If Sleep Were Easy, We’d All Be Thriving: Realistic Ways to Calm an Anxious Mind at Night
I find it genuinely insulting how much sleep humans need. The wellness checklist always starts off reasonable: eat healthy, drink water, exercise, nurture your relationships… but the moment some professional casually tacks on, “Oh, and get an amazing, uninterrupted, eight hours of sleep per night,” I feel my body tense, a reaction I get when I feel the need to defend myself. Did an alien who has never struggled to fall asleep write this list? Can we get some empathy on this one, please? We have endless data and articles reminding us about how important sleep is, but when it comes to realistic ways to actually fall asleep… crickets. Which is ironic, because that sound would probably knock half of us out cold.
For anyone who deals with occasional sleep disturbances, especially during anxiety-heavy seasons like the holidays, a looming deadline, family drama, financial stress (pick your poison), the brain loves to take that stressor and turn it into an engrossing Netflix special. For some, it manifests as too much energy in your body (“tossing and turning”). For others, it feels like someone grabbed a microphone inside your skull and started rambling about everything you have ever said, been embarrassed about, or forgotten to do. If you are really lucky, your brain may even curate a mental slideshow of your latest and greatest failures.
All this to say, anxiety is a master shapeshifter. It knows exactly how to get your attention at 2:47 AM.
So why am I writing about this?
Because I stumbled on something that’s been helpful for me, and I know how defeating it can be to dread bedtime. If this helps one person sleep a little easier—amazing. If it simply gets you curious about what’s keeping you up and nudges you toward your own version of relief—also amazing.
Change the Station: A Simple Shift That Helped Me Sleep
One night, I just accepted the fact that my brain is a chatterbox. It doesn’t need an audience, reaction, or participation. It just wants to talk, especially the second I’m trying to fall asleep. Instead of unsuccessfully forcing it to “be quiet,” I changed the station.
If my brain insists on running like a late-night radio show, fine — but does it have to be talk radio? Can it at least play a calm piano lullaby instead? So that’s what I did. I mentally swapped the anxious commentary for soft piano music. My whole body loosened once the piano started playing — like a dehydrated Cup of Noodles finally hit with boiling water. I woke up the next day thinking, “Wait, was the last thing I remember before falling asleep really piano music?”
After that night, I started listening to calming piano music during the day. I only had about three piano keys in my head from the night before, so I wanted more variety for easy recall. It helped. I was able to go back to this piano music whenever the anxiety-infused chatter showed up at night.
Like a guided meditation, my mind would wander off, but it drifted back to the music pretty easily, almost like my brain was relieved to be there too. This little piano shift is not a cure for insomnia, trauma, or chronic anxiety, but it can create a moment of relief in an otherwise chaotic night.
If the piano trick doesn’t work for you, you are not doomed. Not every mind calms the same way.
The Sleep Meditation I Use With Clients
The topic of sleep is something I make space for in session and care deeply about (for myself & my clients). I’m certified in a sleep-based meditation called Yoga Nidra—a 30–40-minute guided practice that takes you into the same brainwave states as sleep. It’s incredibly restorative, and many people doze off during it. I offer this intervention when a client comes in and is just… done. Too exhausted to make sense of what brought them in. Too drained to do talk therapy. I get it. Being a human is hard. Talking is hard. Sometimes the most effective thing we can do isn’t to “dig deeper” or “process our patterns.” It’s to get a 40-minute break from our own minds. To lie down on a yoga mat, close your eyes, listen to my voice, and let your nervous system cool off… this can be exactly what your mind needs. For people with chronic sleep problems, I couldn’t recommend it more.
If you try the piano trick tonight, I would genuinely love to hear if it works for you.
Individual Relationship Therapy Denver, Colorado
Falling asleep shouldn’t feel like a battle, but for many of us, anxious thoughts keep our brains running all night. Simple strategies like imagining calming piano music or practicing guided sleep meditations such as Yoga Nidra can help quiet the mind. At Authentic Connections Therapy and Wellness, our therapists support clients in finding relief from nighttime anxiety and creating more restful, restorative sleep routines.
