Understanding Stress & Sleep Hygiene

Sleep is one of our innate biological functions – it is one of our most natural states (we even do it in the womb before we’ve even take our first breath in the outside world!).

If we don’t have to learn how to sleep, why would we discuss tips and tricks to get to sleep, stay asleep, and deepen our sleep consistency and quality? The answer, unfortunately, is that our way of life, the environments and activities we surround ourselves with and the chronic levels of internal stress and anxiety we experience work against our natural biological sleeping power. Even more so in recent years, according to a 1000 person study on sleep and stress during COVID-19 52% showed impaired sleep quality, with women revealing significantly higher COVID-19 related stress levels than men (including contact restriction-induced stress) and lower overall sleep quality.

You may already know that according to top sleep scientists such as Dr. Matthew Walker and Dr. Micheal Breus, sleep deprivation affects every physiological function in our body, including cognitive ability, hormonal balance, digestion, the regeneration of all cells, and so much more! As far as radically taking control of our self-care Dr. Matthew Walker says, “sleep is the most effective thing we can do to reset our brain and body health each day – Mother Nature’s best effort yet at contra-death.”

But what actually happens to our sleep when we get stressed out?

Sleep & Stress

According to modern studies the following effects are common causes of high stress (to be sure, this list is non-exhaustive):

Trouble falling asleep: intuitively, you already know this. Consider those times where something has been heavy on your mind, such as a big work event, a troubled relationship, poor health or even general anxiety. You might have layed awake ruminating on it for a night, two nights, or potentially way longer. Prolongued stress has even been shown to lead to chronic insomnia.
Frequent awakening during sleep: yes. On top of not getting to sleep, stress can also increase the amount of times we wake up during the night, further decreasing both our sleep quality and duration.
Decreased HRV (heart rate variability, or the time between each beat). HRV helps our body and mind recover and heal during sleep, and is affected by a number of things such as exercise, diet, age, gender, and you named it: stress. Together, sleep and HRV play a critical role in our wakefullness, energy and physiological health each day. (Learn more about HRV here)
Altered Sleep Structure: the sleep architecture is specifically built to support everything from our physiological recovery, short and long term memory storage, hormonal regulation, and so much more. High stress has been known to decrease the slow-wave sleep that is so necessary for both our physical and mental health, with emotional stress having the highest detrimental effect on our sleep.

So how can we reduce our stress for better sleep?

In my 6-Week Yoga & Sleep Hygiene course we dive into each of the following topics in great detail, as well as build some of their principles such as breathwork, environmental changes, and grounding directly into the yoga asana classes.

Consider Your Support

This may include friends, family members, therapists, counsellors or alternative medicine practitioners who have your back and are there for you to help you balance your stress levels

2. Consider How You Breathe

Breathing practices such as box breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and nose breathing have all been shown to decrease our sympathetic nervous response. T

3. Consider Your Stress

I know, I know, that’s why you’re here! But let’s get even more specific by considering what aspects of your life cause you the most stress. Are there subtle changes you can make to reduce this pressure?

4. Consider Your Environment

This includes noise, light and excess stimulus that may be contributing to your overall stress load, sympathetic activation, and sleep hormone production.

5. Consider Your Pre-Bed Rituals

Your pre-bed rituals are vitally important when decreasing your stress and setting yourself up for a good night’s rest. This is the time when you can systematically cleanse yourself from the day’s goings-on and cultivate an intentional shift into a state of deeper relaxation. These rituals might include lighting (I love candle light for my pre-bed rituals), soothing and quiet music, reading or writing or some gentle breathing and meditation.

6. Consider Your Consumption

Typically when we’re talking about consumption in connection to sleep hygiene and stress we’re talking about caffeine and alcohol. Two substances Dr. Matthew Walker goes into great detail in, in his book Why We Sleep. However, consumption can mean so many different things based on your system and habits – for instance, if we’re experiencing digestive issues that cause us discomfort, our diet may be contributing to overall stress and a reduced capacity for quality sleep!

To dive deeper into this topic join me in my on-demand Yoga & Sleep Hygiene 6-week course. You can access this course for life with a one-time payment or join my Women’s Group Community Quarterly Membership and receive all the perks that go with it as well as access to the course to help you destress and self-care that much more!

Wishing you resful energy and deep sleep tonight!

With love,

Molly

PS. If it’s not quite the best timing for you, don’t worry! You can stay connected by joining my newsletter here; by signing up through this link, you’ll receive the winter e-publication of Ipseity Magazine free!

References:

Kim EJ, Dimsdale JE. The effect of psychosocial stress on sleep: a review of polysomnographic evidence. Behav Sleep Med. 2007;5(4):256-78. doi: 10.1080/15402000701557383. PMID: 17937582; PMCID: PMC4266573.

Werner, A, Kater, M-J, Schlarb, AA, Lohaus, A. Sleep and stress in times of the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of personal resources. Appl Psychol Health Well-Being. 2021; 13: 935– 951. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12281

Books:

Why We Sleep by Dr. Matthew Walker

Breath by James Nestor