4 reasons why you may find it difficult to sleep at night

Sleeping difficulty refers to difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, or waking up too early. Low quality sleep and a lack of sleep can both negatively affect a person’s health. Chronic sleep loss can even lead to headaches, excessive fatigue, and cognitive impairments.

Sleeping difficulties may occur due to lifestyle factors, poor sleep hygiene, or the presence of an underlying medical condition. Whatever the cause, there are things a person can do to improve the quality or duration of their sleep.

According to ” Mayo clinic ” some reasons why you find it difficult to sleep at night are listed below.

1. Stress and anxiety

This stress hormone is one of the key players responsible for the fight or flight response that jolt of energy you get when you feel stressed or threatened that enables you to respond. Unfortunately, chronic stress can lead to excessive levels of cortisol, and this can disrupt healthy sleep patterns. Stress and anxiety can often keep you from getting the sleep you need. Many people with anxiety disorders have trouble sleeping and at some point it’s hard to tell whether you’re having trouble sleeping because you’re anxious, or you’re anxious because you can’t sleep. The answer may be both. The fact is that stress and anxiety can cause sleeping problems, or worsen existing ones.

2. Eating too much late in the evening

When we eat late at night, the muscles that digest and metabolize our food have to keep working when they should be resting. This can delay your ability to fall asleep and can prevent you from getting the deep, restful stage of sleep you need to feel refreshed the next day. Eating a meal too close to bedtime may actually harm your sleep, especially if it’s a large amount of food. This process can shift the circadian rhythm, or your body’s sleep-wake cycle. Food can signal wakefulness in the brain and interfere with your ability to fall asleep. Studies have found that eating within three hours of your bedtime increases the likelihood of sleep disruptions, and that risk may be even greater if you overeat at dinner. Acid reflux, which is more likely with a late dinner, can further reduce sleep quality.

3. Drinking caffeine

The most obvious effect of the stimulant is that it can make it hard for you to fall asleep. One study also found that caffeine can delay the timing of your body clock. These effects will reduce your total sleep time. Caffeine also can reduce the amount of deep sleep that you enjoy. People turn to caffeine to wake up in the morning and to stay energized throughout the day, but there’s a downside, too much caffeine can keep you awake even when you’re ready to sleep. The key to this unwanted after effect is a compound called adenosine, a byproduct of neuron activity in the brain.

4. Mental health disorders

Mental health disorders tend to make it harder to sleep well. At the same time, poor sleep, including insomnia, can be a contributing factor to the initiation and worsening of mental health problems. So it’s no surprise that how well we sleep has a direct impact on our physical and mental health. Sleep problems such as insomnia are a common symptom of many mental illnesses, including anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).