How Stress Affects Your Sleep

Do you find yourself struggling to nod off at night, and that stresses you out, then you really struggle to fall asleep, which makes you over-tired and even more stressed? You're not alone. In a recent national sleep survey, 40 percent of respondents said they aren't getting the recommended amount of rest (which, by the way, is 7-9 hours for adults). So many stressors (pun intended) can trigger stress for us nowadays, from traffic jams to running late for work or prepping for an important meeting. Prolonged exposure to this kind of fight or flight stress can result in shorter sleep duration and poorer quality sleep. 

How stress affects sleep

Put simply, stress makes it more tricky to fall asleep and stay asleep. It also affects the quality of your sleep. So what can put 'stress' on your body and mind to affect your sleep?  

Maybe you're thinking about the anxieties of the day

Naturally, at night, when we have stopped moving around so much, we want to solve unanswered questions and mull over decisions we have made. 

There might be excess cortisol in your system

Cortisol is the stress hormone - which gives you the burst of energy you need to respond to a dangerous or stressful situation, and helps with alertness. What it doesn’t help with? Sleep. 

You're not giving yourself enough of a sleep window

If you’re not in bed you can’t be asleep. When we’re busy (or just really into a Netflix series) we tend to de-prioritise sleep time and this leads to less time for your body to fall (and stay) asleep, which increases anxiety around bedtime. 

You might be binging on caffeine and sugar

Remember that original scenario of first struggling to fall asleep, which then causes anxiety and more sleepless nights? Cue exhaustion. And that overtired feeling might lead to you consuming a few too many cups of caffeine.  Not only is this bad for your health, but it can really inhibit sleep too.

How does sleep reduce stress?

The connection between stress and sleep can very quickly become a vicious cycle. You don’t sleep because you’re stressed, which makes you more tired, which affects your mood, making you more stressed. And that leads to more bad nights of sleep. 

So, how can sleep help to reduce stress? 

Sleep supports and repairs almost every function in the body. It improves mood, reduces blood pressure and helps the brain to process memories and experiences from the previous day. It also increases our energy levels so that when we are awake, we feel like we can actually face the day and face stressful situations.