Sleep deprivation and stress

Too busy to sleep well? Do you spend your night trying to fit into jobs you didn’t have time to do during the day?

Some activities, such as working or caring for dependents, are generally classified as unavoidable. That’s because they usually are! Other activities such as socializing and entertaining, although optional and discretionary, are still considered by most to be necessary for a full life.

Sleep is often allotted to the time that is available after everything else has been taken care of or indulged. Are you still doing laundry at 2:00 am?

However, would you prioritize sleep if you knew it could help you be better able to achieve your desired level of productivity? Or that it can strengthen your immune system and help prevent a host of diseases and conditions?

Adequate sleep and healthy sleep patterns can prevent Alzheimer’s disease from manifesting later in life and can help repair the effects of chronic stress now.

Anyone who has stayed up after a hard day knows exactly how it feels when stress makes rest so elusive. The link between stress and sleep is a two-way street. While stress can make it difficult to fall asleep, lack of sleep can go a long way to causing stress and worsening its effects and symptoms.

Shift work sleep disorder

Whether you work as a long-distance truck driver or a college student who spends all night just to beat your assignment deadline, lack of sleep definitely affects your physical and emotional health. We are not nocturnal creatures. This is why those who work the night shift will often find it difficult to overcome their natural daytime pattern and sleep on demand. Lack of sleep is very common among night shift workers. It has become prevalent enough for it to have an official name: “shift work sleep disorder.”

The book titled Principles and Practice reported that night workers often sleep five to ten hours less each week than those who work a regular daytime schedule. Medscape Neurology and Neurosurgery reported that people who work a night shift are at increased risk of stress. In turn, they are more prone to different types of stress-related health problems, such as heart disease, hypertension, infertility, weakened immune system, and stomach problems.

How Stress Affects Sleep Quality

Most people find it difficult to sleep at night while pondering stressful thoughts. Several scientific studies show that stress can have a great impact on a person’s quality and quantity of sleep. It was found that people who suffer from insomnia experience a greater number of stressful events in life compared to people who do not suffer from insomnia.

Studies also show that the perception or personal valuation of stress can increase or reduce the tendency to suffer insomnia. This means that even if you have not been experiencing situations that others may consider stressful, but you perceive these things to be stressful, you are more likely to suffer from insomnia.

This reinforces the understanding that lack of sleep and stress negatively affect the other. The bottom line is that being able to rest, or the lack of it, has a huge influence on how many stressful events you are likely to experience and how well you will be able to cope with them.

Sleep deprivation influences an individual’s perception

Lack of sleep can strongly influence your perception of the events that are happening in your life. To support this claim, a study was conducted in which participants were asked to take a test that was found to be mildly stressful. The results indicated that participants who were sleep deprived experienced higher levels of stress while taking the exam, compared to participants who had no problems with sleeping difficulties. Other research done outside of the lab also showed that lack of sleep leads to psychological strain and stress.

The good news is, you don’t have to be a lifelong victim of lack of sleep and stress. Make the effort to evaluate your lifestyle habits and make healthy changes to them. Subtle changes in behavior and diet can increase both the quantity and quality of sleep. This will lead to notable improvements in productivity and health in the short and long term, especially in relation to overcoming stress and its effects.