Affirmations to ease mild anxiety and assist sleep

Key Points

• Affirmations are positive statements that are repeated regularly.
• Affirmations may help reduce stress and increase confidence.
• Proven clinical techniques such as CBT are effective for many sleep issues.

If you’ve ever experienced wakeful nights as your thoughts race and mild anxiety builds, you’ve no doubt wondered about ways to help your brain and body wind down and doze off to sleep. In this article, we explore affirmations for mild anxiety and other techniques that may help you catch more zzz’s.

What is mild anxiety and can affirmations for anxiety help? 

Mild anxiety is related to worry about what may or may not happen in the future and can manifest as physical, cognitive or behavioural issues, including sleep disturbances. 

So, do affirmations help when your mind is racing and you can’t sleep, or anxiety is taking hold?

Affirmations are positive words or phrases that are repeated regularly in order to change a belief. However, the science behind affirmations is limited. 

Health Psychologist and Healthylife Advisory Board member Dr Moira Junge says there’s currently no evidence affirmations help you sleep.

“What we do know is affirmations may reduce stress and increase confidence,” says Moira. “And feeling less stressed and having more confidence helps your ability to manage sleep and manage the nights when you don’t sleep well.” 

Mind racing, and you can’t sleep? Here’s what you need to know

Dr Moira says if you’re experiencing mild anxiety and it’s interrupting your sleep, it’s helpful to remind yourself of two things:

• Your brain is capable of switching off without you having to tell it to.
• You will cope if you have odd evenings of not getting your desired sleep. 

If you’re experiencing insomnia, there are also therapies that may help. 

“The gold standard is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for insomnia,” Dr Moira says. “In the cognitive part of the therapy, we attempt to help people change their thinking and dysfunctional beliefs about sleep and help them with adaptive thought patterns.” 

Dr Moira says if you’re keen to try affirmations for anxiety and sleep, you should focus on letting go of trying to control sleep. “If people are too focused on their sleep and put too many expectations on it, then it may backfire, and paradoxically, they won’t sleep well.”

Affirmations to ease mild anxiety

“There has been a plethora of research that shows cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia works, so in this case it might be helpful to refer to positive affirmations as ‘cognitive reframing statements’,” Dr Moira says. “It’s helpful for people to manage expectations about sleep and not put too much ‘sleep effort’ into it.”

It’s sound advice. But if you’re struggling with sleep and it’s leading to mild anxiety, it can be challenging to let go. Dr Moira reminds her patients of these evidence-based thoughts that are helpful to repeat to yourself:

• “I do not need to control my sleep; I will allow it to come to me.”
• “If I don’t sleep well tonight I will cope OK tomorrow.”
• “I don’t necessarily need eight hours of sleep every night.” 
• “Waking is normal, so I won’t label it a problem; I will drift back off to sleep.”

Sound advice for mild anxiety

While affirmations may be helpful for reducing stress, Dr Moira says there are other proven techniques to help with sleep issues. “Don’t ever rely on positive affirmations alone when trying to improve quite complex components of our lives such as mental wellbeing or sleep,” she advises, adding that evidence-based techniques such as CBT are worth exploring.

If you’re experiencing symptoms of mild anxiety or are concerned about your mental wellbeing, consult your healthcare professional. 

Related:

• Why you need gratitude affirmations in your life
• REM sleep vs. deep sleep
• How much REM sleep do you need?

Dr Moira Junge, a Healthylife Advisory Board member, is a registered, practising health psychologist with the added specialty of sleep. She has been in private practice for over 20 years and is the CEO of the Sleep Health Foundation and was a founding member of the Behavioural Management of Sleep Disorders Committee within the Australasian Sleep Association (ASA). Dr Moira was also Chair of the ASA Insomnia and Sleep Health Council (2008-2015) and is a full member of the Australian Psychological Society.

Reviewed by the Healthylife Advisory Board November 2023.