· Health · 1 min read
How Daytime Stress Becomes Nighttime Insomnia
Stress doesn't just disappear when you close your eyes. Learn about the 'Cortisol Spike' and how to offload stress before bed.
If you’ve ever had a stressful day at the office only to find yourself wide awake at 2 AM, you’ve experienced the Cortisol-Melatonin Tug-of-War.
The Cortisol Connection
Cortisol is your “alertness” hormone. Normally, it is high in the morning and low at night. However, chronic daytime stress keeps cortisol levels elevated late into the evening. Since cortisol and melatonin are antagonists, high cortisol prevents melatonin from doing its job.
The ‘Tired but Wired’ Feeling
This is that frustrating state where your body is exhausted, but your brain is buzzing. You are physically ready for bed, but chemically ready for a fight.
How to ‘Offload’ Stress
To sleep well, you must create a “buffer zone” between your work and your bed.
- Physical Transition: A warm shower or 5 minutes of stretching.
- Mental Transition: Using SleepGrids to tap your mood.
When you log your mood in SleepGrids, you are performing a “status check” on your nervous system. If you notice a pattern of “High Stress” days leading to “Fragmented Sleep” nights, you can begin to implement daytime breaks to lower your baseline cortisol before the sun goes down.
