Anxiety does not leave you day or night, but sometimes it intensifies in the morning. It is the so-called morning anxiety, when the symptoms worsen when you wake up.
Symptoms do not occur in all people with the same intensity. Moreover, in the same person they can be aggravated at certain times of the day. Some fear the night but it seems that it is very common to experience that anxiety worsens upon waking and, as the hours go by, see how that anxiety is reduced. we explain how to avoid morning anxiety or minimize its impact.
Anxiety in the morning
Many people who suffer from an anxiety agree that the morning is the worst time for their problem. They wake up very nervous, agitated, afraid, worried, alarmed, as if the idea of starting a new day was too much for them. Then, as the day progresses, they notice how their anxiety decreases and they manage to arrive at night in a more or less acceptable state of mind.
When you suffer from anxiety you live in a state of permanent alarm. Perhaps you have been lucky and the night has given you a trick, but starting the day means also starting the fight against all those symptoms that do not allow you to do what you want. The transition to wakefulness usually involves falling suddenly into that reality that you perceive as threatening and dangerous due to anxiety.
The symptoms of morning anxiety
You wake up and you already do it with symptoms. The most obvious and the one that worries you the most, despite the fact that it is well known to you, is tachycardia. How can you start the day with tachycardia if nothing has happened yet? As soon as you wake up, you notice how your heart and breathing speed up, you can even start sweating and you still haven’t done anything. And again that feeling of dizziness and those tremors.
Even if you know the symptoms of anxiety well, the fact that they appear right when you wake up makes them worsen due to all those distorted thoughts. We are with you, these are not ways to start the day and it is normal for you to think that your day is going to be hell. Bad ends what starts bad becomes as elf because it is difficult not to believe this phrase in these conditions.
Thoughts of anticipation also tend to appear in the face of uncertainty and anguish that something will go wrong, and even out of fear of feeling and anticipating it, as if it were a phobia of It is very common to wake up and do a self-check to see if we have anxiety or not, and that only stresses and activates us more.
Morning anxiety makes you perceive the day as more dangerous than usual and you see the slope even steeper than usual. Everything requires a huge effort because you are in the middle of the fight against anxiety and its direct are beyond you. And therein lays the problem, that at some point you will have to realize that you must stop fighting and use your energy to live. But we’ll tell you about that later.
Why do I have more anxiety when I wake up?
At the moment we know that this increase in anxiety upon waking is due to the stress hormone, cortisol, which is also triggered in the morning. Cortisol, like anxiety even if you don’t believe it, has a positive and necessary function because it prepares the body for any physical and mental effort that the day demands. This hormone increases blood pressure and speeds up heart rate and breathing.
And it wouldn’t be so obvious if you weren’t suffering from anxiety. But the cocktail of cortisol and anxiety results in a breakfast made up of more nerves, more fears, more, and more emotional discomfort.
If we add to this that your anxiety problems have multiplied your daily problems, that it is much, that you do not get to all the tasks because you are more tired, the result is a negative perspective on the day that awaits you trying to repair what that anxiety destroys instead of dedicating yourself to being productive at work and enjoying your leisure time.
But we have good news. Even if you woke up with a tachycardia that already seems worrisome to you, cortisol levels peak after 30 minutes. From there, you will begin to notice how the of this morning anxiety are reduced.
Can morning anxiety be avoided? Techniques and strategies
Anxiety in the morning can be avoided to the extent that the treatment you are following is taking effect. We remind you that the best way to get out of this situation is to, but there are also some strategies that you can follow to alleviate those anxiety symptoms as soon as you wake up.
And these strategies are related, first of all, to the habits you follow the night before, both for food, it is always a good idea to eat a light dinner, and for sleep. Morning anxiety is greatly relieved if you get a good night’s sleep, with the quality of sleep you need to regain lost energy. And to achieve this, nothing better than following scrupulous sleep hygiene and a diet that helps you reduce the possible effects of anxiety.
You can also adopt some strategies right when you wake up that will calm your anxiety. Before getting out of bed, lie down for a few minutes, with your eyes closed and doing the deep breathing Do it consciously, fixing and paying attention only to the path that your breath takes.
If you have already acquired meditation practice as a routine, morning is the best time. Do some mindfulness, such as the body scan, for about 10 minutes and you will get those annoying morning anxiety symptoms away. As you can imagine, this implies setting the alarm a little earlier, but you will appreciate it in the form of peace of mind.
There are other tips to reduce anxiety in the morning, but if we are realistic, you will not always be able to apply them. It is important not to start the day with pending tasks and that is something that you must manage the day before. Being clear about the objectives of the day and focusing on them helps a lot so that the mind does not become scattered or blocked, so you can start making lists with priorities.
And, of course, there is something that may be difficult for you to give up but that is essential in managing and avoiding this morning anxiety: we are talking about the coffee you drink in the morning. It is advisable to stay away from drinks that contain caffeine or other stimulating substances, and opt for other anti-anxiety drinks that help reduce their effects, such as lime blossom or valerian.
The key: abandon the fight against anxiety
But the time has come for us to talk about a serious matter and one that we don’t usually address when we talk about anxiety. The morning anxiety or the one that comes over you throughout the day, the anxiety that leaves you crouching helplessly in the afternoons or the anxiety that causes you at bedtime because you know that a thousand catastrophic thoughts are going to invade you, all that Anxiety keeps you in a constant fight.
At any hour of the day or night, your life has become a battle against anxiety, its physical symptoms, and its delusional thoughts. You are not going to win that battle, we tell you bluntly. The only way to beat anxiety is to stop fighting it. It sounds difficult, but that is why we insist on the need for psychological to help you understand this issue of struggle and carry it out.
Anxiety is not controlled, anxiety is managed. Because after all we need a certain degree of anxiety in our lives. So this is not a war, it is simply making a non-aggression pact with anxiety. And maybe listen to the message it brings to you. That you slow down, that you dedicate time to yourself, that you be authentic, that you resolve pending issues and that.
Accept that? Accept that sometimes you are going to feel bad, that you are going to have annoying and contradictory emotions, that there are things that you are not going to be able to control. Acceptant accept yourself so that you can begin to use your energy not in a war against anxiety, but in living your present so that your future is more hopeful.
These are all aspects for you to understand why anxiety is worse upon waking and how to avoid morning anxiety. It is a complicated situation, but with perseverance and some mechanisms you will be able to manage this disorder. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to write us in the comments, we will help you in any way possible.
