Coaching practices for The Dare Response to Anxiety Before Bed

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For The Dare Response to Anxiety Before Bed, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I only ever try a new way to handle this once I’m already deep in a full-blown wave, and by then I’m too far gone to think
• I spend my days bracing for the next wave of it, scanning my body, dreading the moment it shows up
• I’ve got all these little rules that keep me okay
• Even once the worst of it passes, I can’t get back into the room
• The second I feel my heart pound or my chest tighten I clench up and try to force it to stop, and the fighting just cranks it higher

Practices that may help

1. The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
   The DARE response, popularized by Barry McDonagh, is an acceptance-based way to meet anxiety and panic: Defuse the scary thought, Allow the sensations without resisting, Run toward (rather than away from) the feeling, and Engage with life again. Its logic lines up with what exposure- and acceptance-based approaches do — you stop reinforcing fear by fighting or fleeing it. These are self-help skills for everyday anxiety; for severe or persistent panic, work alongside a qualified professional.
2. Rehearse the response before you need it
   Learn and practice the four steps in low-stakes moments so they are available under pressure.
   The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
3. Run toward the feeling
   Actively invite more of the anxiety rather than waiting nervously for it to pass.
   The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
4. Drop the safety behaviors
   Let go of the small avoidances and crutches you use to feel "safe" from anxiety.
   The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
5. Engage with the present moment
   Once the edge comes off, redirect attention fully into an activity or your surroundings.
   The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
6. Allow the sensations without resisting
   Let the physical feelings of anxiety be present instead of bracing against them.
   The DARE Response to Anxiety, Made Practical
7. The Pre-Sleep Worry Buffer
   Use a 10-minute afternoon or early evening worry review to protect sleep from nighttime rumination.
   Worry Time: Containing Anxiety With Scheduled Worry
8. Break the anxiety-about-sleep loop
   Interrupt the cycle where worrying about not sleeping becomes the main reason you can not sleep.
   Stimulus Control for Sleep
9. Use paradoxical intention for anxiety and anticipatory fear
   Intentionally wish for what you fear — not to encourage it but to dissolve the anticipatory dread that amplifies it.
   Logotherapy
10. Use the bed only for sleep (and sex)
    Reserve the bed strictly so the brain learns to associate it with sleepiness, not wakefulness.
    Stimulus Control for Sleep

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