Anxiety is more than just feelings of stress and worry. Without professional intervention from a Licensed Clinical Psychologists, Anxiety Disorders can have serious consequences for your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. This includes sleep issues. Anxiety can negatively influence your sleep routine, leaving you tired, stressed, and more susceptible to other symptoms of your Anxiety Disorder.
Just like any other Mental Health Disorder symptom, sleep issues present themselves in many different ways. That is why it is important to understand how Anxiety Disorders can contribute to sleep disorders or insomnia. This knowledge can help you identify when a typical sleepless night has turned into a pattern of sleep disorders that you need to address. Learn more about how anxiety can contribute to sleep issues and see how a Licensed Clinical Psychologist can help with this overview.
Anxiety Symptoms That Adversely Affect Sleep
Anxiety Disorders revolve around distress, worry, fear, uncertainty, and unease. These emotions go hand in hand with sleep disorders. If you are physically tense or mentally focused on problems and worries, you will find it difficult to wind down and fall asleep at the end of the day.
Many symptoms of anxiety contribute to sleep issues. Mental and emotional symptoms, such as nervousness, irritability, and dread, can make it hard to quiet your thoughts whenever you lie down at night. This lack of control can lead to negative thought spirals and stressful emotions that keep you up and prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep.
There are also many physical symptoms of Anxiety Disorders that hinder sleep, such as muscle tension, sweating, trembling, headaches, gastrointestinal issues, rapid breathing, and an irregular heartbeat. These symptoms cause physical discomfort and make it hard for your body to relax. They can also exacerbate feelings of stress and worry, making it even more difficult to fall asleep.
Anxiety and Insomnia
Everyone’s sleep schedule is unique, which means insomnia looks different for everyone. However, when you find yourself struggling to get enough sleep in spite of constant tiredness, it is likely a sign of a sleep disturbance such as insomnia.
Insomnia is one of the most common sleep issues to stem from an Anxiety Disorder. It hinders your ability to fall asleep or stay asleep. Anxiety Disorders create a state of mental hyperarousal, causing you to be alert and on edge as your thoughts fixate on perceived threats in your environment or in your life. This hyperarousal prevents you from relaxing and keeps you awake long into the night.
Insomnia affects more than just your nighttime routine, though. It also leads to negative symptoms during the day, such as fatigue, irritability, mood swings, difficulty concentrating, and more. These symptoms go hand in hand with symptoms of Anxiety Disorders, which means both insomnia and anxiety exacerbate each other and create greater problems for your Mental Health, productivity, and relationships.
Anxiety and Somniphobia
Another sleep disorder that can stem from anxiety is somniphobia, which is an extreme fear of sleep. Individuals with somniphobia do not just worry about falling asleep; they experience intense fear and dread about what might happen when they are asleep. In addition to this distress, somniphobia symptoms include irritability and difficulty concentrating.
If you have somniphobia, your anxiety regarding sleep might cause you to put off going to bed, leave the lights on overnight, or use distractions—such as watching TV—as you try to fall asleep. You might also experience panic attacks or physical symptoms, including chest pain, hyperventilation, and an irregular heartbeat.
Somniphobia can stem from other sleeping difficulties, including insomnia or other complications associated with Anxiety Disorders. The harder it is for you to fall asleep, the more dread you build up about sleeping. Somniphobia can also stem from factors such as chronic nightmares or fear of dying while sleeping. Anxiety can cause or exacerbate both issues.
Sleep Issues Exacerbate Anxiety
Like many comorbid Mental Health Conditions, Anxiety Disorders and sleep issues create a negative cycle. Anxiety causes you to lose sleep, leaving you feeling exhausted, irritable, and stressed. These feelings take a toll on you both physically and mentally.
At the same time, you feel more pressure to correct your sleep schedule, which, in turn, builds up your anxiety surrounding sleep and your nighttime routine. The worse your anxiety is, the worse your sleep issues become, causing the cycle to continue.
Over time, unhealthy sleep patterns can start to feel normal, even as they continue to lower your quality of living. Without professional intervention from a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, these complications turn into long-term issues that become harder to correct.
More Sleep Is Not a Long-Term Solution
When anxiety contributes to sleep issues, some people believe that all they need is to get more sleep. They think that a better sleep routine is the sole solution; once they have better sleep habits, their insomnia, anxiety, and other related issues will go away.
Unfortunately, this is not the case. While a good night’s sleep can make the next day better, it does nothing to address the causes of your anxiety and sleep issues. If you try to focus on getting more sleep without focusing on treating your Anxiety Disorder at the root, you might end up oversleeping regularly. Not only does this fail to help with exhaustion, but it also creates additional stress. Oversleeping can cause you to lose a significant part of your day, leaving you feeling lazy, unproductive, and behind on personal and professional tasks.
Treating Anxiety and Sleep Issues
Treating sleep issues requires you to address the source of the issue: your Anxiety Disorders. By identifying the root of your anxiety—where it stems from, what feeds into it, and how it affects the rest of your life—you can create true, lasting change.
A Licensed Clinical Psychologist can help you treat your Anxiety Disorders at the source instead of just trying to manage symptoms. Through evidence-based therapies including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), your psychologist will help you repair negative thought patterns, combat distress tolerance, and overcome emotional dysregulation.
Over time, through using evidence-based treatment models and scientific approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, you are able to experience negative emotions and situations without falling prey to the overwhelming thoughts and feelings of Anxiety Disorders. This, in turn, allows you to regain control of stress and other negative emotions, preventing them from keeping you up at night or negatively impacting the quality of your life.
Get Professional Help With Blair Wellness Group
If you are looking for a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who offers Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, Newport Beach, Bel Air, Century City, Brentwood, Westwood, Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, and the surrounding areas, contact Blair Wellness Group to see how our evidence-based treatment plans can help you.
