I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8 (NKJV)
Six out of ten are not having a good night’s sleep. For many of these, money concerns are snatching their zzz’s. According to a new survey from CreditCards.com 62% of us have at least one financial issue keeping us up nights. The most common reasons: saving for retirement, paying for college and health or insurance bills.
Jean Chatzky, from TODAY,[i] provides advice on how to stop losing sleep over money.
Make time to ponder during the day. Often what we think about at night are things we push out of our awareness during the day because we don’t allow time for them. Set aside time to proactively think about it and make a plan to deal with will help you solve the issue of sleeplessness.
Keep a notepad by the bed. If you wake up with any of those financial concerns on your mind, write them down so they don’t keep bouncing around in your head. We may think we’re going to forget something important, and in fact we may, so we keep thinking about the different angles, possible solutions, or likely consequences. By jotting it down you can relax knowing you don’t have to bother with it until daytime when you’re awake, hopefully more rested, and when you can give more careful thought to those ideas that came to your mind overnight.
Develop some basic good habits. It would be good if you open all your mail everyday, keep running lists of upcoming income and expenses, track your out of pocket spending and organize and pay your bills in order of urgency. If there are any bills you can’t pay, call your creditors and try to work out an arrangement to pay as you can in the future.
Take care of yourself. Don’t eat close to bedtime, exercise regularly, disconnect from electronic media at least an hour before going to sleep. Those healthy practices can help you sleep better.
Father God, there’s nothing better at the end of each day than a good night’s rest. Help me to achieve that sleep every day and get the rest I need.
[i] http://www.today.com/money/jean-chatzky-stop-losing-sleep-over-money-t28656?cid=eml_tes_20150625