Lying awake in bed for hours and wondering whether you will ever get a bit of sleep before your day start again is a common experience for many of us.

Yes, it’s quite common to experience increased anxiety later in the evening when you attempt to fall asleep.

Medically, anxiety is considered as major factor contributing to poor sleep quality. In fact, sleep disturbances are quite common in almost all mental health disorders. Therefore, going through sleepless nights is one of the most common symptoms experienced by people who suffer from anxiety disorders. 

Understanding anxiety

Anxiety is a natural human response when you are in danger. Your brain and body are designed to feel fearful in certain situations as a protective mechanism to avoid physical and emotional harm. 

In reality, anxiety prevented our ancestors from predators and other safety risks and played a crucial role in human survival. 

Then it must be natural for you to think why this evolutionary tool is preventing you from sleeping? 

Anxiety and sleep disturbance

The first reason for sleep disturbance experienced during anxiety is racing thoughts. 

Human brain is really a magical organ with millions of neurons generating your conscious experiences. The same brain that helps you to take decision and make choices can sometimes go into overdrive.

The number one thing that keeps you awake at night is a rapid stream of thoughts. These thoughts may be negative or sometimes it’s a spiral of conscious thoughts that just can’t be purged from the mind. It just seems like you roam into a different world imagine things or putting yourself in hypothetical situations.

Many times you get stuck with the day problems or thinking about the stuff on your to-do list for the next day. Sometimes you start to feel scared or afraid for no apparent reason. Your mind feels like an out-of-control merry go round. 

Whatever the reason, with racing thoughts you can feel as you can’t turn your brain off night after night.

Yes, racing thoughts are common in anxiety sufferers and make you feel that you are unable to stop your thoughts. The longer those racing thoughts go on in your mind, the more anxious you may become. This anxiety keeps your nervous system in an activated state leading to sleep deprivation.

The second probable cause for sleep disturbance is stress. When you are constantly stressed, it is natural for you to get nightmares. Stress can come from anything including home, work, school or significant life changes. However, stress can become a problem when it is persistent.

Over focusing on the stressful events occurring throughout the day can trigger an adrenaline rush in the body making it difficult for you to sleep. There also may be an anxious focus on what is to come next day. Your emotions become overpowering and it is really hard to fall asleep. 

Relaxing your mind at the end of a full day is challenging, especially when trying to convince your body to sleep. When stress becomes constant, it’s pretty easy to lose your sleep.

The next probable cause for sleep deprivation is excessive worries associated with anxiety. 

Worry arises as an attempt to anticipate all possible outcomes to a potential threat. It is a negative thought pattern where you imagine undesired future events. 

Everyone in this world have some things that they always worry about. You may have various worries ranging from finance to health and relationships to careers. Obviously, it is quite natural to worry about your future, especially when things are uncertain in life.

Worry can become problematic when you expect worst-case scenarios in your daily life and generate possibility of several problems. 

Most of the time your feelings of worry are bigger than the actual situation. Often it’s these worries that you have accumulated drive your emotions up at night. Your brain has a harder time to relax when fear splurge and emotions overflows. With this unsettling state of mind, it is difficult to achieve sound sleep.

A vicious cycle of sleep and anxiety

Anxiety and sleep are very closely related. Anxiety can cause you not to sleep well. Sleep deprivation makes you more susceptible to feeling of tiredness and stress. The lesser sleep you get, the more stressful you become. Stress further lead to anxiety and then this nervous feeling leads to a lack of sleep making sleep much more difficult to attain. It’s really easy for people to fall into this vicious cycle of anxiety and sleep deprivation. You find yourself in a never-ending cycle of anxiety and not being able to fall asleep.

A sleepless night can trigger up emotional stress level. Over the past decades due to modern lifestyle anxiety has been on the rise while sleep has been on the decline. 

The feeling of anxiety might seem natural, but it affects your health in several ways. Individuals with anxiety-related insomnia experience significantly poor mental-health related quality of life. Therefore, it is necessary to find ways that help to relieve anxiety and promote sleep. It is immensely necessary to make sure that your anxiety doesn’t have to get in the way of a good night sleep.

Establishing a healthy sleep pattern

Establishing a healthy sleep pattern is essential to break a vicious cycle of sleep and anxiety. If anxiety and sleep disturbances are leading significant impairment in your daily routine, it is better to seek professional advice. 

When it comes to managing anxiety-related insomnia, right diagnosis from the expert is essential. There are scientifically proven strategies you can use to cure both anxiety and sleep problems.

It is noteworthy to mentioned that with proper guidance, alleviating anxiety is possible. Lifestyle choices such as staying socially connected, doing low-impact exercises (yoga or walking) and implementing a steady routine can be useful ways to ease the symptoms of anxiety. 

Also Check : Benefits Sleep For Mental Health

Disclaimer 

Mediclin Brain Health’s content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.