- Tired but wired
- Teeth grinding
- Waking with an unpleasant feeling
- Tense or restless
- Nightmares or upsetting dreams
- Busy mind
- Pervasive anxious thoughts
- Faster heart rate and breath rate
- Sweaty palms
Stress and sleep problems share a reciprocal relationship
A little stress is actually a good thing – it drives us forwards, motivates us, and helps us adapt to change.
However, chronic stress can damage your physical health (making you more vulnerable to infection, inflammation and an increased risk of heart attack and high cholesterol), and negatively impact your mental health and behaviour towards others.
The 'stress' or 'fight or flight' response is in our biological make up. It is essential for survival when we face danger or a threat, and part of everyday life. Once a biological threat is over, the countering 'relaxation' or 'rest & digest' response automatically takes over again.
We can’t avoid experiencing stress entirely but it is something we need to work to counterbalance, when life's stressors are predominantly psychologically-based, and there is no easy dissipation with fighting or fleeing from financial, relationship, health or work worries, or the profound changes that the pandemic has brought over recent months.
Frequently being in a heightened state of alertness can delay your onset of sleep and cause rapid, anxious thoughts to occur at night.
As part of your sleep plan, I will guide you in learning to de-arouse mind and body and proactively induce relaxation, so that if you're going through challenging periods in your life, a prolonged and constant feeling of stress doesn't begin to cause the body to trigger fight or flight over longer periods and cause ongoing sleep deprivation.
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