In everyday life, we face many challenges about work, family, relationships, and so on. Sometimes, these problems cause sadness, stress, worry, anxieties, and restlessness. Well, it is common to feel under stress in some circumstances, but if your stress is persistent rather than being temporary, you should be concerned.
It is no secret that sometimes you’re unable to sleep because of stress. The more stressed you are, the less sleep you will have. Some people oversleep during stress, which to is not good. Your body can cope up with the bad quality of sleep for a few days but if it continues for a significant period, your body will start having its adverse effects.
Our body is not accustomed to handling stress for a long time. Stress makes us restless and alert—in short, it doesn’t let us sleep. Even if you manage to fall asleep, you won't feel well-rested.
Our sleep is divided into three main stages—light, deep, and REM sleep. Light sleep is the beginning or end-stage of sleep, where we are still a little conscious; it is easy to wake someone who is in the light sleep stage. Deep sleep is the stage where our body restores and repairs itself. In the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage our brain takes care of memories and emotions.
It takes our brain more time than usual to release hormones responsible for deep sleep when we are stressed. Consequently, our deep sleep gets reduced, and our body fails to repair itself completely and that is why you feel drowsy the next day.
Also, when you do not have enough sleep, your body produces more stress hormones. As you can see, this is a vicious cycle that can be broken by having good quality sleep.
Sleep is one of the best ways to manage your stress. When you become tired or sleepy, you become intolerant towards things and it increases stress. Once you sleep well, there is a good chance that your mind will process the stress; and, you will wake up fresh and relaxed in the morning.
Adults usually need seven or eight hours of sleep. Infants need relatively more sleep, and elderly people need fewer hours of sleep. Hence it is imperative that you get an adequate amount of sleep. Here are some tips that can help you improve your sleep and manage your stress.
Having sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea or insomnia, can also cause you stress. These sleep issues can lead to other health risks and one should not ignore this possibility. You can start by taking this online sleep assessment or home sleep test and find out your level of risk of having a sleep disorder.