Struggling To Sleep? Here’s Some Advice To Help You Combat Poor Sleep
Are you struggling with your sleeping patterns? Or are you finding that you wake up feeling tired? There are several reasons this could be happening. Lack of sleep can affect all areas of our lives, such as work or relationships. From lifestyle factors to sleep conditions, it’s essential to find the answers for both your physical and mental health. Please keep reading to find out more about potential reasons for struggling to sleep, as well as what you can do to combat it.
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What Factors Can Affect Sleep?
Firstly, let’s look at some of the factors that can play into a difficult night of sleep. The most obvious answer is a sleep disorder such as severe, long-term insomnia or sleep-related issues such as sleep apnoea. In which case, you can seek medical advice and potentially medication to help you overcome the lack of sleep.
However, other mental health-related conditions aren’t directly linked to sleep but can significantly affect it. For example, anxiety and depression can significantly impact sleep, whether that’s through lack of sleep or from sleeping too much and feeling exhausted all the time. Seeking treatments for depression and anxiety can lead to improvements in sleep due to treating the overriding issue. Sometimes, lack of sleep can be due to other lifestyle factors that are easier to resolve, and we will cover some of these later in the post.
How To Calm Anxiety At Night
Most people will go through a period of their life where they struggle to sleep due to experiencing stress or worry in the short term. Sometimes it’s just a matter of waiting for this phase to pass, and eventually, your sleep will naturally recover. But sometimes, this can be a longer-term problem and impact other areas of your life.
There are several options if you’re wondering how to calm anxiety at night—for example, seeking therapy, medication from your doctor, taking a break from work, and breathwork exercises. It will depend on the severity of your anxiety regarding what you will need to do to help improve your sleep, and it’s always worth discussing your mental health with a medical or psychological professional if you’re struggling to cope.
How Your Lifestyle Can Affect Your Sleep
There could also be simple changes in your lifestyle you can change to help improve sleeping habits too. For example, many people suffering from lack of sleep will often turn to coffee to help them wake up during the day. However, caffeine can be detrimental to sleep and make the problem worse. If you’re going to drink caffeine products, try to limit them to the morning and don’t consume caffeine in the hours before you go to bed.
Try swapping out your usual drinks for caffeine-free options, so you can still enjoy your favorite drinks without the effect on your sleep. If you have a job that involves sitting at a computer all day, this lack of physical activity and exposure to blue light can lead to an inability to get to sleep when the time comes.