How does stress affect sleep?

How does stress affect sleep?

Chris Idzikowski (Director of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre) gives expert video advice on: What lifestyle choices can affect sleep?; Can certain foods make you drowsy?; Can alcohol make you sleepy? and more...

How does stress affect sleep is certainly a big question probably because it's hard to define what stress is about. I quite often say, when somebody tells me that they're waking up during the night because they're so stressed, I point out that they usually wake up every nineteen minutes or so, it partly depends on what's going on in their minds prior to going to bed and what they're main preoccupation is. That can then awaken them, if they're worried about something of greater difficulty. But, also when they're stressed long term, then that starts to create a burned out syndrome on one hand, a depression on the other and both of those fold back into sleep. Stress per se doesn't necessarily impact on sleep, but eventually consequences of that affect sleep.