Do you find yourself lying awake at night, staring at the clock as the minutes and hours tick by? Is your sleep schedule in disarray, and has it been that way for weeks or even months? Insomnia can wreak havoc on your mental health, reduce your productivity during the day, and lead to poor lifestyle habits that perpetuate the cycle of disrupted sleep.
Fortunately, insomnia often responds well to treatment. Many people can recover from insomnia by reducing stress and adopting healthier habits. Therapy can help you learn tools for anxiety reduction and help you take the practical steps that can address your insomnia.
Key points
- Healthy sleep is important for robust physical and emotional wellness.
- Mental health challenges can power sleep problems, and low-quality sleep tends to exacerbate mental health issues.
- Your diet might be powering your insomnia.
- Taking steps and getting help to reduce anxiety and make healthy lifestyle choices is often effective for treating insomnia.
How insomnia affects your mental and physical health
Getting good quality sleep is integral to regulating many aspects of your physical health and emotional well-being. Quality sleep helps you manage stress more effectively. With sufficient sleep, your body is better able to regulate aspects of your hormonal production, directly impacting how you feel and behave.
Insomnia wreaks havoc on your adrenal and endocrine systems, with chronic sleep deprivation dramatically increasing your risk of mental health issues. Insomnia is linked to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and even suicidal ideation. Researchers found that people who sleep less than six hours each night were 2.5 times more likely to be depressed or anxious than those who slept for at least seven hours. In fact, even generally healthy people without any prior mental health diagnosis reported experiencing bouts of depression and anxiety after periods of sleep deprivation.
Having a mental health diagnosis is closely linked to sleep disturbances. Insomnia can be partly caused by anxiety and, in an unfortunate cycle, insomnia tends to exacerbate mental health issues.
The importance of sleep on robust health
Quality sleep is a critical component of well-being. It affects your emotional balance, physical health, and cognitive functioning. When you sleep well, you are better able to regulate your moods and your emotional responses to everyday events. That’s why you’re usually more cranky, irritable, and impatient when you’re sleep-deprived.
Better quality sleep is linked to stronger immunity to infection, maintaining a healthy weight, and lower incidence of serious health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.
When you are better rested, it’s easier to be in a good mood. By addressing your insomnia, you will be more able to enjoy the simple pleasures of life than when you are sleep deprived.
Limit caffeine and sugar in the afternoon and evening
Consuming caffeine and sugar, especially later in the day can significantly interfere with your ability to get quality sleep.
Both sugar and caffeine during the day can leave you exhausted and unable to sleep at night, and also impact your moods and hormones, which in turn exacerbate your insomnia.
Reduce your consumption of highly processed, refined carbohydrates
Having a diet high in refined carbohydrates is quantifiably linked to insomnia
Research shows that a dietary lifestyle with a higher glycemic index is linked to an increased likelihood of developing insomnia. The glycemic index (or GI value) measures how quickly different foods are released into the bloodstream, or made available to use for energy. Whole, unprocessed foods such as lentils and vegetables are released slowly into the bloodstream, as the fiber and various nutrients are broken down and used by the body. Heavily refined and processed foods, on the other hand, have far less nutrient value and are instantly absorbed into the bloodstream, leading to dramatic energy fluctuations.
Refined carbohydrates such as white bread, cakes and cookies, soda, and similarly highly processed and unhealthy food choices create dramatic highs and lows in blood sugar.
In a large Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Observational Study of 93,676 postmenopausal women across 24 states, participants whose diet was rich in foods with a high GI value reported significantly more insomnia. The study found a dose-response relationship: insomnia is directly proportional to the amount of highly refined carbohydrates consumed.
The good news is that eating foods rich in dietary fiber, whole grains, fruit, and vegetables tends to reduce insomnia. Changing your diet can improve the quality of sleep and you can wake up feeling rested and rejuvenated.
Therapy and holistic steps to reduce anxiety
There are a whole host of holistic steps that you can take to reduce anxiety. Any reduction in anxiety will help you sleep better.
In addition to diet and reducing anxiety, regular exercise, reducing screen time, having regular time outdoors, and implementing a regular schedule for bedtime and getting up, should help address your insomnia.
CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is a highly effective, evidence-based treatment that targets the underlying behaviors and thoughts that contribute to sleep disturbances. Unlike sleep medications, which provide temporary relief, CBT-I focuses on long-term solutions by addressing the habits and mental patterns that fuel insomnia. The therapy includes techniques such as sleep restriction, stimulus control, and cognitive restructuring, all designed to improve sleep quality and overall mental health. Studies have shown that CBT-I is successful in treating chronic insomnia, reducing sleep anxiety, and fostering healthier sleep habits, making it a preferred treatment option for those struggling with sleep disorders.
Now that you know this, what are you going to do about it?
Knowledge is power, but for most of us just having information is usually not enough to make drastic lifestyle changes, especially on your own. Most of your behaviors are learned behaviors that developed over time and actually need to be “unlearned” to be replaced with healthier habits.
The good news is that even if it seems hard, it can be done! The first step is wanting to be healthier. The second step is finding the right professional support to help you make positive changes in your life.
Reach out today
Therapy can help you understand and address the root causes of your sleepless nights, providing you with tools to achieve restful, restorative sleep. You deserve to wake up refreshed and ready to face each day. Take the first step toward better sleep and reach out today to reclaim your nights and energy.
References and suggested reading
Get Enough Sleep — Healthy Living,