Everyone has trouble sleeping once in awhile.  But when you are unable to sleep well night after night for weeks, take action to find the cause of insomnia.  Possible causes of insomnia include: stress; medications and their side effects; anxiety; depression; chronic pain; chronic diseases.  This article will cover the role of stress in insomnia, and ways to decrease stress.

The Body’s Response to Stress

Physical Symptoms:  When a situation occurs that you perceive as stressful, your body responds in a variety of ways: increased heart rate; increased shallow breathing; muscle tension; cool hands and feet.  Internally, the stress hormones adrenalin and cortisol are activated; the blood sugar increases; blood pressure elevates; digestion slows. Perhaps you become aware of stress when you find yourself grinding your teeth, when a “stress headache” appears, or your shoulders get tense.  Or maybe diarrhea or nausea is your cue that things are getting stressful.  It is important to be aware of the physical symptoms of stress, since awareness is the first step to doing something about the stress.

Emotional Symptoms:  Maybe your first cue of your stress is your emotional state.  Do you find yourself being short tempered and irritable?  Do you raise your voice? Maybe you become quiet and introspective.  Just remember, feelings are not “right” or “wrong”.  They just ARE; they exist in all people.  They help you to realize you are human.  It’s what you do with the feeling, that becomes “wrong” if you do something to hurt another.

Behavioral Symptoms:  How do you respond when you are stressed?  Sometimes your attempts to cope with stress are the same as behavioral symptoms of stress. Do you seek out comfort foods? If you smoke, your rate of smoking may increase.  Instead of one drink of alcohol after work to relax, you may have two.  Your friends may shop or gamble in a casino in an attempt to forget their stressors for awhile.  Do you just withdraw so you don’t have to deal with people?  Or maybe you “get busy” on your computer to distract yourself.  Maybe you use over the counter meds to calm you, or prescriptions…..or marijuana.   These are all examples of how stress manifests in your behaviors.

It is very important to your health and your ability to sleep if stress-filled episodes or stressful days are followed by times of relaxation.  Your body and mind need time to relax and restore so they can meet the next challenge.  Stress impacts your sleep in several ways.  If your body is not in a relaxed state at bedtime, stress hormones are circulating, causing your heartbeat to be fast, breathing to be shallow and rapid and your blood pressure to be elevated. Refer to Insomnia Relief for some helpful tips that may assist you in falling asleep.

 What is Stress?

Stress is a part of life and you will never eliminate it.  Stress is the body’s response to any kind of demand placed on it; so stress can be positive (eustress) or negative (distress). While some degree of stress creates challenge and excitement, too much stress causes health problems and impacts work performance and sleep.  Your stress level is as unique as you are, and your perception of what is stressful is different from everyone else’s view.  You may view stress as the pressure of daily frustrations or the major events in life that cause stress (death of a loved one, bankruptcy, major illness).  Stress is caused by both the daily stressors like work deadlines and arguments and also major life events.

Causes of Stress

If you know that your insomnia is caused by stress, find out what is causing the stress.  There are 3 major causes of stress: situations, people, and yourself.  The next step in managing your stress is to ask yourself, “Do I have any control over this?” In most instances you have little or no control over situations or over other people, unless they are your children.  Your control resides within you - within your perceptions of stress and your reaction or response to stress.  For example, you are caught in traffic on the interstate highway and you may be late for work.  You can’t do anything about the traffic.  In the future, you could make some different choices, like taking an alternative route, leaving at least 15 minutes earlier to anticipate traffic, or you can become part of a car pool so you can take the fast lanes.  The choices you make daily are part of the control you have. 

Some people view life as mostly stressful and they also worry.  Others have many stressors but view them as part of life.  Those in the 2^nd group are stress “hardy” and are resilient.  They are more apt to view stress as both a challenge and an opportunity.  Much about stress has to do with attitude.  If stress is impacting your ability to sleep, perhaps it is time to look at whether you are stressing over things that you have no control over and that, in view of your entire life, have very little importance.

Coping Strategies

Earlier in this article there was a reference to the importance of your body recovering from the physical reactions of stress.  If you use coping techniques that work for you, good sleep may be a natural consequence.  There are several ways that you can cope with stress. 

·         Exercise:  some form of muscle activity that increases your heart rate and breathing that is done for a total of 30 minutes daily

·         Hobbies and recreation:  doing something that you enjoy every day

·         Spiritual Practices: prayer, worship with others with similar beliefs, volunteer work, or some other activity in which there is belief in something greater than yourself

·          Spending time with a friend or loved one

·         Talking or writing about your thoughts and feelings

·         Relaxation: listening to music; meditation; visualization; breathing techniques Refer to Insomnia Relief for explanation of techniques

·         Humor:  doing things or watching programs that make you laugh

·         Setting limits: saying no; making self care a priority

·         Balancing work and play

Awareness of your body’s responses to stress and the sources of stress in your life are the first steps to managing stress in your life.  Realizing that situations and people are beyond your ability to control are further steps to managing stress.  Use of coping techniques can help your mind and body relax and recover from stress.  When your stress is reduced, you will be better able to fall asleep and stay asleep.