Stress can be a major cause of a sleep disorder. Stress can make it difficult to fall asleep, difficult to stay asleep, and difficult to wake up in the morning—sort of a bad recipe for an exhausting and stressful next day. It ends up being a vicious cycle: You can’t get enough sleep, so your stressed out, so you can’t get enough sleep, so you’re stressed out, etc.
If you wake up frequently during the night and end up staring at the ceiling for what feels like hours worrying about the lemons life seems to be handing you lately, then you could be suffering form parasomnia, a very common sleep disorder.
Parasomnia’s biggest culprit is stress and anxiety. When you’re overloaded, overburdened, and overwhelmed with your to-do list, then you’re often too over-stimulated to fall asleep after you’ve woken suddenly in the middle of the night.
It gets worse: Parasomnia becomes a stressor in and of itself. People can have trouble falling asleep because they’re worried that they’re going to wake up. And then they’ll wake up and have trouble falling back asleep again because they’re too focused on stressing out over the fact that they’ll probably just wake up again and have more trouble falling asleep. (Another vicious cycle.)
Here are some things you can do to help yourself:
1. You don’t NEED to sleep for eight hours straight. If eight at a time doesn’t seem to work for you, then try something else. Try going to bed earlier and then when you wake up, get up, spend a few hours reading, doing work, cooking for the next day—whatever—and then head back to sleep when you’re feeling sleepy and optimistic. You should shoot for eight hours total, but you can split it up.
2. Slow down before you go to bed. Your body’s exhaustion from a busy day can usually get you to sleep, but to stay asleep all night, you need to be truly tired, inside and out. Before bed, make sure you’re really sleepy and then go through an established bedtime routine. Take a warm bath, drink a cup of tea, meditate, and then try sleeping.
3. Relax in corpse pose and breathe. Lay on your back with your arms by your side or with your fingers in a diamond shape over your belly button and relax. Breathe slowly from your belly and up through your lungs and then release slowly. Focusing on your breathe with a still, relaxed body can really calm you down and even put you to sleep.
4. See a therapist who can help you deal with stress. Consider taking an anti-anxiety pill (like Ativan or Klonopin) or trying a sleeping pill.