Waking Up With Anxiety: Causes & Calming Techniques

Symptoms of Waking Up With Anxiety

Waking up with anxiety can put a real strain on your day. Right from the jump, you’re stuck feeling that heavy weight of stress and dread. Some common symptoms of morning anxiety are:

• Feeling like your day is doomed right from the beginning
• Feeling fatigued, even though you just woke up
• Feeling like you just can’t get out of bed
• Difficulty focusing and concentrating
• Rapid, shallow breathing
• Rapid heartbeat
• Perspiring

So what causes anxiety in the morning?

Why Do I Wake Up With Anxiety?

Waking up with anxiety can be caused by life stressors, substance abuse, relationship struggles, physical health issues, and mental health conditions. If this happens frequently, consider meditation, exercise, and dietary changes, or consult a healthcare professional for further guidance. 

Below, we’ll dive into each of the possible causes of waking up with anxiety.

The natural response

Waking up with anxiety can be a challenging way to start your day. The feeling of unease or worry in the morning may stem from various factors, including heightened cortisol, often known as the stress hormone. These elevated cortisol levels can be more prevalent in individuals experiencing stress.

When we’re stressed, we release more stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline causes the heart rate to increase, boosts blood pressure, and spikes energy supply. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone in the body. It acts to release more glucose into the blood and enhances the brain’s usage of those sugars to enhance alertness and prepare us to defend ourselves.

Research has shown that cortisol levels already surge in the morning for the first 30 – 45 minutes after waking. This is known as Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) and may increase morning anxiety.

Stress

The common demands of life, like taking care of your family, accomplishing a huge workload, paying the bills, and preparing for the future, are all stressors. The limbic system of your brain perceives stressors as threats, and that can make you feel anxious from the moment you wake up each morning.

Substance abuse

If you’re using or abusing drugs and/or alcohol, waking up with anxiety can be common. While substance abuse may not have direct links to anxiety, it is known to increase anxiety symptoms.

Relationship struggles

Some studies show that the energy in a relationship may affect your sleep quality and how calm you wake up in the morning.

Physical health problems

If you’re dealing with a chronic health condition, it’s natural to be stressed. Anxiety is common for those who have heart disease, diabetes, cancer, asthma, hypertension, and other serious health-related issues. Waking up with anxiety in the middle of the night or in the morning can be common when you have a serious medical condition.

Financial stress

Worrying about money is a normal stress for many adults. Especially if you’re financially insecure, waking up with anxiety about how or when you’ll be able to pay rent, buy groceries, or cover bills is not unreasonable.

Mental health conditions

Like our physical health, mental health conditions can weigh heavily on our psyches. Living with bipolar disorder, depression, or another mental health disorder can result in heightened anxiety or anxious thoughts at all times of the day, even in the early morning.

5 Techniques to Avoid Waking Up with Anxiety

1. Change your diet

The foods and beverages we choose to consume have an effect on our mood and functioning. Neurotransmitters, hormones, and other biological chemicals are all synthesized in our bodies based on the nutrients (or lack thereof) we get through our diet.

Studies show certain foods are associated with anti-anxiety effects. These include:

• Brazil nuts
• Eggs
• Pumpkin seeds
• Chamomile
• Yogurt
• Turmeric
• Dark chocolate
• Fatty fish like mackerel and salmon

Consider adding more of these foods in your daily diet to help your anxiety levels.

Also, you might want to watch your intake of caffeine and other stimulating substances. If you’re already prone to anxiety, caffeine might exacerbate those symptoms. A glass of warm lemon water or decaf tea with honey in it may not be as exciting as that strong cup of coffee, but it can definitely offer more natural anxiety relief.

2. Meditation & deep breathing exercises (pranayama)

Mindfulness meditation offers many benefits to improve emotional and mental health. You can do this relaxation technique anywhere, without any equipment or memberships. Most communities have group meditation courses and support available. There are several different meditation styles, each having benefits for generalized anxiety disorder. Even just five minutes of meditation or deep breathing exercises for anxiety daily can have measurable benefits.

3. Leave the television off & opt for music

Repetitive exposure to negative stories like what we see and hear in the mainstream media these days has been linked to increased anxiety. If you don’t like the silence in the morning, try putting on some calming music to create a more relaxing environment. Remember, “calming” doesn’t have to be the same for everyone. You might prefer classical music, jazz, acoustic…try whatever is soothing to you.

4. Exercise

There are several various ways that daily exercise helps to alleviate a high anxiety level, including:

• Diverting your attention from what’s making you anxious
• Activating executive functions in the brain
• Decreasing muscle tension
• Altering brain chemistry

Regular physical activity builds up resources in the body that help increase resilience to erratic emotions. Exercise actually changes your brain chemistry by increasing the availability of neurochemicals that work against anxiety, including gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), serotonin, various endocannabinoids, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF).

5. Journaling

Taking a few minutes each morning or at night just before bed to jot down your anxious feelings or thoughts can help to calm your mind and focus your thoughts. If you’re journaling for your mental health in the morning, try tracking your dreams from the night before.

Solidifying your relationship with yourself is an excellent way to decrease nighttime anxiety. Doing so can help you stay in touch with your goals and aspirations and spot negative emotions creeping up on you as they occur.

Learning How to Manage Anxiety Day-to-Day

If you’re waking up with anxiety every morning, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure therapy, and other types of therapy for anxiety can help. Working with a mental health professional, you’ll learn new coping skills for how to treat anxiety that can work to decrease your morning stress.

You might also consider taking prescription medication for anxiety like benzodiazepines, anti-anxiety drugs, beta-blockers, or antidepressants, but note that these are often associated with adverse side effects and do little to solve the core problem causing your anxiety. If you and your doctor do decide to try medication for generalized anxiety disorder, it likely will be a short term solution that’s coupled with effective, proactive strategies like those we’ve discussed here today.

Focusing on holistic approaches like mindfulness meditation, taking a relaxing bath, setting and being committed to goals, and showing gratitude are all simple, effective ways to combat waking up with anxiety every morning.

Each of them can help to reduce morning anxiety symptoms so you can have calmer, happier days. If you’re ready to start your journey and take steps to learn how to stop waking up with anxiety, Talkspace can help. Our approach to online therapy makes the process as easy as possible. Get started by connecting with a mental health professional for a possible anxiety diagnosis.