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Sleep and Anxiety: Your Complete Guide

Anxiety and Insomnia can be interrelated as the lack of one leads to the existence of the other and vice-versa. Anxiety is frequently associated with sleeping problems or insomnia. Excess worry and fear might make it harder for individuals to fall asleep and stay asleep throughout the night. Lack of sleep again leads to anxiety resulting in a vicious cycle involving both insomnia and anxiety disorders.

 

Sleep and Anxiety Your Complete Guide
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Insufficient sleep has always been the cause of various health issues, while anxiety is considered the most common mental health problem in various western countries. But there are of course workable solutions to anxiety which would be as simple as making lifestyle changes, getting a quality mattress by making a comparison between Nectar Vs Casper, some of the best mattresses available. Or avoiding caffeine, nicotine, or alcohol before sleep.

 What is Anxiety? What are Anxiety Disorders?

Anxiety is a feeling of worry and unease. In response to stressful or fearful situations, it’s normal to experience anxiety occasionally. If simplified anxiety can be an experience in everyday life. It functions as an internal bell system that warns of potential dangers and in mild degrees, it is serviceable to the individual. But in the case of anxiety disorders, the individuals experiencing it are subjected to false alarms that might be extreme, recurrent, and even continuous. This continuous false alarm leads to a dysfunctional state of mind where the mind is always on alert mode leading to continuous stress, increase in blood pressure, and various health-related concerns of which insomnia is part.

What Does Anxiety Feel like?

Symptoms of anxiety disorders can affect people both emotionally and physically. People with anxiety disorders may feel extremely nervous and on-edge. This in general can affect their concentration and mood, leading to impatience and petulance. This continuous fear or the sense of imminent doom can sometimes be overwhelming and without any cap or control on it. On the other hand, Physically, anxiety disorders can provoke rapid breathing and heartbeat, sweating, trembling, gastrointestinal diseases, and fatigue. Often people with anxiety disorders attempt to avoid situations that could result in heightened worry, however, this does not resolve their underlying fear which is the major cause of anxiety and can hamper both their personal and professional life. Anxiety disorder might coexist with other mental illnesses like depression which further deepens the crisis.

Night-time Anxiety

Sleep and Anxiety Your Complete Guide
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Nighttime anxiety usually involves the anxious thoughts that you might feel before sleeping most of which usually involves uneasiness, nervousness, and worry. An endless cycle of stress and poor sleep is induced by Anxiety. Therefore if you are affiliated with nighttime anxiety it is very difficult to tell if it’s the nighttime anxiety that is causing sleeplessness or it’s the anxiety that is leading to sleeplessness.

Experts feel that sleeplessness can ramp up a few regions in the brain that set off excessive worry which further provokes anxiety that makes sleep more elusive. During the day your mind is occupied with a wide variety of works but during the night at sleep your brain struggles to keep itself busy at night, thus restoring to any anxious emotions and thoughts.

What causes this night-time anxiety?

Sleep and Anxiety Your Complete Guide
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So since we are clear about night-time anxiety we also need to know what triggers this night-time anxiety.

  • Too much focus on the day:- One of the most important reasons that causes night-time anxiety is overthinking and being stressed about the actions of the day. These along with anticipating stressful activities for the next day will make it more difficult for your mind to relax, thus causing anxiety.
  • Fear:– Some people are more scared, worried, and sad at night. This stress might cause an adrenaline rush to your body which again accelerates their night anxiety and leads to sleeplessness
  • Rapid Thought Patterns:- Anxiety induced rapid thought patterns makes it difficult for people suffering from the same to remain calm.
  • Poor Sleep Cycle:- Poor sleep pattern also might make you anxious this makes the body susceptible to stress and insomnia.

Symptoms of Nighttime Anxiety

Various symptoms are related to night-time anxiety. Though it is experienced differently by everyone but here are some of  the major symptoms

    • Concentrating trouble
    • Trouble in falling and staying asleep
    • Feeling restless and nervous
    • Problems related to Gastrointestinal
    • Nightmares
    • Hypnic Jerk (Twitching)

What happens when Anxiety interrupts Sleep?

When anxiety leads to inadequate sleep, It goes way beyond tiredness. It can leave a serious strain on your mental build-up. Night-time anxiety can lead to severe mood swings, leads to poor work performance, disrupts learning ability and reduces cognitive reaction times, and can lead to a serious, stressful, and imbalanced life.

How to overcome Night-time Anxiety?

There are various ways that one can choose to overcome night-time anxiety. One of the most simple solutions to overcome night-time anxiety is to find ways to sleep better peacefully. This can be done by reducing stress or changing various pre-sleep habits that reduce anxiety over time and with a little patience. These mixed bags of things which might include some food habit to some life change are referred to as anxiety reducers. This might refer to a single practice or the combined result of all these activities/things as a whole

Practicing Good Sleep Hygiene:– Sleep hygiene refers to a combination of habits that necessitate good sleep. Practices like reducing daytime sleep to a maximum of 30 minutes. Avoiding stimulants like caffeine and alcohol before sleep and having a uniform sleep-wake time.

Meditation and Exercise:-Trying to sit in silence and meditate can help you navigate through stress during the day and any time before bed. Regular exercise or yoga sessions also helps people fall asleep faster and soundly.

Avoid Stressful Activities Before Bed:- Office-related works that often induce stress or are constantly hooked to news, social media exchanges before sleep might increase anxiety before sleep which must be avoided to sleep peacefully.

Get the Right Mattress: Proper mattress might also address your sleeping issues, may be a choice between Nectar Vs Casper which are some of the best mattress brands in the market, might provide support to the contours of your body and neck to keep you cool and comfortable for good night sleep.

Limit Screen Time:– We are a tech-savvy generation who are very much fond of the gadgets that we check before and after waking up from our sleep which is dangerous as they emit a blue light which suppresses the melatonin level tricking the brain to make it think that it is day time. Therefore avoid using phones or tablets at least a couple of hours before sleep.

The Sleep-Friendly Environment:- An ideal sleep-friendly environment should be dark, quiet, and cool, therefore controlling the light, temperature and sound can increase the chances of calming your mind and easily falling asleep.

 

 

Conclusion

Anxiety is a natural occurrence and its main idea is to keep us alert. But it becomes a matter of concern when it interferes with our sleep. Though anxiety at bedtime is the result of an anxiety issue that stems from overall restlessness and lack of sleep. On the other hand, it is also anxiety that results in sleeplessness making it a vicious cycle where anxiety-ridden people get trapped.

Though it is not a problem without a solution as simple lifestyle changes, change in certain food habits, and creating a proper sleeping ambiance with proper light, a good mattress, and a noiseless room can help you recover from some serious night-time anxiety.


Read More:

Natural ways to manage anxiety attacks

Everything to know about hypnotherapy in anxiety treatment

How your mental health is affected by your routine

Effective tips for getting better sleep

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