Stress plays a major role in the initiation of sleep problems. The majority of people with insomnia can recall stressful events associated with the onset of their sleep problems (i.e. precipitating factors; factors that occur before and bring on or trigger a period of insomnia, which we reviewed in week 2). However, even after the initial stressful events have passed, the sleep problems may persist. While you may not currently be experiencing a major stressor in your life, stress associated with your daily hassles or the stress associated with having long standing sleep problems (i.e. perpetuating factor) can still play a major role in maintaining insomnia.

To take positive steps to reduce our own stress, it’s important we first take the time to identify what causes us to feel stressed. In the workplace specifically, stress can be triggered by a number of factors like pressure to meet deadlines, excessive workload or high levels of responsibility, having little control over decisions, few opportunities for growth, lack of support, a competitive environment, poor working relationships, poor work life balance, and financial worries among others. Work-related stress is common and normal, even if you love what you do.

Thinking about your own sources of stress, what typical feelings do you experience when you feel stressed? What do you do? How do you respond to that feeling of stress? Do you lash out and scream or keep quiet? Do you distract yourself by meeting up with friends? Do you drink or cry?

Remember that we are all different, and stress impacts us all differently. So it’s important to try and get a sense of identifying your common stress triggers so that you can look out for them. You can then try out different types of skills we will introduce to you this week to combat the impacts that stress can have on you.

Why is it important that we identify what our stress triggers are? Work-related stress is common and can lead to severe physical and psychological problems. One example is burnout. Burnout results from chronic workplace stress that is ongoing and has not been successfully managed and can include multiple physical and psychological symptoms such as emotional exhaustion.

There is no one single cause of stress and no one way stress can be displayed but there are signs to watch out for:

We all have different reactions to stress and ways to handle it. And for some of us, stress affects our sleep.

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