Exploring the strong link between stress and sleep
Stress. Try going a week without hearing that word! We are living in a world ruled by #stress. Don’t get me wrong. A little stress is good... and necessary. When you’re walking in the woods and you see that big brown bear standing in front of you, without stress to activate your fight or flight mode you’d be a brown bear’s breakfast! Many of our daily stressors though, can be managed by us and must be for the sake of our #wellbeing. Stress is interconnected with most other areas of our lives – work stress, that micromanaging boss we can't get off our backs, financial stress, stress to say “yes”, keep up with appearances and attend social events even though you are tired and want to curl up on the sofa, stress to find time to get to the gym, family stress - it’s all so... STRESSFUL!
When coaching people who want to manage their stress levels, I start off by asking questions about their lifestyle and routines. Most people don't want to look at this, they want to dive head first into talking about their workload, juggling a job and parenthood, trying to change career while working a full time job, starting up a side hustle etc. These are all important and they’re very exciting goals, but first, by exploring where in our lives we can make tweaks and changes that might give us some more time for self-care and the things we enjoy, can place us in a better mindset to then go big on our longterm goals. Also, having more time for self-care and sleep will help us better manage the stress that we can't always avoid (thinking about that micromanager again or your family or financial stresses). But looking at our diet, our sleep hygiene, our lifestyle, how we spend our time, where we could free up some time, this is something we can make tweaks and changes to straight away. Once you make those tweaks, improve your sleep, maybe your diet and fitness regime, well, even though there will still be stressful times, with a brain that has slept well and a body that feels fit and healthy, I'm willing to bet that how you cope with and respond to the stress will be a whole lot better than before.
It's no secret I love to talk about sleep. So I thought I'd explore exactly how poor sleep stresses us out. There’s a strong link between stress and sleep. Put stress and a lack of sleep together and the impact on our physical and mental health can be quite severe. Think back to your last bad night‘s sleep, when you didn’t get anything like the recommended 7–9 hours, how did you feel the next day? Were you grumpy and irritable? Did you have difficulty concentrating at work? Did every simple task seem harder than it should be? Was the glass half empty that day? Did the lack of sleep make you feel more stressed? Was it stress that prevented you from sleeping in the first place?
Occasional stress is completely normal, but feeling stressed all the time can cause damage to our physical and mental health. One major effect of stress is sleep deprivation, which in itself can have a further negative impact on our physical and mental health. High stress and poor sleep can cause a higher risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, depression and a weakened immune system. On top of that, insufficient sleep can then create further stress and once again our anxious thoughts will keep us up at night and the cycle continues.
If we work on improving our sleep, we can massively reduce our stress levels and how we cope with stress when it does arise. In order to help us sleep better, we must look at making some lifestyle changes. Lowering our stress levels before bed and going to bed in a better frame of mind will greatly improve our sleep hygiene.
My earlier blog https://www.emerpatemancoaching.co.uk/post/slipping-into-slumber outlines tips for a great night’s sleep. Try mindfulness meditation, yoga, some light reading and a bath before bed. Don’t work up until the last minute and give yourself at least 30 screen free minutes, run that bath, lower the lighting and allow your mind to wander. During the day get some exercise Or at least squeeze in a brisk walk, eat a healthy varied diet and reduce your caffeine and alcohol intake, especially late in the day. Talk to your friends and family, share your moans, stresses and what went well in the day. Try it just once and I promise you will want to sleep well every night when you see how positive, productive and happy you feel after a good night’s sleep.
Sweet dreams!
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