For those who live with anxiety disorders, sleep disturbances are relatively common. It’s all about how our bodies respond to stress. When we’re feeling anxious, our autonomic nervous system releases the primary stress hormone cortisol to mediate things. An unintended side effect of cortisol is that it keeps us awake.

Anxiety and sleep can form a vicious cycle of restless nights. Anxiety can keep you up, and insufficient sleep can amplify anxiety symptoms. But there are ways to break the cycle and get quality sleep. Use these five fool-proof tips to manage your anxiety so it doesn’t keep you up at night.

Want more? We’ve got more. Find out the sleep anxiety trick a CNET editor swears by, how to curb Sunday scares, and how to fall asleep when anxious.

1. Make your nighttime routine a ritual

Not only does a routine help you relax enough to fall asleep, but it also helps combat stress and reduces symptoms of anxiety. Your nighttime routine will help keep you focused on relaxation and sleep. Everyone’s routine is going to look different. Maybe yours includes light yoga or an hour of journaling to reflect on your day. Whatever it is, it’s important to stick to your nightly routine when you find it — do it at the same time and in the same order each night. Completing tasks in your nightly routine will signal to your brain that it’s time to start winding down for sleep.

Another mini tip within

There’s a visceral thrill and power in voting, and for the past 17 years, back home in Ireland, I never missed an opportunity to cast my ballot. Having moved to the United States earlier this year (hopefully for good), I find myself in a political no-man’s-land as the November midterm elections loom. I can’t vote until I become a US citizen.

It’s disconcerting, being unable to make my voice heard in a new country whose politics I’ve followed closely my entire life. I knew it’d be like this before I came, but the feeling of powerlessness is more frustrating than I expected.

Not being able to vote also feels like the perfect excuse to disengage from politics completely as news alerts assault my phone and computer ahead of the midterms. But the same sense of social responsibility that got me to vote in Ireland year after year keeps tugging at my brain, so I’m eager to engage.

But how?

The view from abroad

Growing up in Ireland in the ’90s gave me a skewed view of US politics, heavily weighted in the Democrats’ favor. Despite the intense media focus on former President Bill Clinton’s infidelitiesthe Democrat-led America of that time played a vital role in bringing Northern Ireland’s Troubles to an end. That helped foster romanticized notions about America in my preteen brain.

My perception of American politics became less romantic under the next decade’s Republican government, led by President George W. Bush (being a cynical teenager probably