Anxiety, How It Affects Your Sleep, And What To Do About It . We have all had those nights of Monkey Brain, where we have so many racing thoughts of what happened during the day. What we need to do the next day, causing prolonged sleep onset and fragmenting it. Insomnia and other sleep disturbances throw us into the debt of sleep, collecting lost hours of much-needed shutdown of our minds and bodies. Consequently, this causes a downward spiral of emotions and responses to daily obligations and magnifies any sensitivities such as PTSD and Anxiety.
Poor sleep hygiene can not only worsen anxiety symptoms; it has been proven to be a culprit in low REM cycles and nightmares. When life’s distractions are removed from our space, this allows those with anxiety to engage in the disorder by reminiscing on those triggers that feed it. When worries are exacerbated, it makes falling asleep more difficult and for some, waking up after falling asleep and feeling panic like something bad is about to happen. This throws the body into a Fight or Flight mode and may increase the heart rate, produce excess sweat, and cause headaches and muscle aches.
As it may be difficult enough for those who suffer from anxiety disorders to initially fall asleep, moving through the stages of sleep can also be quite the task. Not only has anxiety been proven to shorten REM sleep, but it has also been shown to reduce Delta sleep, aka Deep sleep. Both of these stages of sleep have built a reputation for restoring the brain and body. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 7 hours of quality sleep is the minimum needed to maintain optimal health, and anything less can lead to adverse health effects, such as anxiety and depression, or worsen the symptoms if they already exist.
Anxiety is not only a major stressor on the body; the hormonal response that triggers cortisol that helps control blood sugar levels, metabolism, water and salt balance, memory and blood pressure are being affected, a major contributor to our sleep and wake cycle. This can decrease our sleep duration, reducing our REM cycles and leading to a bad pattern in getting quality sleep. Without proper sleep structure, it makes it more difficult to regulate mood disorders and impair thinking. Behavioral Medicine has identified this issue and, in most cases, will include sleep journals and/or identifiers that may contribute to poor sleep that interfere with the progress being made to improve or correct the anxiety disorder.
Trying to correct this issue can be a tedious task; however, there are proven methods that can be done at home to help you.
Breathing exercises:
Rapid breathing from Anxiety will increase the heart rate, but regulating your breaths by taking deep, long breaths will help slow your heart rate down and help your body relax. A good breathing practice before bed is to breathe in through your nose, counting to 4. Hold your breath for 7 seconds. Exhale through your mouth, completely emptying out your lungs (about 8 seconds). Keep doing this until you feel your body start to relax. For all you book lovers out there, a good book on breathwork is “Breath, The New Science of Lost Art,” by James Nestor.
Meditation:
If you haven’t practiced meditation exercises before, your best bet is to use guided meditation. This will walk you through the process and allow your body to relax. Not only is this shifting your consciousness, but it also helps transition you into stage one sleep, or NREM 1. This starts to slow down brain activity as well as muscle activity. Yoga Nidra, aka yogic sleep, is a practice that helps guide you to a state between wake and sleep. In this state, a portion of your brain waves are alpha at a relatively low frequency (8-13 Hz) compared to beta waves at a higher frequency (13-30 Hz). A really cool app for guided meditation is called “Calm.”
Keep a consistent sleep-wake schedule:
Making a nighttime routine will help program your body’s sleep cycle. To help structure this, pick a time you are able to commit to, avoid liquids (this includes water, alcohol, and caffeine), and keep a dark, cool and quiet environment. Staying active and avoiding naps during the day is key.
Any practice done over a 30-day period becomes an unconscious habit. Try to avoid watching TV in bed. Although this may help redirect your mind away from stressors, it can also be disruptive to sleep onset and may fragment your sleep. A good way to track your sleep is with a sleep tracker or Sleep Diary.
Get regular exercise:
Daily exercise is not only good for your physical and mental health, it releases endorphins. Exercise helps raise your core body temperature, which signals the body’s clock to stay awake. After about the 90th minute, the body’s core temperature starts to drop, inducing sleepiness. Although this tool is helpful to your sleep, be mindful of your timing, as it can prolong you falling asleep if done too close to bedtime.
People who practice this routine have also reported better quality sleep, and further research has indicated fewer sleep complaints and insomnia patients. A nice tool to monitor your response to this is by using the Epworth Sleepiness Scale or ESS.
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