What’s the Connection Between Anxiety and Sleep Issues?

If a good night’s sleep has become elusive lately, it’s easy to chalk it up to a busy schedule or other demands of daily life.   

But if you’re finding yourself tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep, or you’re waking throughout the night with incessant worries on your mind, is anxiety hindering your ability to get some proper shuteye?  

Anxiety and sleep problems, studies show, are inextricably linked in more ways than one. Lack of sleep has been cited as a major risk factor for anxiety, even more than depression, according to the Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine. The school notes that sleep deprivation makes one 20 times more likely to develop panic disorder, one of the many types of anxiety disorders. 

On their own, untreated lack of sleep and anxiety can take a toll on your physical and mental health. What can you do about sleep deprivation and anxiety when both seem to go hand in hand? Let’s look deeper and get to the heart of what’s keeping you up at night so you can rest easy and anxiety-free. 

What’s the Connection Between Anxiety and Sleep Issues?  

When you can’t sleep because of anxiety, there’s a complex, fractious biological and psychosomatic relationship at play. Say you’ve been feeling anxious. Your body begins to produce elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which research has shown can disrupt your sleep cycles.  

Cortisol isn’t a bad hormone, per se. It’s useful in times of danger because it keeps us alert, vigilant, and aware of imminent threats. But it’s counterproductive when you’re trying to relax and get some z’s. 

When this happens, according to the Sleep Foundation, your brain remains on high alert, scanning for potential problems, making it nearly impossible to achieve the mental quietude needed for sleep. This can trigger a mental and physical hyperaroused state linked to insomnia. (Studies show that anxiety disorder was present in 24% to 36% of people with insomnia.)  

How Does Anxiety Affect People?  

Feeling anxiety from time to time is a normal human reaction to stressful situations. It’s part of the stress response we described earlier, a survival instinct in the presence of a threat. In everyday situations, anxiety is the body’s way of coping and staying focused and alert, like when you’re feeling pressure before a big exam in school or mounting deadlines at work. 

 It’s when anxiety becomes intensified and ever-present even in normal, daily situations that it can be the sign of an anxiety disorder. Because anxiety is so common, anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health condition, affecting 40 million adults, or just over 19% of the U.S. population, each year, notes the Anxiety & Depression Association of America (ADAA).  

Anxiety and stress disorders can manifest and present themselves through various physical, mental, and emotional symptoms, including: 

• An ever-present feeling of panic or dread in everyday situations 

• Difficulty controlling or stopping worrisome thoughts 

• Challenges with concentration and focus 

• Restlessness and an irritable demeanor 

• Panic attacks 

• Avoiding people, places or situations that trigger anxiety 

• Increase heart rate or heart palpitations 

• Hyperventilation, or heavy breathing 

• Sweating 

• Shaking or trembling 

• Digestive discomfort 

• Muscle tension throughout the body 

• Chronic fatigue 

Why Does Anxiety Make It Hard to Sleep?

One of the most frustrating aspects of sleep problems and anxiety is that anxiety prevents you from sleeping even when you’re exhausted. Mild anxiety or moderate-to-severe anxiety disorders make it difficult to simply drift off to sleep. With anxiety, a racing mind, and a symphony of symptoms, an unhealthy loop can be created that makes falling asleep with anxiety more difficult than we might imagine.  

Overthinking 

Even when you have a quiet, dark bedroom, with no visual or auditory sensations preventing you from falling asleep, anxiety can keep you almost shocked awake despite craving some rest. A racing mind and tendency to obsessively ruminate make falling asleep with anxiety a problem that’s hard to will away.  

This type of overthinking can be symptomatic of generalized anxiety disorder; as your external distractions decrease at bedtime, your internal thought processes often become more noticeable as your brain remains on anxious hyperdrive.  

In these moments, overthinking might feel like: 

• Your mind races, jumping from one worrying thought to the next 

• Imagining and catastrophizing worst-case scenarios 

• Replaying recent events in your mind 

• Worrying about lying awake and falling asleep with anxiety  

And when you can’t sleep because of anxiety, even when you try to redirect your mind to a place of calm, anxiety can make it difficult for it to stay in that place before running off again. Each time you try to relax, a new worry pops up, keeping you awake. 

Physical Symptoms  

Lying awake in bed, anxiety and sleep aren’t limited to your head. Some of the physical symptoms common to anxiety disorders are felt undeniably in the body, like: 

• Tense muscles make it difficult to find a comfortable position 

• Racing heartbeat keeps you alert and on edge 

• Digestive discomfort 

• Quick, rapid breathing   

And although you may not readily feel it, the body begins to release other stress hormones in addition to cortisol, like adrenaline, that can disrupt your body’s processes and natural state, leaving you feeling wide awake even though your body knows it wants to rest. It receives mixed signals — your desire for sleep conflicts with your body’s state of arousal.