Got stress? That’s a pretty easy question to answer, and one to which most of us would reply to with an emphatic “Yes!” Here’s another question: How’s your sleep, sex and sanity? Most of us can name at least one of those areas as something we’d do anything to save, as well as hundreds of reasons how it got so bad in the first place, like:
I’m just too tired.
I’m too busy to think about it right now.
I’ll catch up on sleep over the weekend.
I’ll feel better when …
Stress can be bad news for sleep, sex and sanity. For the rest of April, which is National Stress Awareness month, we’re focusing on each of these topics and just how stress affects each one. Better yet, we’ll share what you can do to save your sleep, sex and sanity in a stressful world. Here’s an overview to get started:
Sleep
Stress and worry affect your quality of sleep, and your quality of sleep, in turn, affects your ability to manage stress. Difficulties with either sleeping or managing stress can result in difficulties in the other, causing a vicious circle of decreased sleep and increased stress.
Sex
A healthy sex life is affected by libido, performance, energy and opportunity – all of which can be undermined by stress. Stress related psycho-emotional factors that put additional strains on relationships and self-image, as well as adrenal fatigue and metabolic syndrome, can also put a damper on sexual health and performance.
Sanity
Feeling stressed is synonymous with feeling unhappy, pressured, dissatisfied, chaotic and a little crazy. Depression, PTSD and neurotic behavior are just some of the mental health issues caused or exacerbated by high or chronic stress.
One of the 1st steps in reducing stress is to learn to do “One thing at a time” Multi-tasking increases your stress level.