Nighttime Emotional Distress: Causes, Possible Symptoms, And What To Do
What for many is the ideal time to rest and regain strength, for others it becomes a time of high tension and problems sleeping.
Although night is that phase of the day that we socially and biologically associate with well-being and rest, for others it becomes a time in which their own mind sets a trap for them and makes them worry about things that they don’t at that time. They will be able to solve it.
Nighttime emotional discomfort It is that set of emotions that we experience while trying to sleep and that, even having achieved sleep, disturbs our sleep hygiene, affecting us not only at night but also during the day. Next we are going to explore what causes and what this problem entails.
The night, despite being the time in which we should immerse ourselves in the deepest of dreams, sometimes becomes our worst nightmare. What should be a time to rest and recover energy becomes something feared, gloomy and disturbing, not because of the fear of the dark but because of how it can make our emotional discomfort become very intense. We feel bad, so bad that we don’t sleep well and, of course, the next day we wake up in a bad mood, tired and very frustrated.
Lying in our bed, the darkness of the night makes us very aware of all the ideas that make up our psyche. Since there is no one else to talk to and there are few distractions from the environment that can affect the sense organs, our mind begins to bring to light the memories, obsessions and worries of the day, turning over and over a lot of things. topics that, far from making us sleep, make our mind become even more active. Sooner or later we will fall asleep, but our sleep will be disturbed and will not help us rest.
Of all the moments of the day, the night is the one that seems to make us the most emotionally vulnerable people , left alone with our mind that, if we are emotionally tense or there is a problem in our daily life that we have not yet solved, it will appear with complete prominence in the darkness of the night. All of this makes up what we call nocturnal emotional discomfort, worries that break with the tranquility and rest of the moment when we should be calmer.
Why does emotional discomfort intensify at night?
The night has a series of distinctive characteristics that promote various psychological states, depending on the person’s predisposition.
On the one hand, there is the decrease in external stimuli, both environmental and social. While we are lying in bed we do not talk to anyone, nor do we hear or see anything. The environment is calm, there are no noises or striking visual stimuli, nothing that could distract us. When we find ourselves in this situation, the bodily sensations are increased, not because they become stronger in themselves but because when they are isolated it gives the sensation that they are stronger.
At night we notice more strongly our chronic pain, muscle tension, tachycardia, the urge to urinate and any other bodily sensation that we find minimally uncomfortable.
Throughout the day we do not pay much importance to them , but at night and, especially when we cannot sleep, they begin to worry us and may even make us start to think that we are sick with something: “My heart is beating hard. What if I have a problem?” “My knee bothers me a lot. I should go to the traumatologist…”, “I’ve been urinating a lot lately, will I have prostate cancer?”
On the other hand, we tend to give a lot of importance to the fact of not being able to sleep when we cannot sleep, being fuel for nocturnal emotional discomfort and which, as it increases, makes it even more difficult for us to sleep.
It’s like the whiting that bites its tail: we can’t sleep, we worry, we manage to sleep, we wake up again and again, we sleep very badly. and, when we wake up, we see that we are in a very bad mood, tired and frustrated. This causes us to not perform well the next day and, when it is time to go to sleep, we can’t help but worry about whether we will have the same bad night again.
The silence of the night and the lack of activity in all senses can lead us to delve into the depths of our minds, searching in drawers of our psyche that during the day we don’t even realize exist. It is very difficult for us to keep our mind blank and that is why we entertain ourselves thinking about things, playing as a filter the negativity bias that makes us pay more attention to the bad than the good.
If there is a problem in our daily life that we have not yet solved, when night comes, we will begin to think about it even more. The problem is that we will not be able to do much while we are lying in our bed, so thinking about it will only make us more nervous unnecessarily. Thinking about something a lot while in bed only gets us entangled in a spiral of suffering and more emotional discomfort at night.
Sleep interruptions and mental disorders
On many occasions, and Despite having managed to fall asleep, it is constantly interrupted by waves of discomfort , especially anxiety and worries that emerge suddenly and wake us up louder than the loudest alarm clock. This prevents our rest and mental hygiene, which is a risk factor not only for being tired the next day but also harms our mental health, increasing the risk of suffering from mood disorders such as depression.
In order for us to carry out adequate mental and physical recycling, balance body and mind, it is necessary that we enjoy a good rest, passing through the REM and non-REM phases on several occasions. Anxiety is one of those factors that prevents us from going through these phases properly, it does not allow us to sleep well because we feel bad and we feel emotionally and physically exhausted the next day.
What could be behind emotional discomfort at night?
It is common that when a person feels emotional discomfort at night, this means that, in reality, the emotional discomfort of their daily life has taken center stage at night, a time when there are not many distractions. Feeling anxious at night is a symptom that there really is a lot of poorly managed emotional tension. just as it would happen if any other negative emotion manifested during the hours we have to sleep.
Without entering into beliefs specific to the interpretation of dreams, it is considered that dreams are mental elaborations that are generated with the aim of managing everything that our mind has been exposed to during the day. These dreams are made up of memories, events or fears, and are an attempt by our mind to rearrange what we have not consciously organized while awake taking advantage of the hours of inactivity in the real world that comes with being asleep.
When what we have to filter, digest or elaborate has a great emotional charge, the nocturnal mental task that dreams entail will be much heavier and more complicated. For this reason, our rest can be greatly altered, and if we add that we may have a predisposition to sleep late, this anxiety can cause us to wake up earlier than we should, preventing us from sleeping the recommended 8 hours. We may also have nightmares, night terrors, sleep paralysis, repeated dreams, or sleep that is constantly interrupted.
As we said, all this has an impact on our psychological state, being a magnet for mental disorders. AND Even if we do not suffer from any disorder, not having rested well makes it difficult for us to manage our daily tasks. in addition to causing us fear by not knowing what will happen the next night, if we will be worried again, sleep poorly or have nightmares.
How to manage this problem?
Although it is normal that from time to time we feel intense emotional discomfort at night for whatever reason, if it becomes something very everyday or if it becomes a prolonged stage of our lives we must request psychological help.
This discomfort, no matter how nocturnal it may be, is still the tip of the iceberg of a larger problem, an anxiety or depression that affects all aspects of our lives but, since we are so distracted by our chores and social events, we do not even notice. We realize how bad we are.
But when we have no distractions and the mind is unoccupied, We take it upon ourselves to occupy it with witty ideas, ruminations and fears that disturb our peace of mind.
For this reason, and given that if we do nothing this may end up becoming a health problem, we must go to a mental health professional to learn how to prepare and manage everything we are experiencing, in addition to acquiring tools to be able to control these intrusive ideas that prevent us from sleeping properly.
But, In addition to going to a psychologist, we have a few keys to reduce emotional discomfort at night and have good sleep hygiene. To break the loop of emotional discomfort, we need to understand that it requires us to evaluate what factors have contributed to us feeling this way. Other considerations to take into account are the following:
1. Troubleshoot
In order to rule out worries, you must solve the problems that cause them. While we are trying to fall asleep, it is common for all those problems that we have not been able to solve to come to our consciousness and for us to look for a solution for them while we are trying to rest.
As we have mentioned, we will be able to do little at night, since the problems of the day are solved during the day. If it so happens that a solution to such a problem comes to us at night, the best thing we can do is write it down on a piece of paper and try to stop thinking about it any further. By leaving them in writing it is more likely that we will take them into account the next day, and we will be motivated to apply the solution once and for all.
2. Regulate physical activity schedules
Both lack and excess of exercise can disrupt our sleep. Therefore, it is necessary that we regulate the schedules of physical activity, preferably doing it three hours before going to sleep, with a moderate-high intensity and a minimum of 30 minutes.
Physical activity causes us to release endorphins that induce a state of relaxation and calm. which, if it coincides with the time we go to sleep, will help us fall asleep quickly. However, if exercise time is too close to bedtime, although these endorphins will be released sooner or later, we will still be physiologically overexcited and have a hard time falling asleep.
3. Maintain good eating habits
Eating at odd hours and poorly influences sleep, which is why we must maintain good eating habits, eating healthy and avoiding heavy dinners. If we overeat dinner we are more likely to suffer from interrupted sleep which will prevent us from resting completely and the next day we will feel bad, both because we have not been able to rest and because we have had a very heavy digestion and our stomach hurts.
4. Do relaxing activities
Yoga, progressive muscle relaxation or Mindfulness are strategies that can help us reduce anxiety and improve our mental state. Although they are not a panacea, they are easy-to-apply tools that can help us reduce emotional discomfort at night.
