Stress and stress management – HED 110 | Comprehensive Health Education | Fall 2022

Sleep

One important way to help deal with stress is by getting enough sleep. We are all familiar with how our bodies and minds feel when our sleep was interrupted or just too short – we feel clumsy, inattentive, moody, fatigued, unable to focus or remember.

There are several stages of sleep and two types of sleep.

Image showing the four stages of sleep in a sleep cycle: light sleep (when we are just falling asleep), main sleep (body and brain least active), REM sleep (dreaming), and slow-wave sleep (memory consolidation).

Throughout the night, we go through several sleep cycles. At the beginning of the night, we have deeper sleep – more non-REM sleep. Toward the end of the night, the sleep cycles consist mainly of REM sleep.

Image showing 8 hours of sleep with alternating REM and non-REM sleep.

Studies show the many benefits, both physical, mental and emotional, of getting enough sleep.

How can you get good sleep? Avoid eating, exercising or drinking caffeine too close to bedtime. Try to go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day. Have a restful place to sleep – dark, quiet, and cool. Here are more ideas, from NPR – https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510336/sleepbetter .

As with everything, it is possible for sleep to be disordered. Read about sleep disorders here – https://medlineplus.gov/sleepdisorders.html

What are sources of stress?

Every year, the American Psychological Association conducts a survey about stress in the United States. Some of the more common stressors are money, family responsibilities, health-related concerns, and work. To see more sources of stress, and see some generational differences and trends on stress level, see https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2021/infographics-march.

A modern type of stress comes from overuse and over-reliance on technology. This has been termed technostress and it can have serious harmful effects. For more on how to deal with this, see
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/prefrontal-nudity/201708/dealing-technostress .

An important step in considering how to manage your stress level is to first figure out what are your stressors. Think about the top 5 stressors in your life. Are there any changes you can make to help manage your stress when responding to these stressors?

Stress management

It is possible to manage stress – some ideas can be found here https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/stress/index.shtml and here https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/3-tips-to-manage-stress.

There are certain key ways to help manage the way you think that help with stress.

General Adaptation Syndrome

One way to understand how long-term stress affects your health is through the General Adaptation Syndrome, which describes the three stages of stress – alarm, resistance, and exhaustion – https://www.healthline.com/health/general-adaptation-syndrome.

Before you experience stress, your body is in homeostasis. This is the state where the various body systems are generally in equilibrium. When you first perceive something stressful, the fight or flight response of the alarm phase begins.

Once a stressor is perceived, the body’s resistance to stress is also activated, as the various body systems try to get back to their usual function.

Another explanation of how stressors can impact our bodies is with the concept of allostatic load – the amount and duration of stressors that we are facing (chronic versus acute stress).

Video describing acute and chronic stress and the concept of allostatic load.

What is stress?

When you perceive something as a threat to you, your body activates part of your autonomic nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system which sends hormones through your body. These hormones cause various changes that you can notice – all of these changes are called the fight or flight response.

Image explains the fight or flight response. Brain perceives the threat, in the hypothalamas signals are sent to the pituitary gland, which then communicates with other endocrine glands to release adrenaline (epinephrine) and cortisol. This causes increase in heart rate, dilated pupils, bladder relaxation, flushed face, shaking, dry mouth, slowed digestion. — From Wikimedia Foundation

Stress can be good (known as eustress) or bad (distress). Eustress often comes from events or situations that are challenging, like going to college, getting a new job, or a new baby, but that ultimately lead to growth and success. Distress is caused by things like losing a loved one, losing a job, breaking up with a partner, and other difficult situations. Stress from these events can lead to negative health outcomes.

Stress reduction

There are many reasons to feel stress, whether good or bad. The stress process often has a harmful effect on our bodies. But there are many things we can do to manage our stress.

What are your favorite ways to manage your stress? What do you like to do, eat, read, create to unwind and take a breather during your day?

Try a short meditation here:

Category: Stress and stress management