Bonus Episode: Sleep Anxiety: The 1 Thing Everyone Gets Wrong About Sleep Hygiene
Your Anxiety Toolkit - Practical Skills for Anxiety, Panic & Depression
Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT | Anxiety & OCD Specialist
4.9 • 882 Ratings
🗓️ 24 April 2026
⏱️ 11 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, I talk about why so many people struggle with sleep anxiety even when they're doing everything "right." You might be following all the sleep hygiene rules, no screens, consistent bedtime, calming routines, and still lying awake, wondering what's wrong. The truth is, for anxious brains, trying too hard to sleep can actually make it harder. Sleep is one of the few biological processes that resists effort, and the more pressure you put on it, the more alert your body becomes.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back, everybody. I'm so thrilled to have you here on your anxiety toolkit. |
| 0:06.9 | My little family, little teen Quinlan, that's what we call ourselves. We went to Sedona with |
| 0:12.4 | the dogs. We took a road trip and it was gorgeous. The hikes, the dune buggies, the sand, |
| 0:19.7 | the mountains. It was absolutely glorious. What was so fun is the eight-hour |
| 0:24.5 | trip there is always when I do my best thinking in the car. And it helped me to get so clear |
| 0:31.4 | about my goal here with you guys, which is to hope 10 million people. It's a little crazy, I know, but I really feel like this |
| 0:40.9 | has lit a fire inside me. I'm so freaking excited. And one way I can do that is to answer your |
| 0:47.8 | questions. So if you come over to social media, I'm going to be posting some forms that you |
| 0:54.0 | guys can fill out. Come over to your anxiety. I'm going to be posting some forms that you guys can fill out. |
| 0:55.0 | Come over to your anxiety toolkit on Instagram or I will hopefully link here in the show notes. |
| 1:00.8 | A form you can fill out with your specific question. One way, well probably the best way, |
| 1:07.0 | I can help 10 million people is to answer your direct questions. |
| 1:12.6 | So I'm so excited for that. |
| 1:14.1 | Do keep an eye out for links. |
| 1:19.4 | A lot of it will be at social media, but I'll do my best to link it here in the show notes as well. |
| 1:23.6 | And again, so, so grateful for your time. |
| 1:26.9 | Today we're going to be talking about sleep anxiety, so let's get into it. |
| 1:33.5 | You have tried everything. You've tried nose screens, you've tried chamomile tea, the blackout curtains, same bedtime every single night, but yet at 2 a.m. you're still laying awake, |
| 1:40.0 | ruminating, anxious, feeling completely overwhelmed. And my guess is you've started to wonder, |
| 1:46.6 | am I doing this wrong? Is there something broken in me? Why does this bedtime routine work for |
| 1:52.4 | everybody else? But here's the truth. The harder you try to sleep, the more impossible it |
| 1:59.2 | becomes. By the end of this episode, you're going to learn the |
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