Are you lying awake at night, stressed out, mind racing in circles? For many Americans this is a nightly routine that prevents sleep or leads to habits that may help you fall asleep, but not get good quality sleep. Stress is completely antagonistic to sleep efforts.
Beyond the stress that actively keeps you up at night, the demands of modern life – parenting, work, school, health, finances, chores – can also make sleep feel like a secondary necessity, especially because we all like having “free time” and “self-time.” Often, we to stay up and relax doing something we like including television, cruising the web, or watching a movie, all of which further inhibit sleep.
Also, all of us are different and can deal with different amounts of stress, both short-term or long-term stressors. Understanding stress is about understanding stress for you – how you react, how it impacts your life, how it impacts your sleep.
A sleep diary is simply a book you keep beside your bed that includes, at a minimum:
The last point is usually not included in a sleep diary, but it is an important aspect of a sleep diary where stressors are trying to be identified. If you are diligent by spending 5-10 minutes every day with your sleep diary, you will likely be able to identify if you are getting enough sleep what stressors may be causing it.
Some things to pay attention to in your sleep diary are:
Patterns are the critical thing to identify . Do you receive less than 7 hours of sleep on certain days of week, on days when you have certain activities? Are you always receiving poor sleep regardless of what happened during the day?
It’s also helpful to do things to help relieve stress, such as:
Getting more sleep will help you manage stress better. However, if you're unsure why you're not getting enough sleep, which is contributing to your stress levels, then it may be best to see if you have a sleeping disorder. If you live in Alaska and are concerned that sleep deprivation is the root cause of your stress, please contact us: