How Stress Can Affect Sleep
I have been paid to share this post with you however I do believe the tips will help you sleep.
Sleep is one of the most important things we can stock up on as human beings.
Used correctly, the right amount of sleep can help you to lose weight without being miserable, improve the quality of your workouts, and reduce your chances of having chronic illnesses. Unfortunately, in today’s hectic world, it’s challenging to fit the right amount of sleep into your busy schedule before an amazing morning routine.
Even if you do go to bed at the right time every night, there’s a good chance that you could be kept awake by issues like anxiety and stress this is shown in any sleep statistics you read. Stress and insomnia typically go together like peanut butter and jelly. Here’s an overview of how stress can affect your sleeping patterns, and what you can do to get your mind and body back on track.
How Stress Harms your Sleeping Patterns
Stress affects a lot of different things in our day-to-day lives. The more stressed you feel, the more likely it is that your behaviour will suffer. While a small amount of stress can help to keep you alert and focused, the majority of us are dealing with excessive stress that leaves us feeling frazzled and overwhelmed.
If you are grieving then remember this is a time you can not get rid of the stress and need to just allow yourself to grieve. Here are just some of the ways that stress can affect how you sleep:
Stress causes us to overthink
If you’re stressed about anything, whether it’s your job, your relationship, or your family, then you’re likely to spend all of your brainpower thinking about how to fix the problem.
The chances are that this process will keep you awake at night as you play the same scenario over and over again in your head. The more tired you become, the more you’ll blow the issue out of proportion too, increasing your feelings of worry.
Stress leads to increased caffeine consumption
How many times have you chugged an extra energy drink at work in your morning routine, or get an extra shot in your coffee because you know you’re going to be dealing with a stressful day?
People under significant amounts of stress are more likely to compensate with caffeine. However, caffeine often exacerbates our stress levels, and also negatively impacts the quality of sleep we get.
Stress leads to cortisol
When you feel stressed, your brain and body produce a specific selection of hormones that can increase the adrenaline in your body and cause alertness.
Cortisol is one of the key hormones responsible for the flight or fight response in your body – that jolt of energy you get when you’re afraid. When you feel this energy, it’s much harder to get to sleep.
Stress burns us out
When you’re stressed about something, you’ll be more likely to place additional work on your plate, rather than giving yourself the break you need. Unfortunately, a hectic lifestyle can rob you of the time you need to dedicate to sleep.
If you find yourself constantly pushing your bedtime back further to get more done, you could be suffering from sleep problems caused by stress.
How to Deal with Stress and Get More Sleep
Stress can have a significant impact on the way that you sleep. However, there is some good news. There are ways you can reduce stress while getting your sleep back on track.
Assessing the thing that you find stressful is often a good idea, as it can help you to think about resolutions to your potential problems. For instance, if you’re overworked at the office, you could ask your boss for some more help.
It’s also a good idea to seek social support from your friends and family members. People who know you’re dealing with stress are more likely to go above and beyond to help you manage it.
Other ways to overcome stress
Practice positive thinking
Rather than just allowing yourself to be overrun with negative thoughts, challenge your worries and try to look at things from a positive light instead. If you address your thoughts more proactively, you can begin to change the thinking patterns that lead to increased chances of stress.
Exercise more
Exercise helps you to sleep and manages your stress levels too. A good dose of exercise each day will help you to blow off steam and release pent up energy. Just make sure that you exercise a few hours before bedtime to avoid excessive adrenaline levels.
Maintain a healthy nighttime routine
One of the best things you can do to counteract both stress and insomnia is to practice good sleep hygiene. That means following a regular routine where you fall asleep at the same time each night and wake up at a similar time each morning while keeping any nighttime distractions to a minimum.
You might even have a warm bath before bed each night to soothe your senses and encourage relaxation. Some people even swear by things like apple cider vinegar and honey before sleep. Some people suffer from sleep conditions like sleep apnea which can be hugely negative for sleep. Using things like a CPAP machine can help with this.
Don’t Let Stress Steal your Sleep
Stress can have a serious impact on our quality of life over time. The more you allow stress to get the better of you, the more likely it is that you’ll suffer from problems like insomnia, depression, and even chronic anxiety.
However, using the tips above, you can begin to gain more control over your sleeping patterns and consequently, find the energy to overcome stress too! Making sure you have a comfy mattress is so important too.
