Stress and Sleep

Your sleep habits affect your mood and stress levels. Inadequate sleep lessens mental performance and accelerates age related illnesses such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension and memory loss.

Stressed and busy people often get less sleep than recommended. This is due to stress hormones released during fight and flight mode which create a sustained state of hyper arousal in the body’s stress response system. There are many stress factors that may be disrupting your healthy sleep pattern.

Stress Factors that Rob you of Sleep

Taking on too many demands in life eats away at your most important resource, sleep. When it comes to catching zzz’s are you contributing to your lack of sleep?

• Lying in bed, dwelling on your thoughts, finances, family problems and current events? Over thinking and marinating on problems will only make it difficult to fall asleep
• Need more than a cup of coffee to see you through the day? Caffeine exuberates stress giving you false energy, highs and lows. Caffeine affects the quality and quantity of your sleep
• Getting to bed later and waking earlier? If you are taking on too many demands this will rob you of sleep making you less fit to handle and cope with stress
• Chronic stress spurs the fight and flight hormone, Cortisol, which is responsible for giving you the adrenalin to cope with stressful situations and can disrupt healthy sleep patterns
• Anxious about events, issues or problems? Anxiety keeps the mind busy making it difficult to fall sleep.

Why You Lose Sleep during Periods of Stress

If you tend to focus on your emotions and stress, and are prone to high stress periods, you are more likely to shorten your sleep. If you remain calm and collected during stress, ignore your emotions and focus on the tasks at hand, you tend to experience deeper extended sleep and the ability to shut yourself off from stress.

Stress Reducing Tips to Help You Sleep

Developing healthy and consistent sleep habits will go a long way in helping you cope with the demands of life and stress. Follow these stress reducing tips and

• Rid your body of stress by following relaxation techniques such as meditation to help quite your mind and ease you into peaceful sleep
• Release a dose of stress reducing hormones through sexual activity before settling down for a good night’s sleep
• Increase productivity through power napping to catch up on valuable sleep

Getting enough sleep and learning how to cope with stress can contribute towards reducing your stress levels. By adopting healthy sleep habits and reducing the demands on your life you too can benefit from the most important resource in life….sleep.

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