Tons of stress management strategies...But who would think sleep is easy stress relief?

Stress management strategies: This is an easy stress management technique: Sleep!

Well, what is it? It's the well known, daily practiced, very essential, legendary...sleep! How's that for an intro? So, what's special about this stress management technique?

Do I even need to answer that? Here goes nothing...

Other than the fact that sleep is easy stress relief, it's just sleep! Something that simple, that much used everyday, can now be used as a stress management strategy? Weird, but I'll take it!

How Does Sleep Affect Stress?

If you haven't already read about the connection that stress has with insomnia , I suggest you do, to get a better understanding of this topic.

Ok. So out of the many stress management strategies out, does sleep really qualify? Yes it does. I'll tell you why...

How Will You Function?

Getting enough sleep allows your body to function properly. If you don't sleep, your mind and body won't be able to work together in harmony. This can really be stressful. How?

Let me give you a simple example of how it feels without sleep...

You wake up in the morning, with only two hours of sleep. Last night's partying made you completely forget about the time. So there you are, lying on your bed, already starting to feel miserable.

"I don't want to go to work today", you think to yourself. As you can see, you've started your day off already in the wrong mood. As soon as you arrive at work, your regular office routine starts.

But you find today different. Why? Because you start to feel inefficient and lazy. "Sleep, sleep, sleep", is all you can think about. As you can see, you can't properly perform, which means you are back tracked on work.

That's when you really feel it. You're behind on work, and everyone is disappointed in you. You let everyone down. Why? All because of that sleepless night.

Now let's add sleep to this formula...

So, the next day, you decide that you need sleep. You decide to go to sleep two hours earlier, getting ten hours of sleep that night. You wake up in the morning...by springing out of bed!

How does it feel? You feel like you're on top of the world, don't you? Well ok, maybe not like that, but you feel really good, right? That's why I love waking up after a good night's rest!

I feel so prepared to take on the day.

So there you are, in a happy mood. You don't have that headache that you get after sleepless nights and you don't feel tired. So you go to work with two hours extra sleep, and you're all over the place!

I'm not exaggerating, it's true. With more sleep, your body starts performing better than normal. You get caught up on work. Everyone's pleased. No more stress!

Out of all the stress management strategies out there, sleep is also a flexible stress management technique because you chose how much you get!

Enough examples. Time for some solid facts...

A Deeper Look At Sleep When you sleep, your body replenishes itself. The immune system gets restored, and all the beneficial cells are kept. Sleep also decreases your cortisol levels.

If you don't already know what cortisol is, it's a stress hormone. So, if sleep can decrease the generation of your stress hormones, that "stress" isn't triggered, right? Right.

As I said earlier, insomnia is a symptom of stress. So if lack of sleep leads to stress, then "sleep" leads to no stress right? Or perhaps you're mathematically inclined? Here's an equation to pump your spirits...

No Sleep = Stress Therefore,

Sleep = No Stress?

That's right. You see, even logical thinking says that sleep is a good technique for relieving your stress. There are many stress management strategies out there, but how many can fit into a math equation? None (or not many!).

Why Are We Still Stressed?

We all sleep (hopefully!). So why do people still feel stressed? It's because of the average sleep you need. You need an average of eight hours of sleep a day, give or take an hour. So, if you are feeling stressed, it's most likely you're not getting enough sleep.

What if you are? If you are getting enough sleep daily, but you still feel stressed, then you should try to get one extra hour of sleep. I'm sure that will make you feel a lot better.

I know, sometimes 8 hours isn't enough. But the point I'm trying to make is the more sleep you get, the better you feel. It's that simple. There aren't many other stress management strategies that can be tweaked around like this.

Stress Management Strategies + Stress

Sleep is a good strategy for managing stress, but it is also necessary for everything we do. Therefore, don't include sleep in your list of the best stress management strategies; but instead, consider sleep one of the most essential things needed to live.

Forget Everything...Just Close Your Eyes

You now know the power of sleep. It replenishes your body, mind and your mood. And it reduces stress. But that's just a bonus feature. Sleep not only belongs in the list of stress management strategies, but also in your "must-do" list.

Make sleep one of your top priorities. It just makes so much difference in your life. I try to get at least eight hours of sleep daily. Some days I don't. And on those days, I feel the difference. Hopefully you've already understood the difference so you don't have to feel it.

Like always, remember; there are a lot more stress management strategies in this website so use it to your advantage. With each lesson, become one step closer to achieving stress relief for the rest of your life!

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