压力大到睡不着？11种放松方法，让焦虑思绪安歇

摘要：如果你感觉自己压力大到难以入眠，那你并非孤身一人，不过确实有办法应对这些无眠之夜。要是压力总让你夜不能寐，可以考虑改善睡眠环境、定期锻炼，以及保持规律作息。

如果你感觉自己压力大到难以入眠，那你并非孤身一人，不过确实有办法应对这些无眠之夜。要是压力总让你夜不能寐，可以考虑改善睡眠环境、定期锻炼，以及保持规律作息。

我们都有过这样的经历。你关上灯，躺到床上，准备入睡，可紧接着，脑海里就开始充斥着各种令人焦虑的想法，将你拖入一种紧张状态，让你数小时都难以入眠。

你可能只是把这当作偶尔几晚没睡好，但保持健康的睡眠作息对于展现最佳状态、提升效率至关重要。睡眠不佳会产生诸多不良后果，以不同方式影响着你。

压力过大而难以入睡，会严重影响心理健康，而压力的增加又会让我们更难获得所需的睡眠。从应对学业或工作的压力，到处理个人问题带来的困扰，无数诱因都可能导致我们失眠。然而，人类需要睡眠才能正常生活，所以，要是你正经历一连串的无眠之夜，务必重视起来。

幸运的是，你可以对日常生活做出一些小改变，这有助于缓解夜间焦虑，让你为一夜好眠做好更充分的准备。以下是11种简单方法，能帮你缓解精神压力，提升睡眠质量。

## 压力大到睡不着时，改善睡眠的11个策略

### 营造利于睡眠的环境

营造一个利于睡眠的环境，对睡眠质量和入睡能力有着显著影响。美国疾病控制与预防中心（CDC）指出，你可以通过以下步骤打造一个适宜睡眠的环境：

- 尽量让房间变得漆黑，可使用遮光窗帘。

- 尽可能减少噪音。

- 保持房间温度凉爽。

- 不要在睡觉的房间里阅读、看电视或工作。

综合这些要素，打造一个利于睡眠的环境，能从生理和心理两方面，帮助你为一夜好眠做好准备。

### 练习压力管理技巧

压力管理技巧能够改善压力和焦虑带来的身体症状，比如心率加快和肌肉紧张。像呼吸练习和冥想这类技巧，能减缓心率，当神经系统进入“战斗或逃跑”模式时，帮助它恢复正常状态。

睡前可以尝试的一些不错的压力管理技巧包括：

- 正念冥想

- 身体扫描冥想

- 深呼吸

- 瑜伽

### 定期锻炼

定期锻炼对身心有益，自然也有助于改善睡眠习惯。约翰·霍普金斯大学医学院的医学专家称，定期锻炼能帮助你排解压力，让身体恢复平稳。

约翰·霍普金斯大学医学院的研究人员还证实，定期锻炼能让人们更轻松地进入睡眠的慢波阶段，也就是睡眠的最深层次。在慢波睡眠阶段，身心能够得到充分的恢复，让你为新的一天充满活力。

### 避免刺激性物质

刺激性物质会极大地影响睡眠质量。这些物质会增加多巴胺的分泌，使你无法进入睡眠的慢波阶段和快速眼动（REM）阶段。

北卡罗来纳大学的研究人员称，睡眠和觉醒受大脑中几种化学变化的控制，而当你摄入刺激性物质时，这些变化就会被打乱。睡前应避免的物质包括：

- 咖啡

- 苏打水

- 酒精

- 巧克力

### 保持规律的睡眠作息

如果你想提升睡眠质量，尤其是经常夜间难以入睡的话，规律的作息至关重要。每天在相同的时间入睡和起床，能让你的身体形成生物钟，到了该睡觉和起床的时间，生物钟就会提醒你。

一个有效的做法是，确定自己什么时候最有活力。如果你清晨精力充沛，那就设定一个从晚上10点到早上6点的8小时睡眠计划。要是你习惯熬夜，在日程允许的情况下，可以推迟睡觉时间，将生物钟设定为从午夜到早上8点。

### 限制屏幕使用时间

众所周知，智能手机和电脑发出的蓝光会对睡眠产生负面影响，不过这并非唯一原因。

你的手机，尤其是社交媒体，是一个信息的无尽世界，会让你的大脑持续受到刺激、保持兴奋，而这恰恰是你准备睡觉前最不需要的。在即将入睡之际查看社交媒体、邮件或短信，会加剧已有的担忧，提升压力水平。

### 建立睡前常规活动

如同保持规律的睡眠作息一样，建立一套可重复的睡前常规活动，也能显著提升你的睡眠质量。

睡前常规活动有助于提醒身体该睡觉了，并且可以包含一些自然能让你感到疲倦的活动，这样你就做好了入睡的准备。一些适合睡前常规活动的项目包括：

- 泡个热水澡

- 做呼吸练习

- 进行冥想或瑜伽

- 阅读

- 写日记

### 写下你的担忧

写日记是另一种缓解压力的有效方法。要是把它纳入你的睡前常规活动，就能让你的大脑放松下来，从而自然地在你期望的时间入睡。

2013年的一项研究表明，患有抑郁症的人在进行了一个月的表达性写作后，症状有所减轻。通过直接减轻压力和焦虑带来的身体症状，你会更容易入睡，并且睡得更安稳。

### 听舒缓的音乐

还记得摇篮曲吗？父母唱歌哄孩子入睡是有科学依据的。

音乐和助眠音效也是应对焦虑夜晚的有效良方。2011年的一项研究发现，纯音乐能直接降低皮质醇水平，帮助手术前的患者更快达到合适的镇静状态。

如果你经常难以入睡，可以在睡眠环境中引入纯音乐或助眠音效。要是白噪音或粉红噪音无法让你入睡，不妨试试听一些纯音乐入眠。

### 避免长时间午睡

我们理解。有时候，一天的经历会让你疲惫不堪，或者前一晚没睡好，导致你一整天都难以保持清醒。然而，长时间午睡会影响你当晚的睡眠，打乱你努力养成的良好睡眠作息。

美国疾病控制与预防中心称，午睡的最佳时长是15到30分钟。这样时长的午睡能提升警觉性，而更长时间的午睡会让你进入更深层次的睡眠，醒来后会感到昏昏沉沉，效率低下。

### 投资一张舒适的床垫

要是你一直难以入睡，可别忽视舒适度——舒适从床垫开始。更好的床垫带来更好的睡眠，进而能让你更快乐、更健康、更高效。

要是压力让你夜不能寐，那就找一张能对抗压力的床垫。

## 压力影响睡眠的三个原因

压力大的时候还想睡个好觉，就好比蒙着眼睛在半场投篮，不是做不到，只是难度很大。这背后有生物学原因。

当人处于压力之下，身体会释放皮质醇，这是主要的压力荷尔蒙。与此同时，糖分（也就是葡萄糖）进入血液，导致血压升高，进而引发：

- 肌肉紧张

- 心跳加速

- 思绪纷飞

这种反应就是我们熟知的“战斗或逃跑”反应，是我们身体在遇到危险时激活的一种本能生存机制。这反过来又会让人在床上难以放松下来。

当压力持续数周，就会变成慢性压力。高压工作、经济困扰、离婚、家庭成员离世，或者对时事的焦虑，都可能引发慢性压力。

到了这个阶段，身体开始适应较高的皮质醇水平。这会持续干扰优质睡眠的获得，还可能引发更严重的健康问题，包括心脏病、高血压、糖尿病和抑郁症。

## 常见问题解答

睡眠和压力之间的关系较为复杂，改善睡眠往往比改善饮食或增加一点运动量更具挑战性。以下是一些关于压力如何影响睡眠的常见问题及解答。

### 睡眠不佳会导致压力更大吗？

说到睡眠和压力的关联，这可不是单向的。睡眠不佳会导致压力和焦虑增加，从而形成一个难以打破的恶性循环。

加州大学伯克利分校的研究人员发现，仅仅一个不眠之夜，就能导致情绪压力水平飙升30%。睡眠在调节我们的情绪、帮助我们高效工作方面起着关键作用。当我们睡眠不足时，身体就更难妥善应对压力。

### 孤独会让压力加剧吗？

研究人员发现，孤独是急性和慢性压力的一个关键来源。正如我们刚才提到的，短期和慢性压力是获得优质睡眠的重大障碍。

2023年美国卫生与公众服务部部长报告指出，孤独会增加压力，提高患心血管疾病、糖尿病、认知能力下降等疾病的风险。为了防范这种情况，尤其是如果你独居的话，一定要抽出时间和亲朋好友交流。打电话就很好，或者安排一次视频通话，和许久未见的人叙叙旧。

不管用什么方式，只要多付出些努力，和你最在乎的人保持联系就好。

### 压力大到睡不着时该怎么办？

要是压力让你夜不能寐，练习正念和锻炼是很好的切入点。花时间冥想、做呼吸练习，或者简单地散散步，这些都是调整日常生活的简便方法，能让你的身心为睡眠做好更充分的准备。

### 睡不着的时候怎么强迫自己入睡？

一般来说，“强迫”自己入睡很难，但你可以在生活中做出一些改变，这些改变会产生累积效应，帮助你入睡。

当正念练习、锻炼和规律作息协同进行时，应该能显著让你在该睡觉的时候更易感到疲倦、放松。

### 4-7-8睡眠技巧是什么？

4-7-8技巧是一种专注于呼吸的放松练习，旨在帮助身体入睡。

- 用鼻子吸气4秒。

- 屏住呼吸7秒。

- 用嘴呼气8秒。

4-7-8技巧以及类似的其他练习背后的理念是，迫使大脑专注于呼吸，而不是你脑海中的其他任何问题。这样一来，它应该有助于重置你的神经系统，放松身体，帮助你快速入睡。

### 为什么压力大的时候我睡不着？

压力大时睡不着，是因为你的身体正处于“战斗或逃跑”状态，或者正经历压力带来的身体症状。肌肉紧张、心率加快，几乎不可能入睡。

坚持规律作息、锻炼和正念练习，或许无法解决导致你压力的问题，但能帮助你达到一个更容易入睡的状态。再配上一张舒适的床垫，你可能会发现自己每晚都能轻松入睡，并且因此变得更快乐、更健康。

Too Stressed To Sleep? 11 Ways to Wind Down & Put Anxious Thoughts to Bed

If you feel like you’re too stressed to sleep, you’re not alone, but there are ways you can combat sleepless nights. Consider improving your sleep environment, exercising regularly, and keeping a regular schedule if you find stress keeps you up at night.

We’ve all been there. You shut off the lights, get in bed, prepare to fall asleep, and then your mind begins to race with stressful thoughts — sending you into an anxious state that can keep you awake for hours.

While you may just chalk this up to a couple of nights of poor sleep, keeping a healthy sleep schedule is imperative for being your best and most productive self — and poor sleep can have compounding consequences that can affect you in different ways.

Being too stressed to sleep can significantly impact mental wellness, and increased stress can make it harder to get the sleep we need. From dealing with the pressures of school or work to the stress of personal issues, an endless amount of triggers can cause us to lose sleep. However, humans need sleep to function, so if you’re experiencing strings of sleepless nights, getting on top of it is essential.

Fortunately, there are small changes you can make to your daily life that can help soothe nighttime anxiety and better prepare you for a good night of rest. Here are 11 easy ways you can destress your mind and sleep better.

11 strategies for sleeping better when you're too stressed to sleep.

1. Create a Sleep-Friendly Environment

Creating an environment conducive to sleep has proven effects on the quality of your sleep and your ability to fall asleep. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), you can create a sleep-friendly environment by taking the following steps:

Make your room as dark as possible. You can use blackout curtains for this.

Reduce noise as much as you can.

Keep the room’s temperature cool.

Don’t read, watch TV, or work in the room where you sleep.

Combining these elements to create a sleep-friendly environment should help you physically and mentally prepare for a good night of sleep.

2. Practice Stress Management Techniques

Stress management techniques can influence the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety, like increased heart rate and muscle tension. Techniques like breathing exercises and meditation can slow your heart rate and work to reset your nervous system when it enters fight or flight mode.

A few great stress management techniques to try before bed include:

Mindfulness meditation

Body scan meditation

Deep breathing

Yoga

3. Exercise Regularly

Regular exercise can benefit your mind and body, and thus your sleep habits as well. According to medical experts at John Hopkins Medicine, regular exercise can help relieve your mind of stressful thoughts and stabilize your body.

Researchers at John Hopkins Medicine also confirm that regular exercise helps people more easily reach the slow-wave stage of sleep, the deepest level of sleep. While in the slow wave stage of sleep, the body and mind can fully rejuvenate — allowing you to feel refreshed for the day ahead.

4. Avoid Stimulating Substances

Stimulating substances can greatly affect sleep quality. These substances increase dopamine — which keeps you out of the slow wave stage of sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep.

According to researchers at the University of North Carolina, sleeping and waking up are controlled by several chemical changes in the brain, which are interrupted when you introduce stimulating substances. Substances to avoid before bedtime include:

Coffee

Soda

Alcohol

Chocolate

5. Keep a Regular Sleep Schedule

A routine is key if you’re looking to improve your sleep quality, especially if you often can't sleep at night. Going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day allows your body to form a biological clock that alerts you when it’s time to go to sleep and wake up.

A good way to put this into practice is by identifying when you’re most productive. If you hit your stride early in the morning, set an eight-hour sleep schedule from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. If you’re a night owl, you can delay your bedtime, if your schedule allows, and set your biological clock from midnight to 8 a.m.

6. Limit Screen Time

It’s commonly known that the blue light that emits from smartphones and computers can negatively impact sleep, and while this is true, it’s not the only reason.

Your phone, notably social media, is an endless world of information that keeps your mind stimulated and engaged, which is the last thing you need as you’re winding down for bed. Looking at social media, email, or texts can inflame existing worries and enhance your stress levels right before you try to go to sleep.

7. Establish a Bedtime Routine

Like maintaining a regular sleep schedule, establishing a repeatable bedtime routine can also drastically improve your sleep quality.

Bedtime routines are good for alerting your body that it’s time for sleep and can include activities that naturally make you tired, so you’re prepared to doze off. Some good activities for a bedtime routine include:

Taking a warm bath

Doing breathing exercises

Practicing meditation or yoga

Reading

Journaling

8. Journal Your Worries

Journaling is another effective technique for relieving stress. And when implemented into your bedtime routine, it can relax your mind so you naturally fall asleep at your desired time.

According to a 2013 study, people suffering from depression saw a decline in their symptoms after practicing expressive writing for a month. By directly reducing the physical symptoms of stress and anxiety, you’ll have an easier time falling — and staying — asleep.

9. Listen to Relaxing Music

Remember lullabies? Well, there’s a scientific reason parents sing to lull children to sleep.

Music and sleep sounds have also been an effective remedy for anxious nights. A 2011 study found that instrumental music directly lowered cortisol levels and helped pre-surgery patients reach a proper sedative level faster.

Introduce instrumental music or sleep sounds into your sleeping environment if you regularly struggle to fall asleep. If white or pink noise doesn’t lull you to sleep, try dozing off to some instrumental music.

10. Avoid Long Naps

We get it. Sometimes the events of the day wear you down, or bad sleep from the previous night makes it difficult to stay awake all day. However, taking long naps can damage your next night of sleep and throw off the sleep schedule you worked hard to perfect.

According to the CDC, the optimal length of a nap is 15 to 30 minutes. Naps at this length increase alertness, whereas longer naps put you into a deeper sleep and can make you groggy and less productive when you wake up.

11. Invest in a Comfortable Mattress

Don't ignore comfort if you’re repeatedly struggling to fall asleep — comfort starts with your mattress. Better mattresses lead to better sleep, which can lead to more happiness, healthiness, and productivity.

If stress keeps you up at night, look for a mattress that fends against it.

Three reasons stress makes it difficult to sleep.

How Stress Impacts Sleep

Trying to get good sleep while stressed out is like making a half-court shot while blindfolded. You can do it, but it’s tough to pull off.

There’s a biological reason for this.

When stressed, your body releases cortisol, the main stress hormone. This coincides with sugar, or glucose, entering the bloodstream, which elevates your blood pressure, resulting in your:

Muscles tensing

Heart pumping

Mind racing

This reaction is best known as the fight or flight response, an innate survival mechanism our bodies activate when we’re in trouble. This, in turn, can make it difficult to get comfortable in bed.

When stress lingers for several weeks, it becomes chronic stress. High-pressure jobs, money worries, divorce, the death of a family member, or anxiety over current events can bring this on.

At that point, the body starts to get used to higher cortisol levels. This continues to get in the way of getting quality sleep and can lead to more serious health issues, including heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, and depression.

Frequently Asked Questions

The relationship between sleep and stress can be complicated, and sleeping better can often be more tricky than eating better or exercising a little more.

Here are some common questions and answers about how stress impacts sleep.

Does Poor Sleep Lead to More Stress?

Regarding the correlation between sleep and stress, it’s not a one-way street. Poor sleep can lead to increased stress and anxiety, making this a vicious cycle difficult to break out of.

Researchers from UC Berkeley found that a single sleepless night can lead to a 30% surge in emotional stress levels. Sleep plays a critical role in regulating our mood and helping us work effectively; when we don’t get enough of it, it’s harder for our bodies to properly manage stress.

Can Loneliness Make Stress Worse?

Researchers have found loneliness is a key source of acute and chronic stress. And as we just touched on, short-term and chronic stress are major hurdles in getting quality sleep.

The2023 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report found that loneliness increases stress and the chances of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cognitive decline, and more. To safeguard against this — especially if you’re living alone — make sure you find time to talk to your friends and relatives. Phone calls are great, or you set up a Zoom or Skype call to catch up with people you haven’t seen in a while.

Whatever it is, just put in that extra effort to stay connected to those you care most about.

What Should You Do When You’re Too Stressed to Sleep?

Practicing mindfulness and exercising is a great place to start if your stress keeps you up at night. Taking time to meditate, doing breathing exercises, or simply going for a walk are easy ways to adjust your daily life so your body and mind are more prepared for sleep.

How Do You Force Yourself to Sleep When You Can’t?

It’s generally difficult to “force” yourself to fall asleep, but changes you can make in your life can have compounding effects that help you sleep.

When completed in tandem with each other, mindfulness, exercise, and routine should significantly help you get more tired and relaxed when it’s time to go to bed.

What is the 4-7-8 Sleep Trick?

The 4-7-8 technique is a breathing-focused relaxation exercise designed to help the body fall asleep.

Three steps for the 4-7-8 sleep trick to help you drift off when you're too stressed to sleep.

The technique follows these steps:

Inhale through your nose for 4 seconds.

Hold your breath for 7 seconds.

Exhale through your mouth for 8 seconds.

The idea behind the 4-7-8, and other exercises like it, is that you force the mind to focus on your breath instead of whatever other issues are on your mind. As a result, it should help reset your nervous system, relax your body, and help you fall asleep fast.

Why Can’t I Sleep When I’m Stressed?

You can’t sleep when you’re stressed because your body is experiencing fight or flight or the physical symptoms of stress. With your muscles tensing and your heart rate rising, falling asleep is virtually impossible.

Committing to routine, exercise, and mindfulness may not solve the issues that cause you stress, but they can help you get to a place where sleep is easier. And when paired with a comfortable mattress, you may find yourself sleeping easily each night and being happier and healthier because of it.

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