Too Stressed to Sleep? Here’s What May Help

Studies suggest losing good slumber may take a toll on the brain and body

Kim Painter

Updated July 16, 2024

A man appearing stressed as he sleeps in bed

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Losing sleep due to stress and anxiety? You are not tossing and turning alone. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, trouble sleeping is a common reaction to stress — those uneasy, nervous, anxious, fearful or hopeless feelings we have when we’re under a lot of pressure.

Chronic stress can speed up brain aging, according to a research review published in 2021 in Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience.

When we are too tired, we struggle to focus, which makes it harder to learn and remember new things. We also make more mistakes and may struggle to make decisions, solve problems and manage our emotions, according to the National Institutes of Health. Scientists have evidence that when we sleep, our brains flush out toxins and work on creating long-term memories. A lack of sleep might interrupt those processes.

And the damage might add up. The Seattle Longitudinal Study followed 826 people over two decades. At the study’s end, participants’ average age was 76. Those who regularly reported sleeping less than seven hours a night were 3.7 times more likely to develop memory impairment. The study was published in JAMA Network Open in 2023.

But the relationship between sleep and brain decline is complex. The Seattle study found that those whose sleep times shifted over the years in either direction, getting shorter or longer, fared the worst. Another study that followed more than 20,000 midlife and older adults for eight years found the fastest cognitive decline among those sleeping less than four hours or more than 10 hours a night. (It’s not clear why oversleeping was a problem, but it may promote brain inflammation in older adults, say researchers who reported the findings in JAMA Network Open in 2020.)

Other health effects of sleep deprivation can include weight gain, hardened arteries (in the brain and other parts of the body) and a dampened immune system.

Breaking the sleepless cycle

The problem: Worrying about how stress and sleep loss might affect your brain and overall health might make it even harder for a stressed-out person to fall asleep. So how to break the stressful cycle?

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Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist and board-certified sleep specialist based in Los Angeles, suggests that you start with the basics — all the habits known to promote healthy sleep in any circumstances:

Stick to a regular schedule. Go to bed and wake up at about the same time every day, even on weekends.

Avoid lying awake in bed for hours. If you can’t sleep, get up and read, listen to music or fold some laundry until you feel sleepy.

Avoid smoking, caffeine or highly acidic foods two to three hours before bedtime.

Unplug from devices, including TV, computers and cell phones, for at least 30 minutes before bedtime. You will avoid blue light, which can delay sleep and, perhaps just as importantly, “slow your data flow” of news and social media as you try to wind down, Breus says. For the same reasons, you should stay away from electronic devices if you get up during the night.

Make your bedroom a sleep sanctuary. That means using the bed for sleep and sex only, keeping the temperature cool and, if needed, installing blackout shades. Some people also like sound machines that mask annoying noises.

If you still can’t get to sleep, you may need to address your stress and anxiety directly and talk with your health care provider to see if there are any underlying health problems that might be making sleep difficult.

Breathe your way to slumber and other techniques

Breus recommends several relaxation techniques for people suffering from stress-linked insomnia. The easiest to try: breathing exercises. Many people, he says, find it helpful to take a series of even, slow breaths, in and out, several times a day or whenever they are feeling anxious or stressed. Or you can try a more structured breathing exercise.

Other stress-reducing techniques that might help you sleep:

Guided imagery. As part of your bedtime routine, you might spend a few minutes focused on a soothing imaginary journey, such as floating on a calm ocean, rocked by gentle waves and a warm breeze.

Progressive muscle relaxation. This technique involves tensing and relaxing parts of your body, one muscle group at a time. At bedtime, you might lie down and start by tensing and relaxing your feet, and then work your way gradually up to the top of your head.

Gratitude. Make a mental gratitude list as you lie in bed with the lights off. Or grab a pen and paper before your head hits the pillow. That could help you to replace worries with positive thoughts as you drift off to sleep. Ending your day on a grateful note may help improve deep sleep and produce more positive dreams, Breus says.