Worries about work, school, health, finances, or family can keep your mind active during the night, making it difficult to sleep. Stressful life events or trauma, such as the death or illness of a loved one, divorce or loss of work, can also cause insomnia. If you regularly struggle to fall asleep or stay asleep, the cause is most likely something you're doing (such as drinking coffee at the end of the day) or something you're not doing (such as getting rid of the stress that keeps you awake). Fortunately, there are a number of steps you can take to change things.
If you can't sleep at night, you may also feel lightheaded and sleepy for most of the next day. You can even fall asleep during the day or consume excessive amounts of caffeine to try to stay awake. When you say: I can't sleep, it can mean you can't fall asleep, but it can also mean that you have a hard time staying asleep. There are many different factors that could be contributing to sleep problems.
Lifestyle choices, sleep habits, stress, and medical conditions can play a role. A single glass of alcohol before bedtime may not interfere with your ability to fall asleep, but give yourself much more and your sleep may be affected. This is because alcohol interferes with the sleep cycle, especially REM sleep, which includes dreaming. You may not realize it, since the initial effect of drinking alcohol is relaxation.
This can help you fall asleep quickly after drinking it. But your rest will be fragmented and unrefreshing. This effect is even more common in people with heavy alcohol consumption, as it often goes hand in hand with insomnia. If you drink a lot of alcohol at night, you're also more likely to wake up mid-sleep to go to the bathroom, which can lower your sleep quality.
Sleep and anxiety are closely related. If you have trouble sleeping, your anxiety may increase, and if you have high anxiety, you may have trouble sleeping. In fact, sleep interruption can coexist with almost every mental health problem. Research shows that the type of sleep interruption varies depending on the type of anxiety.
People with state anxiety (anxiety due to a current situation) tend to have more trouble falling asleep. People with anxiety traits (a personality that is more anxious) often have more trouble staying asleep. Along with problems falling or staying asleep, poor sleep habits can also negatively affect mental health. Studies have linked poor sleep hygiene to poorer mental well-being.
Sharing a bed with someone else - whether it's a human or a four-legged friend - greatly reduces the quality of sleep, especially if your partner snores, huddles you, hogs the sheets, or makes you feel uncomfortable in any other way. You and your partner may also have different preferred sleeping conditions (such as temperature, light, and noise level). You know that a cup of coffee before bed is a bad idea, but did you know that the half-life of caffeine is three to five hours? This means that only half of the dose is eliminated during that time, leaving the remaining half to remain in the body. That's why a cup of coffee in the late afternoon can disturb your sleep later that night.
Caffeine has been associated with more difficulty sleeping, less total sleep time, and worsening perceived quality - even more so in older adults - as this demographic tends to be more sensitive to this substance. If I'm having trouble sleeping it's often because I'm so stressed - and you're not alone! About 43% of American adults say stress has kept them awake at night at least once in the past month. Body temperature and heart rate naturally drop as you fall asleep; exercise increases those two bodily functions and stimulates the entire nervous system - making it difficult to take a nap. Some of the most common reasons for insomnia - even when you're tired - include being under a lot of stress; having an irregular sleep schedule or poor sleep habits; mental health problems; physical illnesses; medications; and sleep disorders.
If you wake up during the night this could be because you're getting older; taking certain medications; your lifestyle (such as drinking alcohol before bed or taking a lot of naps); or an undiagnosed condition. Try to correct bad sleep habits and see if your sleep improves; if not then a healthcare provider can help determine the cause of your sleep problems. People who have insomnia don't feel like they get enough sleep at night; they may have trouble falling asleep or waking up frequently during the night or early in the morning. Insomnia is a problem if it affects your daytime activities; insomnia has many possible causes including stress; anxiety; depression; poor sleep habits; circadian rhythm disorders (such as time lag); and taking certain medications; drops in blood oxygen during sleep - previously thought to be caused by obstructive sleep apnea - may or may not be present. Sleep hygiene and sleep quality are predictors of positive and negative dimensions of mental health in university students; sleeping in an adult's bed can also be dangerous for babies which can lead to suffocation or suffocation. A healthcare provider can help focus on why you're having trouble sleeping as well as provide guidance for getting better rest at night. A lot of fat or protein just before bedtime - or a spicy meal - can cause your digestive system to speed up making it difficult to sleep and can lead to heartburn. While most people need 7-9 hours of sleep at night maintaining a consistent cycle is even more important than quantity says one expert. Sleep habits such as staying up very late and having an irregular schedule can influence sleep deprivation; obstructive sleep apnea - especially if it's severe enough to cause drops in blood oxygen levels during sleep - is a risk for fetuses. Finally remember that caffeine has a half-life of three to five hours so even if you had coffee late in the afternoon it could still affect your ability to get good rest later that night.
