Andrea Pisani Babich
Andrea is a writer and Mattress Advisor sleep expert, spending large portions of her day ruminating about the ever elusive good night's sleep.
Andrea is a writer and Mattress Advisor sleep expert, spending large portions of her day ruminating about the ever elusive good night's sleep.
Poor sleep and high anxiety work in tandem to undermine your health and well-being. You don’t need me to tell you that your relentless worrying and uncontrollable anxiety are keeping you awake. Night after night you toss and turn, your mind racing with endless lists of tasks that you have no hope of ever completing, fears about worst possible outcomes, and generalized anxiety about past, current, and future scenarios.
You’re not alone. More than a third of Americans report getting less than their recommended seven to nine hours of sleep, many of them losing sleep to stress and anxiety.
The relationship between sleep and anxiety is a complicated one, and research shows us that it can be a chicken and egg situation, meaning it’s hard to tell which happens first in a lot of cases. What we do know is that if you have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, your chances of having disordered sleep go way up. According to the National Institutes of Health, about half of the 40 million Americans who suffer from a chronic anxiety disorder also report sleep problems at least occasionally. In fact, about 50% to 75% of people diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) also have trouble sleeping.
Other anxiety disorders that can interfere with sleep include:
What you may not know is that your lack of sleep contributes to increased anxiety levels, which initiates a vicious cycle that has serious consequences for your physical and mental health.
It goes like this:
You lose sleep (for whatever reason) >> you feel tired and anxious during the day >> your anxiety keeps you from sleeping at night >> you feel tired and anxious during the day > >and so on in an endless, exhausting loop.
That means that simply improving your sleep can go a long way toward reducing or even eliminating your anxiety.
In a recent study, sleep experts Matthew Walker and Eti Ben Simon from the University of Berkeley’s Sleep and Neuroimaging Laboratory found a positive link between sleep deprivation and increased anxiety that they could actually see using MRI.
Brain scans of participants after a night with no sleep showed increased activity in the brain’s “fight-or-flight” control center, putting them in a state of high alert as if they were encountering an imminent threat. At the same time that their brains were activating their fight-or-flight mechanism, the area that helps to regulate emotional responses was almost totally shut down. Without this regulation from the brain’s medial frontal cortex, emotional responses become disproportionate to their provocation.
Participants could feel the difference. They reported a 30% increase in their anxiety levels after a sleepless night as compared to when they enjoyed a full night’s sleep.
Ben Simon concluded that “the more time you spend in non-REM sleep, the less anxious you are in the morning.” Since this new research shows that sleep deprivation can lead to increased anxiety and increased risk of depression, sleep disorders and lifestyle choices that prevent you from getting the sleep you need can have a devastating effect not just on your physical health but your mental health as well.
If your sleep loss is not due to a diagnosed sleep disorder, committing yourself to improving your sleep should be your first recourse in breaking the cycle of high anxiety and poor sleep. If you suspect or know you have a sleep disorder, consult with your primary care physician who will likely refer you to a sleep specialist. Many sleep disorders like sleep apnea are treatable, allowing you to get the sleep you need and reduce your anxiety levels.
If improving your sleep has not reduced your anxiety, you may have an anxiety disorder. The good news is that anxiety disorders are treatable.
Not all fear is a bad thing. Our fear often warns us of a potential threat or that something is not right. That feeling puts us on alert and helps us to avoid, escape, or otherwise cope with threatening situations. But when fear and anxiety begin to affect daily activities like eating and sleeping, or if it has no apparent cause, it’s time to take action.
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