Stress and sleep can be a vicious cycle: you are too stressed to sleep and then your lack of sleep causes more stress which consequently impacts your sleep, and so on ad infinitum. Reducing your levels of stress can also help you unwind from the stresses and strains of work, whether you work in financial services and help people borrow money (more information here) or you work in retail and are on your feet all day; unwinding and reducing stress can help you sleep better at night.
Luckily, there are ways that you can take control of your stress in order to sleep better.
- Identify what is causing your stress
In order to take control of your stress, it is worth taking a look at what is causing it. Once you identify key stressors, you can work to reduce them. - Exercise
Physical activity will not only tire you out and make it easier to sleep at night, but it also does wonders for reducing stress as it allows you to blow off some steam. If you are doing physical activity, your muscles are likely to be looser and more flexible meaning that they have less tension when you are stressed. - Introduce relaxation techniques
Practising yoga, deep breathing and meditation can help to calm you down before going to bed and can greatly help your mental health overall. Deep breathing can be used at any given moment of the day as a way to relax you, stopping and slowing down to take depe and even breaths. Meditation allows you to still your mind before you go to bed and cut out some of the buzz of your thoughts. Yoga has also been shown to help relax your body and mind before going to sleep. - Watch your diet
Eating a healthy diet can help you feel energised and less lethargic. It can make you feel healthier and reduce stress. Try to avoid junk food, refined sugars and high-calorie, low-nutrition diets. Sugar, caffeine and alcohol can all trigger stress and negatively impact sleep so try to cut down on these or cut them out completely.
- Create a good sleep environment
Try to make a good sleep environment taking care to avoid any potential stressors. Generally speaking, a good sleep environment is one which is dark and free of background noise. - Have a warm bath or shower
Taking a warm shower or bath before you go to bed will help you de-stress before going to sleep. Not only that, it can work to lower your body temperature which has been proven to help you fall asleep quicker. - Stay away from your screen
It is widely recommended to avoid blue light exposure in the lead up to bedtime. Lights from electronics, be it a TV, phone or computer, interfere with your circadian rhythm and negatively impact your sleep. Not only that, but scrolling through your phone before bed can increase anxiety with what is called “doom scrolling” – exposing yourself to negative news – before sleeping. If you have bad credit or are currently in financial difficulty, it may be hard to switch off and stop scrolling, but the benefits of switching off has, will benefit you the next day, with a fresh head and clear thoughts. - Think about your thoughts
Making a conscious effort to manage your thoughts might sound like a strange thing to do but how we think can have a huge impact on many aspects of our life. Trying to change your thought patterns away from negative thoughts and towards positivity can help us to reduce stress. For example, rather than focusing on your sleep troubles, trying to shift your thoughts to say “tonight, I will have a great sleep” can have a hugely positive effect.