Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the best things we can do to prepare our bodies to deal with anxiety and stress. There’s a reason why we feel more on edge when we’re tired – a lack of sleep can cause our ‘fight or flight’ response to become more sensitive, making everything seem more intense.
However, we know deciding to get a good night’s sleep isn’t always as easy as it is made out to be. No matter how many new routines, sleep hacks and relaxation techniques you try in the hours leading up to bedtime, sometimes it’s the very stress and anxiety you’re trying to counter by going to sleep early that can stop you from nodding off, leaving you lying awake at two am counting down the hours until you have to wake up.
“It’s normal to experience poor sleep when we are stressed or anxious,” explains Dr Kat Lederle, head of sleep health at Somnia.
“Being stressed activates our stress system in the brain and body, and the fight or flight response which leads to physiological and brain arousal is triggered,” she adds. “Basically, what that means is that all systems are on go. And that is the opposite of being calm and relaxed which is what’s needed to sleep.”
With this in mind, we’ve put together this series of expert-recommend tips and tricks for you to try when you’re feeling too anxious to sleep that won’t make your problems worse (like scrolling on Twitter probably will, no matter how tempting it can be). From ‘thought switching’ to an anxiety-relieving meditation practice, here are some things for you to try.
Read the full story at Stylist | Health | Sleep.
