Sleep happens to be an important factor for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. This resource keeps you mentally sharp and healthy and assist you to cope with your stress in an effective way. Unfortunately, the stressed people are not able to sleep well.
In fact, research suggests that a majority of the readers are not able to sleep well at night which actually augments their accident risk to a great extent.
Stress, which is a part and parcel of modern lifestyle, can be one of the worst deterrents for your sleep. Your anxiety about anything and everything can keep you awake night after night and its affects both the physical and mental health in an adverse manner. It is expected that you should sleep for minimum 7-9 hours which can vary on the basis of the factors like age.
But most adults are not able to sleep even for the minimum 7 hours and this continues to get worse with time. Your body’s stress hormone production gets boosted with time if you are not able to sleep. So your body keeps giving rise to those hormones if you cannot sleep well. You feel more anxious, as a result of that, the next day. The following night you must be able to fall asleep as a result of that. Added to that, the stress hormones peak in the early evening and afternoon. This is the time when you should be preparing for your slumber.
Here are some ways in which stress prevents you from sleeping well. Just take a look.
- Stress Leads to Overthinking – Most people, these days, do take their workload home either mentally or physically. Today’s workload is quite demanding, and most people cannot stop thinking about their work even after reaching home. The parents who stay at home and the students also undergo the same kind of stress. If you stress over something and the stress does not seem to leave your mind for a long time, then this can make your dozing off even more challenging. As you move through the various stages of sleep, this stress can disturb the sleep in the middle of the night, too.
- Worrying Can Prevent You from Logging the Hours – It can make you toss ad turn in bed and hours of restlessness add up. Research has revealed that about 50 percent of the people start feeling sluggish after a night of little sleep while over 40% of the people tend to stay awake in bed because of the stress. Scientists believe that you can lead a healthier and happier life if you have at least an hour extra to sleep through. But it is difficult to complete the hours when we spend hours in bed ruminating about our thoughts.
- Stress Messes Up with the Sleep Quality – Stress does not just disrupt the precious hours of sleep, but it also screws up the satisfaction generated by the shuteye. Over 40 percent of the adults report that getting stressed takes a toll on the sleep quality rapidly and they are not able to unwind properly as a result of that.
- Worrying Increases the Stress Hormone – For a “fight or flight” response, Cortisol or the stress hormone is the key plaintiff. The blow of vigour that you get as you feel threatened or stressed is bound to get to you and make you respond. Excessive level of cortisol is triggered by chronic stress and this can come in the way of your grabbing a good night’s sleep.
- Stress Creates a Vicious Cycle – If you are not too careful, stress can lead to a cycle of vicious sleepless nights. You are initially stressed for which you cannot drift off to sleep and the lack of sleep further enhances your level of stress. Studies show that about three-forth of the adults complain that their sleep problems, induced by stress, don’t let them sleep well at night.
So how can you sleep well at night and prevent stressing which gives rise to a plethora of health hazards. Here are some quick tips that can come to your rescue.
- Maintain Great Night-time Habits – Keeping good night-time habits regularly can go a long way to assist you get consistently more sleep. You should create a dark, cool and comfortable bedroom ambience, go to bed and get up every day at the same time, use the room for only sleep and avoid using any gadgets in bed.
- Avoid Caffeine, Alcohol and Smoking – You should steer clear of having caffeine products, alcohol or going for a smoke in the evening. These can prevent you from drifting off to sleep.
- Calm Your Mind – There are many techniques that can assist you to calm your mind through the day and improve your sleep pattern. Yoga, mindfulness meditation and breathing exercise can help you to calm down. You can also go for a short walk to be calmer. If you can practice these all through the day, it can calm you down at night. The best thing to do, in this case, is do assess your stressors. Once you realise what is making your worry you should work towards the stressors and try to decrease them.
- Exercise – You should try to exercise as that blows off some steam and decreases the stress. Its flexible, loose muscles are less likely to become painful and tight in response to stress. However, you should exercise at least a couple of hours before bedtime so that your body temperature gets to normal. If you are over 50 years or have a condition, you should check with your doctor prior to going for the workout regime.
- Consider Consulting a Sleep Specialist – If nothing else seems to work, you should consult with a reputed sleep specialist. The professional can detect the real problem that is keeping you from stressing like prescribe dental appliances for sleep apnea, cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia and other stress management techniques so that you can sleep well at night.
The above are some of the ways to ensure that you are able to sleep well at night.