This is not a web site about stress or anxiety. However, both these things can lead to sleeplessness, and so we discuss them here.
It is helpful to clarify what one means by stress. For example, are you frequently anxious whether or not you are under unusual stress? Is it hard for you to “wind down” at the end of the day? Are you frequently infuriated? Or do you feel depressed? If you feel “blue” much of the time, your problem may be a mood disorder. You may want to check in with your doctor or therapist to make sure that you are not suffering from depression rather than stress.
Many people under stress do not have insomnia. However, if your insomnia is stress-related, alleviating the stress should alleviate the insomnia. Stress causes insomnia by making it difficult to fall asleep and to stay asleep, and by affecting the quality of your sleep. Stress causes hyperarousal, which can upset the balance between sleep and wakefulness.
About Stress
Stress is caused by the stress response mechanism (also known as the “fight or flight” syndrome), a natural response to “threats” in a person’s environment. Imagine a gazelle grazing in the jungle when a tiger appears. Immediately, the gazelle’s stress response mechanism kicks in. Its heart beats faster, blood flows from the organs to the muscles, and breathing gets shallow and fast. The gazelle’s body is readying itself to fight or run away. Later, after the gazelle has escaped, its body will return to the normal condition.
We as humans are also subject to this stress response mechanism. However, ours is triggered by everyday life – relationships, or finances, the boss, listending to the news, and so forth. Normally there is limited opportunity for us to deal with these matters, and so our bodies tend to remain in a state of “yellow alert”, now known as stress.
We’ve all felt that sinking feeling in the pit of our stomach when something happened. It’s what causes stress. Many people suffer from stress as result of things going on in their lives. It’s well known that stress greatly increases susceptibility to diseases such as heart attacks, cancer, and so on.
Therefore, in many ways insomnia and sleeplessness are the least of our concerns when we have stress. It’s very useful to have some techniques to hand to resolve stress.
Stress Management Techniques
There are several effective stress management tools, most of which involve learning and using relaxation techniques. Meditation is one way to reverse the effects of the stress response syndrome. Yoga is another. Guided imagery and visualization techniques are another (download a free relaxation MP3). If you want to go the whole hog with this, hypnotherapy may be helpful, both to reduce stress and help you sleep. We also recommend some other products at left which can help you reduce stress. However, in conjunction with these methods, we encourage you to use other methods for sleeplessness listed on these pages.
