When we are feeling stressed out and worried, it can be really hard to get a good night’s sleep! If you lay there and it’s difficult to switch off and relax, you’re not alone.
The reason our sleep is one of the first things to be affected when we are stressed is because your stressed brain is on high alert!
Our brains are pretty bad at telling the difference between physical threat (e.g something is about to fall on you) and emotional worry (e.g. I’m really stressed about that presentation I have to give at work).
To your brain, the stress response that we would feel in both of those scenarios looks the same. So your brain responds to your work stress, for example, in the same way it would if something were about to fall on you – anxiety and in some cases, panic!
This means that when you are stressed about something, your brain stays in high alert mode, essentially keeping you on guard in case something bad happens. In reality, you know that your work presentation (in our example), isn’t until thursday let’s say, but your brain might be on alert from sunday night onwards.
The good news is that there are lots of things that we can do to help calm ourselves down before bed, so that we get a better night’s sleep. Here are a few that you can try:
- Make your sleep area an inviting space. Try not to work or have papers or clutter on your bed and keep the areas as tidy as possible so that it’s somewhere you really want to fall asleep
- Temperature! Some of us love to be cosy at night and others prefer to be cool. As best you can, try to make the temperature in your room match your specific requirements by using fans, opening windows, or adding extra bedding
- Consider your lighting. If darkness helps you to sleep, maybe getting some blackout blinds or just a sleep mask may help. If you feel more comfortable with the light on, can you choose a low level light so you are less likely to be disturbed by it?
- Background noise. Again, everyone is different, so experiment with what helps you to fall asleep. Do you like complete silence? If so, consider ear plugs as an option. If you prefer some background noise, can you choose something subtle like white noise, an old tv show you’ve seen 1000 times, or low level calming music? You can even set a timer for it to turn off after a certain period of time (by which point you’re hopefully in the land of nod!)
- A nighttime routine. This doesn’t have to be super fancy, but having a series of tasks that you perform before bed, that help you to feel calmer can really set you up for a good night of sleep. This could be some stretching, reading a book, listening to music, chatting with a good friend, spending time with a pet, or listening to one of our meditations!
- Don’t just lie there getting frustrated! There’s nothing worse than lying there unable to sleep as you watch the hours before you have to get up ticking away! If you really can’t sleep, get back up, take a slow walk around your home, make a comforting drink, watch a tv, or re-do your bedtime routine. When you start to feel sleepy again, have another go at sleep
- There’s nothing wrong with a quick nap. If you are struggling to sleep at night it can really take it’s toll on your emotional wellbeing. Don’t be afraid to take a quick nap in the day to top up if you need to
