Don't take stress and anxiety to bed with you

It’s hard to fall asleep when your heart is racing, your mind is worrying or your stomach is upset from a heavy snack you had just before bedtime.

Stress and anxiety are intimately linked to many of those situations.

Licensed mental health counselors Kat Ordonia  and Holly Sigsbee, as well as Betty Martin, a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner, know that well.

Stress is a common element among their patients and could be for them, too, if they didn’t find ways to counteract stress inducers.

“I do a lot of walking,” said Martin, who is with Winter Haven Hospital’s Center for Behavioral Health. “I try not to watch too much TV. I try to meditate and I try not to bring work home with me.”

Ordonia, a co-owner of Atala Counseling in Lakeland, uses yoga at Yoga Pointe and a spin class at Cycledelic to help maintain her mind-body balance.

“It provides a healthy balance for feeding the adrenaline that can accompany anxiety for me into something more productive,” she said.

Both let her “step away from the realities of life,” she said, “focus or not focus on things, being mindful not mindless.”

Being mindful doesn’t mean trying to control the disturbing thought, she said, but merely noticing it.

Sigsbee, the center’s lead clinician for specialized community care, espouses having a routine of when to sleep and how to wind down beforehand.

“I definitely stick to routine,” she said. “I try to disassociate myself from technology an hour before going to sleep.”

Having a “stress journal” to write down aggravations or worries can get them out of your brain before trying to sleep, Sigsbee added.

People who pray may find similar relief in giving their worries to God, either by asking for that help or mentally putting them into a small bag for God to handle.

The adrenaline produced by our “fight or flight” response is well known.

Less discussed are two other “f” words — freeze or flock.

Both can be ways of dealing with an overload of stress or anxiety

Freeze isn’t just playing dead. It can be not responding to people, disengaging from stressful situations or finding healthy ways not to think about a stressful situation, Ordonia said.

Flock, which people do often without realizing it, involves reaching out to others who can provide a support or sounding board to people dealing with stress, anxiety, trauma and depression.

Lack of sleep affects both physical and mental health, sometimes becoming a vicious cycle.

“When we have additional stress, mental health (issues) or mood disorders, we don’t sleep,” Sigsbee said. “It creates even more stress because we worry about our sleeping.”

She and the other mental health workers have seen heightened stress linked to both COVID and Hurricane Ian, an impact being reported statewide.

In addition to finding ways to reduce the physical and mental impact of stress and anxiety, as discussed above, creating the right environment for sleep is important.

Other advice includes making sure the room is dark enough and isn’t too hot.

A common recommendation is not bringing technology or work into the bedroom, limiting it to being predominantly a place for sleep, sex and possibly some soothing cuddling with your partner or pets.

And don’t forget routine.

“Train your body to go to sleep when you’re tired, at the same time every day, even on weekends or when you’re off work,” Martin suggested.

“If you stay up late, your body loses track of what it’s supposed to do.”

Contact Robin Williams Adams at robinwadams99@yahoo.com

WALKING FOR HEART HEALTH

The American Heart Association’s Polk County Heart Walk is back in-person. Its main event is Nov. 5, at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland. The event starts at 8 a.m. with a  9 a.m. walk start. People are participating there but also being encouraged to create a path of their own at “any location that inspires their heart health." That’s the message behind the 2022 theme of Heart Walk Here. Register to walk or learn more at www.polkheartwalk.org

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Stress-Reducing Strategies Can Help Improve Sleep