Stress and InsomniaThe Greatest Obstacle to Sleep - STRESS! (Part 1)Dr. David W. Sparks
This is Part 1 of a two-part article on the association between stress and insomnia. Stress is one of the major, if not the greatest reason that millions and millions of people worldwide suffer from stress and insomnia. How can it be stated any more clearly…stress is a cause of insomnia. In this two-part article we examine stress and then reveal some behavioral strategies for achieving a cure for insomnia. Ocean waves crashing on the shore, birds chirping. Isn’t that relaxing? Go to your local book store or card shop and you will likely find an aisle or bookshelf filled with relaxation tapes. It’s a multi-million dollar industry. Someone with insomnia can really benefit from the relaxing effects and enjoy such tapes …for the moment! But if you're under a lot of stress, until you dig deep and truly treat what ails you -- be it an abusive boss, a tyrannical child, bouts of depression, anxiety, aches and pains chronic insomnia -- no amount of peaceful sounds, relaxation exercises or exotic vacations far, far away from the real world, will cure you. Your brain simply cannot be fooled for long! When it comes to sleep, it truly IS mind over matter, isn’t it? In fact, in a recent poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation, 30-percent of adults who reported having a sleep problem a few nights a week or more during the past year, cited stress as the main factor. Think about it: With all those appointments to keep and personal goals to master, how can we expect our brains to simply shut down at the end of the day when WE decide it's time to sleep. While relaxation exercises will help you calm your thoughts and control your emotions, you still need to recognize stress; and find out what’s going on in your life that may be making you anxious or depressed. One way to evaluate stress levels in your life is to take a stress test. Dozens of them exist on the internet and they’re very good and effective. Just go to Google and search for Tests for Mental Stress. These tests are a wonderful resource for personal evaluation and they look at stress from every possible angle. The American Medical Association contends that 90-percent of all illness or injury is connected to stress situations. And, just because you don’t feel stressed, doesn’t mean your body’s not feeling it. We’ve all broken out on our faces due to stress when we’re not actually shaking from fear, but the deep nervousness makes it to the surface of our skin! Stress causes physiological reactions ranging all the way from blemishes, to psychiatric problems, to heart attack. And it builds up, contributing to life-long or, more accurately, life-shortening illnesses. And as stress insomnia interferes with sleep, less sleep wreaks havoc with your health. Among other dominant deleterious effects created by poor sleep, the production of hormones in the body is seriously impacted…and not in a good way. As is true of so many elements with sleep, there's a circular relationship in which some psychological factors interfere with sleep, and, because you're not sleeping well, the psychological factor is made worse.
That's why it's so important to acknowledge when we feel stressed or burned out. Remember, the number one reason given for insomnia is stress. The good news is that harmful stress can be reigned in or at least controlled. It’s not true that “there’s nothing anyone can do about it,” or that debilitating, chronic stress is an unavoidable part of life. It’s time to take action. The National Sleep Foundation reports that those who get less than six hours of sleep on weekdays are more likely to describe themselves as stressed, sad and angry. People who feel sleepy during the day are more likely to report dissatisfaction with life. They are more pessimistic. On the other hand, those who do get enough sleep are more likely to describe themselves as full of energy, relaxed and happy. Here are the symptoms of being over-stressed: exhaustion, change in appetite, headaches, crying, sleeplessness, and oversleeping. Escape through alcohol, drugs, or other compulsive behavior are often indications. Feelings of alarm, frustration, or apathy may accompany stress. Once stress is identified, it can be controlled simply, and readily through incremental lifestyle changes. We have talked about cognitive therapy in one of our articles associated with this program. Meditation and breathing exercises have been proven to be very effective in controlling stress. Practice clearing your mind of disturbing thoughts. You CAN train your brain to handle stress, and that's just one of the benefits of a series of Action Step articles that are published on this web site. I encourage you to look for them. Training is the operative word here but the concept of training can be very subjective.. People don't mind training to compete on a golf course or tennis court. There's a lot of weight training that goes on all over our country. Taking classes in anything is a form of training, so what's so difficult about the concept of, for example, relaxation training, or training the mind?? For whatever ridiculous reason, lots of people seem intimidated by this concept or feel it is beneath them. Getting a good night’s sleep each and every night isn’t worth training for? If you have trouble adopting the idea of some sort of mental training, it sounds like you need a Head Coach. Unfortunately a lot of people are unwilling to take steps to combat and overcome their problem. Usually it’s a spouse or friend who nags their partner to get help, telling them they look tired and/or burned out. Too many times it is after the fact -- after the first heart attack, the first stroke, the divorce, the job loss, that someone is finally convinced they need to change their ways. Taking that first step is always the hardest part. The fact is, there is hard, disciplined science that backs up the concept of mental relaxation training. And the point here is to say that you can't accept any of this material unless you believe it. This is the conclusion of Part 1. Be sure to continue with Part 2 of Stress Reduction and the remedy for Insomnia which is included in this series of articles.
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