can help your child get rid of anxiety and sleep easier. Relaxation exercises can break the cycle of worry and rumination. Deep breathing, mindfulness meditation, and guided imagery are just a few approaches to relaxation that can help put your mind at ease before bed or if you wake up during the night.

3. Make a sleep-friendly bedroom

Creating an environment that’s conducive to sleep can help your child or teen learn to get the sleep they need. Make the bed for sleep only — not as a place for homework, eating or watching movies. We want our minds and bodies to associate bed with bedtime and sleep, and not with activities that might be exciting or require sustained attention.

Things that can make the bedroom more comfortable for sleep include:

• Eye masks and room-darkening curtains to create a dark, “cave-like” environment
• Cool temperatures in the room
• A fan for soothing white noise
• A weighted blanket

4. Build a sleep routine

Sleep routines aren’t just for babies and toddlers. The consistency of a before-sleep routine can help some children and teens relax and go to sleep easier. Some ideas to help your child or teen build a sleep routine include:

• A calming, warm bath one to two hours before bedtime
• Meditation and relaxation techniques such as a body scan, breathing or visualization to reduce anxiety and encourage relaxation
• Noise-canceling headphones
• Avoiding exercise right before bed
• Not drinking caffeinated products in the afternoon and at night.
• Scheduling times earlier in the day to actively worry, as this may eliminate worrying time as your child or teen lays down for sleep.

Book a free consultation with a Fort Health child therapist to learn how they can help with your child anxiety and sleep