We all know the feeling of tossing and turning in bed in anticipation of an exciting event or holiday that’s approaching. If you’ve ever laid in bed wondering what to do when you are too excited to sleep, you’ve come to the right place – our article will give you a plethora of tips and tricks that will help you calm your mind and decrease your excitement, at least temporarily. After all, losing precious hours of sleep can only negatively impact the thing you’re excited about, so it’s important to have a couple of techniques up your sleeve.
Apart from providing you with overall tips on how to fall asleep when you’re too excited, weќлл also explained how excitement impacts the body and gave you a couple of tips on calming the excitement of children so they’re able to fall asleep.
With that out of the way, let’s start by examining what happens to our bodies when we feel excited.
What Happens to Our Body When We’re Excited?
Whether it’s a holiday, an event, or a reunion with a friend, excitement has a certain impact on our bodies. It’s important to examine exactly how excitement affects our body in order to see why it might prevent us from getting some much-needed rest.
Excitement is an emotion that includes increased interest in something, enthusiasm, and anticipation. Regardless of the cause of your excitement, the effects on our body are the same. Certain parts in our brain such as the precuneus shows an increased activity when we express feelings of excitement. Apart from increased brain activity, our body also starts pumping out certain hormones at a faster rate than usual. For instance, the production of adrenaline is increased, in addition to an increase in serotonin – the happiness hormone. If we’re feeling really excited, we might notice some other symptoms that are a little more extreme, such as sweaty palms, increased breathing rate, and shivering. Some people experience the feeling of having butterflies in your stomach, which we’ve all felt at some point.
Additionally, the production of cortisol, also known as the stress hormone, is increased, which can trigger our flight and fight response. These states also include an increased heart rate and blood pressure, which isn’t really the optimal environment for sleeping.
With increased energy, production of hormones, and amplified brain activity, it comes as no surprise why feeling excited can keep us up at night. While we might not be actively thinking about the event or person that makes us feel excited, if we think about it during the day or if we spend a couple of days prior in anticipation of it, subconsciously we would have already registered that there is something to feel excited about.
One of the many drawbacks of feeling too excited to sleep is that we might end up sabotaging that event or holiday we feel excited about by being too tired to enjoy it while it’s happening. That’s why it’s important to find some activities and methods that can help calm our minds down and decrease the production of energising hormones such as adrenaline. This is certainly easier said than done, but we do have control over our bedtime routine, which is an excellent place to start.
Is It Anxiety or Excitement?
Truth be told, it’s hard to distinguish anxiety and excitement from each other. After all, they come with the same symptoms such as increased heart rate and cortisol production, so it’s no wonder why we often can’t tell them apart.
So, if the difference between anxiety and excitement isn’t in the symptoms, how do they differ? The difference lies in how we perceive the situation. What causes anxiety to one person might be the cause of excitement for another, such as flying or going on a rollercoaster.
When you find yourself too excited to sleep, it might be a good idea to figure out the cause of your excitement, unless it’s very apparent like an upcoming event. If you suspect that the feelings and thoughts you’re experiencing are more akin to anxiety than sheer excitement, it might be a sign to make a couple of changes in your day to day routine, assuming the anxiety you feel isn’t related to something that’s out of control.
While it might be confusing to experience anxiety masked as excitement or vice versa, there is an upside to this. Many psychologists recommend reshaping the way we treat our anxiety and the concurrent symptoms. Turning your anxiety to excitement might seem like a daunting task, but with a simple change in perspective, it might produce quick and effective results.
Of course, we all feel anxious from time to time, but if you suspect that your anxiety is more serious and it extends over long periods of time, you might be suffering from an anxiety disorder, which is best dealt with in therapy.
Tips on What to Do When You Are too Excited to Sleep
Now that you’re aware of what happens to your body when you feel excited and how that can affect your sleep, it’s time for us to share some of our best tips on how you can fall asleep faster despite your excitement.
Listen to Relaxing Music
If you’re someone who likes to fall asleep with background noise, one of the things you can try is substituting your TV shows and movies with relaxing music.
It’s no surprise that relaxing music has a calming effect on our bodies and can dissipate some of the excitement we feel, resulting in us being able to fall asleep faster. Classical music falls under this category, but if you’re not a fan of classical music, you can always try some slow songs that ultimately have the same effect on our body.
Get Out of Bed
As paradoxical as it might seem, getting out of bed might make you fall asleep faster. We all know the feeling of tossing and turning at night unable to fall asleep, our frustration growing by the minute.
The more you force yourself to fall asleep, the harder it becomes. Convincing yourself that you have to fall asleep is rarely productive, especially if you’re doing it the night before an important event or trip.
The antidote to this is to get up and try to do something fun for a little while. After some time has passed, go to bed and try again. By focusing on another activity unrelated to sleeping, you will be in a more relaxed state of mind, which will help you fall asleep faster.
Journal
Another activity you can incorporate in your night-time routine on days when you’re feeling especially excited is journaling. Journaling encompasses anything from filling in a notebook with a stream of consciousness to answering questions in a journal dedicated to self-improvement. Whatever your preferred method is, engaging in an activity that involves relaxing writing can help you process your emotions better which results in faster and more peaceful sleep. You can also try writing out all the things you’re feeling excited about in order to get them out of your mind.
Take a Bath or a Shower
If you’re someone who prefers night showers, we have good news for you. Taking a shower before bed is one of the easiest and fastest ways to get your body in a relaxed state. Showering lowers our body temperature, which also occurs once our body gets into sleeping mode, so it’s no surprise that showers and baths signal to our bodies that it’s bedtime.
Meditation
While not everyone is a fan of meditation, it can do wonders in terms of relaxing you and putting you in a calm state of mind. There are many different ways you can meditate, including guided meditation and traditional meditation. Nowadays, there are a myriad of apps dedicated to meditation, so starting this mindful practice is easier than ever. You don’t have to sit still for hours on end, sometimes even ten minutes can make a world of a difference.
If you prefer the traditional approach without a voice guiding you, there are many resources online that will help you get into the practice easier.r
Do Some Gentle Stretching
Another method you could try out is doing some gentle stretches or yoga as soon as you feel that surge of excitement. Light stretches help relax our body and put us in a calmer state of mind. In addition, they have other health benefits that will improve our overall health, so it’s definitely worth a shot.
Ensure that Your Sleeping Environment Is Optimal
There are many seemingly innocuous things in your room that can inhibit your ability to fall asleep fast, especially if you’re feeling excited to begin with. Before you go to bed, ensure that your room is set for sleeping. This includes setting the temperature to around 20 degrees Celsius and quieting your room. Additionally, make sure you turn off all the lights since sleeping with the light on can sabotage our production of melatonin, which is crucial for healthy and deep sleep.
Be Active During the Day
Exercising is a healthy and effective way to manage your excitement. If we spend the majority of the day active, we’re likely to fall asleep faster, even if our excitement levels don’t decrease. You don’t have to do strenuous activities and workouts – even walking and doing yoga can have a significant impact.
Use Breathing as a Tool
Along with doing yoga, you could try out some breathing exercises and techniques. Breathing is an easy way to calm down the body and the mind and it only requires a couple of minutes of your time. If you’re feeling like it, you can try some fancy breathwork lie bhastrika. Otherwise, try mindful breathing by extending your inhales and exhales by a couple of seconds and taking in full, belly breaths.
Read
Reading before you sleep is not only a great habit to cultivate, but it’s also been proven to help us relax and fall asleep faster. The next time you feel a wave of excitement coming in, pick up a book and immerse yourself in a different world.
With that said, it’s a good idea to avoid picking up books in genres like horror, because they can be stimulating and keep us up.
Some Things to Avoid Doing When You Are too Excited to Sleep
We gave you some of our best tips regarding things you can incorporate in your night-time routine as well as some activities you can do during the day to ensure that you won’t be staying up at night due to your excitement. In addition to some activities you should be doing, there’s also a list of things to avoid if you’re feeling too excited to sleep, which we’re about to go over.
Stay Away from Social Media
Many of us have a habit of scrolling through our phones before going to bed. This is detrimental to our sleep due to the blue light that emits from the screens and fools our bodies into thinking it’s daytime. Apart from this, engaging with social media prior to sleeping can stimulate our brain and get us even more excited since we’re likely to encounter a post or a photo that reminds us of the thing we’re excited about. Plus, the more you scroll, the harder it can be to put your phone down, resulting in a poor night’s sleep.
Avoid Alcohol and Food High in Artificial Sugar
Avoiding alcohol and sugary food in the later part of the day can do wonders for your sleep hygiene. This type of food and drink can keep us up because our body is working hard to process the alcohol and sugar. Instead, try some alternatives if you’re feeling hungry or thirsty at night such as tea or light snacks.
Avoid Stimulants
Apart from alcohol, other stimulants you’ll want to avoid are caffeine and nicotine. Caffeine stays in our system for hours after it’s consumed, so don’t be surprised if your afternoon cappuccino is keeping you up ten hours after it’s been consumed. Not to mention, caffeine has an energising effect which is the last thing we need if we’re feeling too excited to sleep.
How to Get Your Child to Bed if They’re Feeling too Excited
Getting excited kids to sleep before an important event or holiday is a lot harder than calming down our own excitement before bed. Here are a few tips you can try next time your child is too excited to sleep.
Try your best to implement a night-time routine for them. This includes activities and habits like reading bedtime stories together and brushing their teeth. Once they engage in their bedtime activities, it will be much easier to get them to bed.
Engage them during the day. Whether it’s through physical activity or playing board games and solving puzzles, if they remain physically and mentally active during the day it’ll be significantly easier for them to fall asleep regardless of how much excitement they’re feeling.
Limit their intake of sweets. Having sugary snacks before bed is just as counterproductive for kids as it is for us. The high sugar content will exasperate any excitement they might be feeling, so it’s best to reserve the sweets for earlier in the day and opt for a different snack.
FAQs
How to Fall Asleep When You’re Excited for your Birthday?
Our birthdays are some of the most exciting days of the year, so we can’t fault you for being too excited to fall asleep. The night before your birthday, you can try some relaxing techniques like breathwork and meditation. Additionally, you can always engage in reading and listening to relaxing music which are activities that have been proven to calm down your mind.
How to Sleep Well the Night Before You Go On Holiday?
Just like birthdays, going on a holiday is an occurrence event every year, so it’s normal to feel excited about it. You can try writing down all the reasons you feel excited or simply journaling your thoughts so that your mind gets a little break.
Why Do I Get Excited Before Sleep?
Some of the reasons you might be too excited to sleep include an upcoming event or a holiday or a meeting.
Conclusion
We hope you found our guide on what to do when you are too excited to sleep helpful!
Some of the symptoms that concur with excitement include increased production of certain hormones such as adrenaline and serotonin, increased brain activity, increased heart rate, and increased blood pressure. All these have a stimulating effect on our body which inhibits our ability to fall asleep.
If you’re too excited to go to sleep, there are several different methods and techniques you can implement in your bedtime routine. Some of these include listening to music, focusing on other activities so you don’t feel pressured to go to sleep, writing and journaling, light stretching, using breathing tools, and reading. You should also avoid certain things like drinking alcohol, consuming food high in sugar, and having caffeine close to bedtime. To prevent your child from being too excited to fall asleep before an important event or vacation, make sure they’re physically and mentally active during the day and limit their intake of sweets.
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