If your senior is having a lot of anxiety issues, that can directly affect her quality of life. She may find that it affects other things, too, like her appetite and even her ability to get the sleep that she needs. Getting more sleep can help her anxiety levels, and likewise getting her anxiety under control can help her to get better sleep. It all works together.
Sleep and Anxiety Do Have a Relationship
When your senior is stressed and anxious, she’s likely to have trouble sleeping. The flip side of that coin is that the increased issues with sleeping can make her more susceptible to anxiety. She may have a more difficult time controlling anxiety than she has with getting better sleep, so that’s usually a good place to start.
Evening Routines Can Help with Sleep
To help get her sleep back on track, your senior should start by looking at her evening routine. Well before bedtime, your senior should start to think about winding down. That might mean getting a cup of chamomile tea or warm milk, having a soak in the tub, or anything else that she finds relaxing instead of stimulating. Screen time is usually a bad idea for winding down.
Watch out for Other Sleep Culprits
There’s a lot more than an evening routine that can affect sleep, though. If your senior is eating late in the evening or having stimulants like caffeine late in the day, that can very much interfere with sleep patterns. Something else to remember is that some medications can affect sleep. Check with her doctor about which medications definitely should be taken in the morning and which are okay to take before bed.
Deep Breathing Before Sleep Can Help
Practicing some mindfulness techniques can be really helpful. One in particular, deep breathing, is especially helpful before sleeping. Your elderly family member can do this lying in bed as she’s trying to fall asleep. She should just gradually take deeper and deeper breaths, until she’s got a deep, slow rhythm going. Ideally, this will help her to just slip into sleep.
Some of the things that might be causing anxiety for your senior could be things you don’t expect, like anxiety about getting normal household tasks completed. That can be much more frustrating for your elderly family member than you expect. Senior care services can help with that by assisting with anything that has become difficult.
If you or an aging loved one is considering senior care in Lockwood, MT, please contact the caring staff at SYNERGY HomeCare Billings today at 406-839-2390.
