Anxiety or stress mostly affects sleep duration and quality. Lacking enough rest with stress also has diverse mental and physical health effects. Humans should generally sleep for 7-9 hours, depending on their age and physical and mental activities. Sleep leads to the efficient functioning of the body and its processes, both physically and mentally.
Therefore, not getting enough sleep would mean that one may not develop properly mentally and physically. The relationship between stress and sleep is such that when one is stressed, they may lack sleep or even have irregular patterns causing adverse mental and physical effects on their bodies. This is a compilation of a detailed post explaining the relationship between stress and sleep in this article. Let’s dive in;
Effects of Lack of Enough Sleep
Lack of enough sleep causes negative mood, lack of proper concentration, low energy, and inability to function as one is used to. Lack of sleep also brings about severe consequences, for example, when one is handling heavy machinery or driving when tired. Occasional lack of proper sleep may not be as fatal as general sleep deprivation. This can increase severe health conditions like heart disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, depression, kidney disease, stroke, and arthritis. However, many other factors can cause such diseases, and sleep deprivation can contribute to their development.
Effects of Stress
Stress brings about negative connotations, though it is within humans and other animals as a response that allows one to deal with important dangerous situations. Stress causes the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for releasing hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. By raising the heart bot rate and hence higher blood circulation, the muscles are efficiently prepared to take necessary action since the body will have sensed danger. This response is referred to as flight-or-fight action. Other issues within human relationships may cause those that are not of threat to survival.
Whereas it may be normal for one to have stress, a chronic feeling of the same leads to excessive production of the hormones and a high state of the nervous system for a longer time. This may affect mental and physical health for a long time. This would certainly lead to sleep deprivation. Being in a constant state of alertness delays one’s sleep bringing about anxious thoughts rapidly, especially during the night. In the same case, lack of enough sleep would lead to even more stress.
How to Improve Sleep Quality
Moreover, one may improve the quality and duration of their sleep by ensuring that they reduce stress levels, especially during the night before going to bed. To reduce stress, one may decide to work on changing their life to some extent. One may decide to employ meditation as a relaxing technique to get them more informed of current happenings. If that does not work, a study by Shannon, et al. (2019)., showed that CBD may help when it comes to improved sleeping patterns as well as anxiety. One may get to understand the sensational happenings, feelings, and thoughts all around them.
Lack of Sleep to Stress
Furthermore, it is not only stress that leads to poor sleep, but lack of enough sleep can lead to stress and increased anxiety. Sleep is very critical in controlling our mood and helping us work effectively. When one lacks enough sleep, the body may find it harder to manage stress. It leads to irregular sleeping hours. This is dangerous for the immune system and even memory and brain function. A good night’s sleep reduces stress and even improves sleeping routines.
Having anxiety also causes racing thoughts, which cannot allow one to sleep well since the mind is not quiet. Intrusive fear and even the feeling of being overwhelmed may also create tension over the whole body. This makes one have difficulty sleeping. Furthermore, it also leads to feeling unrefreshed by the time you wake up or even have trouble staying asleep the whole night. Waking very early may also be brought about by stress.
How to Manage Stress and Sleep
Avoiding stress should also be a priority. This may even be achieved by doing physical exercises and even maintaining a balanced diet; this would ensure that one can get relaxed from tensions and therefore have a night of quality sleep. Reducing exposure to blue light at night and taking melatonin may also be a remedy. Blue light from phones and laptops just before bed may lead to a lack of sleep; one may consider acquiring sleep doctor glasses to cope with it.
For relaxation, anxiety or stress can be managed to promote restful and sound sleep. After controlling stress, getting sufficient and quality sleep is an important health component and investment in personal well-being. Relaxing can also help reduce stress and lack of sleep disorders and other related. This will also enable one to cope well with another issue that may come up in the future to manage and maintain healthy routines.
Acute and Chronic Stress
Stress may also be experienced at different levels. There is acute short-term stress. This comes about when one has an issue like preparing for a presentation in school or maybe an interview or other formal circumstances. This stress may be for a short time as they would be preparing for the same and would later subside after presentation or getting over the specific troubling issue. At this level, stress doesn’t bring about any disorder.
Apart from acute stress, chronic stress may lead to serious sleep disorders. This develops when the blood pressure rises due to the release of hormones that are efficient for the body’s defense body mechanism and maintained at the state for longer periods. This current may be caused by relationship problems, financial constraints, death, or even family problems and anxiety. Similarly, one may realize they suffer from chronic stress apart from lack of sleep by having constant headaches. Furthermore, difficulty maintaining focus, having feelings of sickness more than usual, experiencing major changes in appetite, and feeling exhausted for too much time or even when you have not done any work may be signs of chronic stress and sleeping disorder. This would require one to think of a remedy to endure their mental and physical health is a part.
Conclusion
Having adverse effects of stress for more than a month may compel you to visit a doctor. High blood pressure caused by stress leads to a lack of sleep. This then leads to adverse effects in the body due to poor coordination between humans’ physical and mental essence. Both sleep and stress are fatal at every level since they impact each other. If not managed on time, it may lead to serious health conditions and disorders.
References
Shannon, S., Lewis, N., Lee, H., & Hughes, S. (2019). Cannabidiol In Anxiety And Sleep: A Large Case Series. The Permanente Journal, 23.
GP
The work of a family doctor includes a wide range of clinical diversity, which requires extensive knowledge and erudition from a specialist. However, I believe that the most important thing for a family doctor is to be human because the cooperation and understanding between the doctor and the patient are crucial in ensuring successful health care. On my days off, I love being in nature. Since childhood, I have been passionate about playing chess and tennis. Whenever I have time off, I enjoy traveling around the world.
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