Do you ever wake up feeling on edge and like you’re too nervous to face the rest of the day, with your heart beating faster than normal? If so, you might be suffering from anxiety. Most people expect to feel rested after a good night’s sleep and may wonder about morning anxiety causes if they wake up anxious. In this article, we’ll get into common morning anxiety causes. However, talking about the sources of morning anxiety only goes so far. Knowing how to address your morning anxiety causes helps you keep it under control and resets your nervous system. That way, you can go about the rest of your day with more ease and feeling more regulated!
Common Morning Anxiety Causes To Know About
Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR)
Most people associate cortisol with a variety of negative health outcomes, including excessive stress and high blood pressure. In truth, the body produces cortisol naturally, and it serves a few good purposes. When it comes to waking up, your body produces a cortisol spike known as the Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR), which brings you out of deep slumber and back into alertness.
In people who experience high levels of anxiety, the CAR can increase their anxious response. While this cortisol spike is necessary to help you get out of bed and feel awake, it can cause your mood to tip in the wrong direction.
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Anticipatory Anxiety
Work-related stress in America is at an all-time high, with around 76% of people reporting that they feel stressed out at work. While stress is slightly different than anxiety (anxiety is prolonged and doesn’t vanish when the stressful event passes. Stress does.), it can exacerbate anxiety symptoms. People who have looming deadlines and large projects may wake up feeling anxious because their body is already anticipating the difficult day ahead and running through different worst-case scenarios about getting things done.
Unfortunately, work isn’t the only thing people feel anticipatory stress over, either. Nearly 66% of Americans reported financial stress, with 64% saying they were stressed over inflation and the cost of living. Others feel anticipatory anxiety about upcoming social events or engagements, conversations with a colleague or boss, and they may even fear the unknown.
A Bad Night of Sleep
One of the sneakiest morning anxiety causes involves not getting enough sleep the night before. Sleep resets your nervous system, allowing you to really and truly relax. If you’re not getting enough sleep, you might find yourself feeling extra anxious in the morning because your body did not get the proper amount of rest.
Caffeine or Alcohol Use
Many people wake up in the morning and immediately begin dreaming of their morning cup of Joe. However, caffeine is a stimulant, which is why it wakes you up so well. Stimulants also make you feel more wired and jittery, leading to an increase in anxiety.
Alcohol also has a sneaky effect on morning anxiety and constitutes one of the common morning anxiety causes. When you drink, the alcohol causes a spike in the brain-calming chemical GABA, leading you to feel relaxed. However, as the alcohol dissipates, your brain responds by lowering GABA. It also increases glutamate, which can cause anxiety. Alcohol also raises your body’s cortisol levels. As such, drinking before bedtime might lead to you getting less restful sleep due to the cortisol and waking up feeling anxious due to the rapid fluctuation between GABA and glutamate.
How to Handle Your Morning Anxiety Causes
1. Practice Mindfulness
Since anxiety often causes you to think about the future, staying in the moment is essential for helping your brain to realize that you’re just waking up and nothing else is happening. Guided meditation exercises help you stay calm and fight the panic that sets in at the start of the day. The Calm app has a variety of meditation exercises for advanced and beginner practitioners alike, and you don’t even need to take a ton of time to do them!
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2. Listen to Calming Music
Music can have a very calming effect on the brain. Slow, steady rhythms that lack unexpected changes put our nervous systems at ease. Apple Music has a lot of different sounds and soundscapes. Put on a few songs, experiment with your personal taste, and find what feels best for you!
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3. Delay Checking Your Phone
Checking your phone in the morning catapults your brain into a state of high alertness, bypassing the calming, natural process of waking up. In addition, checking your phone exposes your brain to a flow of negative news and can increase your stress. To combat this, delay checking your phone for at least 30 minutes after you wake up.
4. Avoid Caffeine
As a stimulant, caffeine raises your cortisol levels, and, as mentioned above, increases your anxiety. Instead, replace your morning coffee with a soothing, non-caffeinated beverage, such as a smoothie or caffeine-free tea. You may also prepare decaf coffee if you prefer to have the same taste.
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5. Practice Good Sleep Hygiene
Since not getting enough sleep is one of the most common morning anxiety causes, practicing good sleep hygiene increases your chance of feeling less anxious in the morning. To get better sleep, make sure you’re in a cool and dark room. Go to bed the same time every day and wake up at the same time every morning, even on the weekends. Throughout the day, do your best to keep other activities out of your sleeping area. That way, your brain knows that it’s time to go to sleep every time you lay down in your bed!
Getting Past Morning Anxiety Causes
Your anxiety doesn’t have to rule the rest of the day. Once you begin to set your morning right, you’ll delay your anxiety long enough to feel better going about the day. If you anxiety starts to come back, you can use some helpful coping skills to get you through.
Now that you know your morning anxiety causes, you’re ready to tackle them and move on to coping with the anxiety that comes throughout the day. Deep breathing exercises, mindfulness and visualization techniques, and proper self-care can help even the worst anxious thoughts feel more manageable. If you feel your anxiety getting out of control, consult a therapist or other mental health professional!
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