7 Powerful Strategies to Beat Stress and Get Good Sleep Even on Tough Days
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tress is a reality of life, and at times it can affect your sleep, which will in turn have broader impacts in your life. It shows that 77 percent of people suffer health-damaging stress and the majority of them also say that stress keeps them awake at night. The interaction between stress and sleep is such that it is already established that stress generates poor-quality sleep, and at the same time, lack of sleep generates more stress.
Nevertheless, your story does not have to be this one. Therefore, in the rest of this article, stress’s impact on sleep and, more significantly, its entrapping cycle will be discussed.
Here are 7 evidence-based ways to get good sleep even with stress, so keep reading to know how to do it. These strategies are as follows, And all are aimed at teaching why good sleep is important and ensuring you relax and have a good night’s sleep so that you are alert and focused in your upcoming day.
1. Consequently, what happens in your body when you are stressed?
Stress in a person triggers the fight or flight response in your body even if the threat that you are facing is not life-threatening but maybe just a due date at work or an argument with someone. This response is called “fight or flight” and this calls for hormone the release of the hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.
These stress hormones are good in intermittent conditions to assist you in responding to a situation swiftly and being vigilant. Nonetheless, if stress is prolonged, then the body stays in this state of alarm for a long time and this is not good for your body or mind.
Here’s how stress manifests physically:
⇒ Heart rate increases:
When stressed the heart rate increases taking more blood to the lungs to deliver oxygen to the muscles; this prepares one to fight or run.
⇒ Breathing becomes shallow:
Shallow breathing is another effect of stress which makes one breathe a lot in quick succession. This may, in turn, reduce the supply of oxygen that gets to the brain thus creating a feeling of anxiety.
⇒ Muscle tension:
Stress makes your muscles rigid; this results in pains such as head-ache or uncomfortable feeling in the shoulders and neck.
These physical reactions make it difficult for your body to relax at the end of the day; this could be why some people feel sleepy especially when they are in front of the television. Sometimes when you feel sleepy you may still find yourself slipping and turning trying to get comfortable enough to sleep good.
2. How Stress Affects Sleep
In a direct manner, you will notice that stress affects your sleep in this way; in the indirect ways as well. Let’s break down how this happens:
2.1. Stress Hormones Disrupt Your Sleep Cycle
When people are stressed up, their body tends to produce hormones such as the cortisol and adrenaline that work to make you more attentive and ready for whatever challenges are a head. Although, such response may be of great help in the day, it tends to be disastrous to your night sleeping pattern.
Cortisol is always highest in the early morning and gradually declines during the day and becomes the lowest during night time when the body is preparing to sleep. But stress allows cortisol levels remain high throughout evening; thus, you cannot relax and loosen up during those times.
2.2. Racing Thoughts and Anxiety
Indeed, the most frequent effect of stress on sleep is that people experience racing thoughts. After getting into bed, especially when you are trying to fall asleep, your mind will often go through the day’s stressful events or create new stress concerning the next day. This negative self-talk blocks your brain from going into rest mode and sleep.
2.3. Physical Tension and Discomfort
As we pointed out earlier, stress leads to muscle tension, and this in a way could cause body aches. Another is that you may wake up at night with many different positions in your bed, with difficulty in finding that comfortable position to sleep in. This physical tension can also cause other problems like a headache or back ache and therefore affects your sleeping pattern.
2.4. Sleep Cycle Disruptions
Stress is generally recognized to interfere with sleep patterns and lower the quality of sleep that an individual may obtain. It’s possible that you’ll wake up many times at night or that you won’t experience the deep, restorative periods of sleep, including REM (rapid eye movement), which is crucial for brain regeneration.
3. 7 Effective Tips for Better Night’s Sleep on stress full days
The good news is, it’s possible to interrupt this cycle and get better sleep even if stress is high. Below are seven effective measures that you might take in order to get better sleep on the stress-filled days.
1. Engaging in deep breathing and meditation
Some of the best practices you could try out include deep breathing exercises and meditation since they are very effective in calming your nervous system and thus helping to reduce the consequences of stress on your sleep. As explained, these techniques elicit your parasympathetic nervous system that is involved in the ‘rest and digest’ function.
How to practice deep breathing:
⇒ Find a comfortable position. Find a comfortable position, don’t sit or lie on your back, find a comfortable and quiet area where no one will disturb you.
⇒ Breathe deeply. Take a deep breath in through your nose for 4 seconds, then hold for one second and then breathe out, through your mouth for another four seconds.
⇒ Focus on your breath. If the thoughts go astray just return your focus to the breathing in and out process.
It’s important to allow you body to calm down and that can be achieved by deep breathing playing meditative music or even saying a prayer or a mantra for about ten to fifteen minutes before bedtime.
2. The next thing which should be maintained is the setting of sleep schedules.
Your body thrives on routine and the latter is especially true with regard to your sleeping pattern. Needless to stay, getting into sleep and waking up during the same hour every day, even at weekends, is an effective way of synchronizing your body clock or circadian rhythm.
Steps to establish a sleep routine:
⇒ Pick a bedtime: Decide on a time when you don’t feel fresh and alert and try to stay awake only at that time.
⇒ Avoid stimulating activities: Do not get involved with something such as checking the working email or arguing before sleep. What you do during the day can also increase cortisol levels thus making it difficult to sleep.
Developing a regular sleep schedule will work to prevent the two scenarios and help you find it easy how to get good sleep even during anxious periods and wake up in the morning feeling fresh.
3. How to Help Your Mind and Body Get Ready for Sleep
Sleeping environment is one of the aspects which determines the kind of sleep you have You have to make sure your sleeping environment is suitable for the kind of sleeping. When stressed one gets easily irritated by light and noise and other distractions and therefore needs proper preparation for sleeping area.
The following are some tips for making the most of your sleeping environment: -keep your room cool: The body is most comfortable at around 60-67°F(15-19 ° C ), so try to do this.
⇒ Take out the light and noise: They should also endeavour to limit the noises that surround them. You may achieve this by either using a white noise machine or earplugs. For the people who are sensitive to light during night, they can consider getting the blackout curtains.
⇒ Spend money on nice bedding: It has been evident that a supportive mattress, comfortable cushions and soft linens are key aspects when it comes to having a good night’s sleep.
Some of the clearly defined ways of creating such sleep environment include some of the following ones: decreasing light, noise, and clutter among others, which make it easier for one to easily get into the deep sleep mode.
4. Reduce Your Intake of Caffeine and Alcohol
Hence, it would help if you were cautious with the meals you take during the day since they determine your sleep quality. Caffeine normally remains in our body for several hours and it results in insomnia even when the last cup of coffee is taken in the afternoon. Whereas alcohol, might make you go to sleep, it does not let you complete any phase of the sleep cycle other than the light sleep.
How to manage intake:
Do not consume any products containing caffeine after the noon hour, 2 p.m. It is advisable to avoid taking foods rich in carbs at night or just before going to bed because the body requires time to burn this nutrient.
Reduce on the intake of alcohol, especially in the evening. Unlike the feeling that comes with the effect normally associated with taking a nightcap, where one feels so sleepy, it leads to frequent repositioning during the night and many changes of posture.
These are some of the measures that you can take that will enable your body to rest having refrained from taking caffeine and alcoholic products.
5. Make Sure to Exercise At Least Sometime Throughout the Day
Exercise is one of the greatest things to do to oneself so that one can eliminate stress and possibly get better sleep. It can be self-evident that various things release endorphins – which are transmitters working as drugs for making things less yellow – and cortisol which is a stress hormone that is decreased by exercise.
Exercise best practices:
It is recommended to have at least 30 minutes of any form of exercise including yoga, walking, cycling and swimming each day.
At this point it should be noted that any exercise, especially in a vigorous form, should not be done immediately before going to bed.
The body cannot sleep if exercises are performed at night since it will energize the body’s cells and make them alert.
If the amount of movement, which is proposed at the moment, will be incorporated into the daily rhythm, then one can decrease stress and enhance the sleep quality.
6. No Screen Time Before Sleep
Since computers’ tablets as well as smartphone give off blue light, they hamper the normal rhythm of sleep-wake cycle through the release of melatonin hormone. This makes it hard to sleep especially at night and if you are already feeling that discomfort they call anxiety.
How to cut back on screen time:
Avoid using electronics such as computers, cell phones or television about half an hour to an hour before you retire to bed. Your body will thus become more relaxed producing melatonin to help with sleep and to fight off diseases.
Replace the way that you spend your time on the screens with some restful exercises. It can be any type of reading material – a book or magazine to get the mind ready for sleeping or light exercises which will also aid the body to get ready for sleeping.
This is because whenever you limit the time you spend in front of a screen, you are likely going to have a much sound sleep that when you spend most of your time in front of a screen.
7. Try Natural Sleep Aids
However, if stress is still unable to allow you to sleep well then natural sleep aids are good for you. Supplements such as melatonin, magnesium and valerian root help in achieving relaxation and enhance sleep quality.
That said, any person interested in taking a sleep aid should first speak with their doctor to determine what treatment is most suitable for them. Herbal treatments are less likely to have the same side effects or the same level of harshness on the body as prescription sleep inducing medicines, so for people who want to go natural, this may be the way to go.
4. Other Things to Try to Overcome Stress-Related Sleep Problem
There are times where no matter how early we go to bed and how good the sleep routine maybe stress will have gotten the better and we won’t be able to sleep.
Here are a few additional strategies to keep in mind:
Journaling:
Putting the thoughts down on paper either bothers that is on your mind for the next day can actually a way to clear the mind before going to sleep. This practice makes you lighten your brain and thereby become easier to relax.
Calming scents:
Because essential oils are thought to help with anxiety, aromatherapy can be employed using oils like lavender, chamomile, or sandalwood. Your men’s brain may be trained to recognize that it is time for bed by inhaling these scents before bed.
Limit naps:
As much as one would like to sleep in the day especially if they have been missing on their normal sleeping time at night, long naps may also make it difficult to sleep at night. If you have to nap, it is advised that you should do so for not more than 20–30 minutes since long naps can affect your night sleep.
Stress is known to cause sleep deprivation, but there are several ways of regaining control over sleep and thus avoid the stressful-sleep cycle. If you don’t ruin your sleep, create comfortable conditions for a night’s sleep, and adhere to a regular schedule, you will be able to have a good night’s sleep even if you work in a stress-filled environment.
As noted, sleep is your guardian against stress and we understand the importance of effective sleep in your everyday life. All these will not only help to improve your sleep but will enable you handle other issues that may come your way in life.
