Studies show that anxiety and the inability to sleep are closely linked. In this article, we will look at five ways to deal with sleep anxiety and insomnia.
Sleep is as essential to our bodies as food and water. Still, we barely bat an eyelash when someone tells us that they don’t get enough sleep. This is because insomnia — the inability to fall asleep for extended periods — is something that occurs to all kinds of people, regardless of social status, nationality, and gender. It is incredibly common and pervasive. However, while many tend to brush off its effects, it could be deadly if left unaddressed.
There are two types of insomnia: primary insomnia and secondary insomnia. Primary insomnia occurs independent of other variables, while secondary insomnia is when someone struggles with sleep as a result of another disorder. In this article, we will primarily look into secondary insomnia and explore its relationship with anxiety.
What is the relationship between anxiety and insomnia?
The relationship between anxiety and insomnia is bidirectional. This means that insomnia can cause anxiety, or it can be the effect of anxiety.
Anxious people usually find themselves ruminating over their worries and concerns at the end of the day. This state of mental hyperarousal has been identified as a critical reason for why they find it difficult to fall asleep. Those who specifically wrestle with sleep anxiety fear that something terrible may happen if they sleep. They also dread the thought of having nightmares or going into sleep paralysis, thereby leading to insomnia.
On the other hand, insomnia increases the risk of anxiety disorders, as people worry about their increasing lack of sleep. Furthermore, sleep deprivation produces more stress hormones like cortisol. This is likely why thirty percent of the time, insomnia occurs before anxiety disorders.
In this regard, sleep anxiety and insomnia create a feedback loop, leading to the worsening of both conditions. It is then essential that they are addressed in conjunction with each other, as treatment would be ineffective if it just focuses on one while disregarding the other.
What are the side effects of sleep anxiety and insomnia?
Sleep anxiety and insomnia comes with serious health risks. Some of these include:
- High blood pressure
- Stroke
- Heart disease
- Seizures
- Weak immune system
- Unhealthy weight fluctuations
- Diabetes mellitus
- Asthma
- Arrhythmia
Studies show that prolonged struggle with sleep anxiety can even lead to decreased life expectancy and increase a person’s risk of early death.
What can you do to manage sleep anxiety and insomnia properly?
No one wants to deal with the health risks I mentioned earlier. All of us want to live healthy, stable lives, and arguably one of the best ways to start is to make sure that we have our bases covered when it comes to mental health.
Here are a few things that you could do to address sleep anxiety and insomnia:
Seek out a therapist
Therapy is an effective treatment for anxiety in general, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is specifically used to treat insomnia and develop good sleep habits. CBT for insomnia or (CBT-I) is used to help you identify, understand, and address the attitudes that affect your ability to sleep. The therapist would then assist you in reorienting your negative thinking and creating new neural pathways. According to ADAA, you can begin to see results with CBT-I after 3-4 months of consistent therapy.
Use relaxation techniques
Breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation can help you get a hold of your sleep anxiety before going to bed. If these are too technical for you, you can opt to meditate, write in a journal like Reflectly to help ease your mind, or take a warm bath to calm your body.
The point is to allow your body to have some much deserved me-time so that it can relax enough for you to fall asleep. Anything that you normally enjoy or turn to when you’re stressed is worth considering as a potential relaxation technique.
Create a better sleeping environment
Some people find it difficult to fall asleep because they watch television and use their phones in bed. This is counterproductive, as blue light is known to block melatonin, a hormone that your body produces to make you sleepy. Hence, you must manage the stimuli in your bedroom. When you are preparing to go to bed, make sure that all devices are turned off.
You can also regulate the light, temperature, and sound of your room. Tailor it according to your preferences and your body’s comfortability. If you think that some light music will help you sleep, then keep some relaxing, white noise or instrumentals running in the background. Meanwhile, if you prefer complete quiet but your neighbors can be noisy, invest in some good-quality earplugs.
You should condition your brain to think of your bedroom as a place of relaxation. In this way, your body would have relaxed, and your mind would have been appropriately configured by the time you get to bed.
Practice good sleep habits
Some people are able to sleep on a whim, but the vast majority cannot. This is why a slight change in schedule can entirely disrupt your sleep cycle. To develop better sleep habits, you can:
- Exercise daily. Regular exercise has been found to improve sleep and lower anxiety, thereby making it a good option for those struggling with sleep anxiety. Studies have shown that it is just as effective in treating insomnia as hypnotic drugs.
- Develop a sleep schedule. Maintaining a set time for sleeping and waking will help your body produce habits that your body will eventually incline towards.
- Limit caffeine and alcohol. Drinking too much coffee, especially later in the day, can both increase anxiety and hamper sleep. And although people have said that a glass of wine helps them calm down before bed, alcohol is also known to increase heart rate. In this case, it would then be best to avoid it altogether come bedtime.
- Avoid naps. And if you do get sleepy throughout the day, resist the urge to nap. This would make you feel more tired at night and make it more likely for you to drift to sleep once you hit the hay.
- Don’t eat before bedtime. Eating food releases insulin, which can then signal wakefulness in the brain. Further, eating something even remotely heavy will make you bloated, making it uncomfortable for you to sleep. It is why nutritionists say there should be three hours between your last meal and your bedtime. Not only will it help your body digest food well, but it will also help you sleep better.
You might find that building these habits can be quite a struggle. If so, you may want to employ different measures and techniques to keep you aligned with your goals. Having an accountability partner, surrounding yourself with constant reminders, and using a habit tracker like the Done App to monitor your own progress might be worth the consideration.
Take medication
Consider this as a last resort when all else fails. Some sleeping medications, such as trazodone and doxepin, are also known to treat anxiety, so these would work particularly well if you have sleep anxiety. However, doctors generally don’t advise sleeping pills for long-term use since several can cause side effects such as daytime grogginess and allergic reactions. It is then crucial that you don’t self-medicate and that you make sure to check in with your doctor and get a prescription.
Dealing with sleep anxiety and insomnia can be quite frustrating, especially if you just want to get some rest. And so it is important to know that you are not completely powerless in the face of these disorders. They are treatable, and being deliberate about working on them is the first step to healing from them.
