By Dr Carolyn Pritchett, Head of Neuroscience at Groov
It’s 3:33 am and you’ve been checking your clock every few minutes for a while now, increasingly frustrated at how tired you are and worried how you will get through the day if you don’t fall back to sleep soon.
This is one common example of sleep anxiety, but certainly not the only one. Some other examples include…
Laying in bed wondering or worrying about why you can’t sleep
Feeling tense, restless, or wound up when trying to sleep
Checking the clock regularly as you are trying to fall asleep (or trying to fall back to sleep after waking)
Being concerned that you will be tired, or not have the energy you need for the next day
Being so preoccupied with your thoughts, usually negative, that you find it trouble to fall asleep or stay asleep
Sleep anxiety is a psychological phenomenon characterised by heightened stress, fear, or worry associated with the process of falling asleep and the quality of your sleep. This can lead to difficulties initiating and maintaining sleep, negatively impacting one’s overall wellbeing. One bit of good news is that we can break a sleep anxiety cycle with some lifestyle changes!
Understanding the underlying mechanisms and implementing preventive strategies can support you if you are struggling to manage sleep anxiety. Let’s start by understanding how sleep anxiety occurs.
1. Neurobiological factors: Sleep anxiety is linked to alterations in neurotransmitter regulation, particularly involving serotonin, GABA, and norepinephrine, which play key roles in both our sleep-wake cycles and in relaxation. Taking care of your physical health and practising good sleep hygiene can support a better night’s sleep through healthy physiology.
2. Cognitive processes: Negative thought patterns and catastrophic thinking contribute to sleep anxiety. Cognitive processes, such as persistent worry about a lack sleep and the consequences, can perpetuate the cycle of sleep-related anxiety. Relaxation and mindfulness have been shown to be powerful antidotes to this cycle of anxiety.
3. Stress response systems: Overactivity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and heightened sympathetic nervous system activation (your fight-or-flight response) are associated with increased physiological arousal, contributing to sleep anxiety. Sleep deprivation and anxiety are closely linked by overlapping brain mechanisms, so practising mindfulness and other methods of regulating your stress at any time of the day, but especially before bedtime, can calm down these systems and support a healthy night’s rest.
There are some well-studied strategies that we can use to reduce sleep anxiety. Along with the methods below, don’t forget to engage in the things that support a healthy night’s sleep in general, such as practising good sleep hygiene, getting sufficient aerobic exercise, being thoughtful of your sugar and caffeine intake, and eating healthy meals at appropriate times of the day. Not every method works for every individual, so consider each of these below as potential ways (alone or together) to support a good night’s rest:
- Relaxation techniques: Techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation (focusing on muscle groups, you tense up particular muscles and then relax them, working from feet to head), deep breathing exercises, and relaxing music or visualizations all reduce physiological arousal and promote a relaxed state conducive to sleep.
- Mindfulness-based interventions: Mindfulness practices, such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), can enhance awareness, reduce stress, and promote relaxation, thus reducing sleep anxiety with tools that you can use in the moment. Be aware that practising mindfulness doesn’t have to be sitting quietly with your eyes closed. Instead, as Sir JK says, try “active relaxation.” For example, bringing your attention to daily activities, such as each step of your bedtime routine, works too!
- Stimulus control techniques: Implementing stimulus control involves associating the bed and bedroom exclusively with sleep and sleep-related activities (including intimacy) while reducing activities that may induce anxiety, such as clock-watching, reading the news or checking work emails while in bed. This method focuses on reinforcing a strong connection between the sleep environment and restfulness.
Takeaway: Taking care of your wellbeing in ways that work for you - such as creating a supportive sleep environment, eating well and engaging in healthy physical activity, and using the Chill pillar to support your mental wellbeing - can support you if you struggle with sleep anxiety.
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