How to get sleep when you are feeling stressed or anxious

Stress and trouble sleeping often go hand in hand¹. When you’re feeling stressed, sometimes it’s hard to calm your mind and get a good night’s sleep. And when you don’t get a good night’s sleep, your tired brain may have more trouble coping with stress. However, do not fear—there are tools available to help you lower your stress and get some rest.

How does stress affect sleep?

When you’re stressed, your body can experience any of the following:

• Raised blood pressure

• Tight, tense, or sore muscles

• Frequent, throbbing headaches

• Unintentional jaw clenching

• Stomach and digestive issues

• Dry mouth

• Cold sweats

• Dizziness or light-headedness

Any of these physical effects can make falling asleep more difficult, even when your body needs rest.

Of course, you also experience unpleasant mental and emotional effects with stress. Some common side effects you may be experiencing are:

• You’re irritable and unusually quick to anger.

• You feel “down.”

• You feel overwhelmed.

• You are quicker to panic.

• You’re unable to stop thinking about a stressor in your life.

Even when you’re exhausted, experiencing these kinds of issues can make it difficult to “switch off” your brain and go to sleep. You may keep replaying a stressful situation over and over in your head, or focus on one particular stressor in your life that’s causing you fear, anxiety, anger or sadness.

Wellness and sleep

If you’re already dealing with stress or anxiety and then add a sleepless night (or two, or three), this can make you feel even worse. When you sleep well, it gives both your brain and body a chance to recharge, reset, and prepare you for a healthy and productive day. While you sleep, your body:

• Heals itself. Cuts, bruises, and sore muscles (along with other more serious injuries) are repairing while you sleep.

• Activates your immune system. During sleep is when you make the most white blood cells, i.e., the cells that attack cold and flu viruses and fight infections. You are much more likely to get sick when you haven’t slept well than you are if you’ve had a good night’s sleep.

• Gives your heart a break. Your heart beats more slowly when you’re sleeping, and this slow tempo is thought to give your heart a chance to rest.

What you can do about it

If you’re caught in the stress-sleepless cycle, read on for some tips on how to help calm you at night. Take a deep breath… you are not alone!

Try out some of these tips to improve your sleeping habits and hygiene:

• Don’t watch TV, eat, or discuss heavy topics in bed.

• Keep noise, light, and temperatures low while you sleep.

• Don’t drink fluids after 8 p.m.

• Avoid naps or keep them to 25 minutes.

• Avoid bright lights if you wake up at night.

• Avoid nicotine, caffeine, alcohol, heavy meals, and exercise before bed.

• If your pet interferes with your sleep, don’t let your pet sleep in your bed.

Use a relaxation technique

Try to relax with the help of some useful techniques for managing stress and anxiety, not just for times when you are having trouble sleeping:

• Deep, controlled breathing helps relax the body and mind.

• Meditation is a useful technique that can bring stillness to the mind to calm racing thoughts.

• Progressive muscle relaxation can resolve physical and mental tension gradually.