Sleep Anxiety Articles

Sleep and more

Nowadays, more than 40 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, which means that sleep problems become more common and can happen to anyone. There are many kinds of sleep disorders like insomnia (trouble falling asleep, having hard time trying staying asleep, waking too early in the morning) and sleep apnea (loud snoring caused by an obstructed airway), and as you can guess, sleep disorders can cause sleep anxiety, which is the subject and the reason behind this article. Sleep Anxiety is part of a group of illnesses that contain panic disorder, post-traumatic disorder, social anxiety disorder, general anxiety disorder and panic attacks. All these illnesses are medical conditions, which can be cured with the right treatment. The Causes of Sleep Anxiety As already mentioned, one of reasons behind sleep anxiety is sleep disorders, but there are a lot of other potential causes: • Stress – According to the Better Sleep Council, sixty five percent of Americans are losing sleep because of stress. When you are stressed, your mind doesn’t stop thinking, and as result – you have problems when you are trying to fall asleep. • Depression – Depression is a medical illness that is identified by consistent feelings of unhappiness or emptiness. These feelings cause a difficulty falling asleep and poor-quality sleep. The symptoms of Sleep Anxiety People who suffer from sleep anxiety often have symptoms like thumping heart, trembling, gasping for [...]

The Vicious Cycle of Anxiety and Sleep Loss

If you suffer from sleep anxiety, it means you worry about your insomnia. Actually, you may even be obsessed about it. It becomes a vicious cycle because you worry about the amount of sleep you had last night, then you start to worry about how much sleep you are going to get tonight and so on. It does not stop there as then you start to worry about why you are feeling so tired and whether or not you will make it through the day. The worry gets worse as you begin to ponder on whether you will start to get fatigued or develop secondary health problems due to the lack of sleep and all this starts to build your anxiety even more which in turn causes sleeping problems: a total vicious cycle starts and gains momentum. Sleep anxiety can be attributed to stress. When people get stressed, a naturally occurring chemical called serotonin is created. Serotonin is sometimes called the neurotransmitter and it plays a leading role in analysing data in the brain. Serotonin affects the melatonin levels and melatonin is a hormone of great importance as it encourages a good night’s sleep. If melatonin levels become compromised, for example due to stress and anxiety, the outcome could be problems with your natural sleeping cycle. Furthermore once sleeping problems occur, further anxiety builds up creating an excess of adrenalin into the bloodstream which in [...]

Sleep Anxiety Is Constantly Worrying About Not Being Able to Sleep

Sleep Anxiety Is Constantly Worrying About Not Being Able to Sleep By Wendy Owen Sleep anxiety disorder can be devastating and debilitating for those who are plagued by this growing sleep disorder. Anxiety and insomnia tend to go hand in hand. A lot of anxiety is caused simply be being unable to sleep. Tossing and turning and looking at the clock further adds to the frustration. Knowing that you will not feel rested when you wake up, is plenty of fuel for sleep anxiety. Lack of sleep or sleep deprivation can cause a person to lose their ability to focus, which can affect their daily routine. Working, driving, taking care of children and household chores can be hard to do when you’re sleep deprived, causing even more anxiety and thus insomnia. Understanding the details of insomnia will certainly help us to start to correct the problem which is spreading globally. Recent studies indicate that our young people are suffering from anxiety and insomnia too. Research also shows that this is usually inherited from a parent. Another interesting link found among young chronic insomnia victims, was the prevalence of depression. Whether we have sleep anxiety from the stress of not being able to sleep, or from other causes, anxiety insomnia can easily become the end result. Some sleep research experts believe that more focus should be placed on sleeping, ranking it as one of three major [...]