Have you been having persistent morning anxiety attacks? That probably signals an underlying mental or physical condition, making diagnosis a critical next step. But before we do that, we can try to investigate why you have been waking up with anxiety in the mornings or even at night or ever wondered why you are waking up feeling anxious. As mentioned before, let’s find out!
Why You Might Be Waking Up With Anxiety?
An occasional wake-up call from anxiety or an anxious feeling is a common occurrence but if you have been waking up with anxiety persistently, then that is a cause of concern. Any stressful event, underlying health condition, or perhaps, something else entirely can give you terrible anxiety in the morning and at night that has you waking up with anxiety.
Let’s discuss the symptoms first for the different reasons you might be waking up with a sense of dread. You know it can be a real strain when your day hasn’t even started yet and you are one the feeling these symptoms, ruining everything:
- You feel like you are always “on edge,” or “wound up”
- You are highly irritable
- You have been reeling from excessive fatigue
- There are signs of an anxiety attack, such as a tight chest, tense muscles, faster heart rate, or heavy breathing
- You are having difficulty concentrating and your mind often goes blank
- You are having difficulty managing your worries or nervousness, which is often irrational
- There are signs of inability to fall asleep or stay asleep (insomnia)
- You have been also having digestive issues like indigestion
- There are also headaches. Different kinds
The Actual Reason You Are Probably Waking Up With Anxiety
Waking up having terrible anxiety in the morning or at night is the signature symptom of the mental condition called generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). GAD is defined by persistent feelings of anxiousness or restlessness that one might be suffering from for more than 6 months or so. And yes, GAD is very much capable of making you have anxiety waking up. While GAD or similar conditions like it come into development over time, things can speed up when you have been consistently seeing changes in your life that can relate to your work, performance, relationship, etc, and also have had several other circumstances develop in parallel. These several circumstances can often be related to family history as genetics also play a big part in whether you are going to be afflicted with GAD.
And like we have said there are a lot of life stressors that multiply the chances of you having GAD in the long run. These life stressors can call up acute stress or something like GAD into your life, which is probably why you are waking up with anxiety in the morning and at night:
- Huge changes in the state of living, such as moving into a new apartment or foreclosure changes in the status of current employment, such as switching jobs or losing a job
- experiencing excessive physical, mental, or sexual abuse
- the process of bereavement
- emotional shock after a traumatic event
- relationship troubles that as mired you into worrying bouts
- financial woes
What Other Contributors Might Be Behind This Kind Of Symptom?
Stress is a basic response to stimuli that your mind labels unhealthy or even dangerous. But that does not mean that you are waking up from anxiety. This is also the time your body releases a hormone called cortisol (also called the “stress” hormone). This type of hormone is predominantly released in the morning time, right around you must be waking up with anxiety in the morning. This is also the time when blood concentration is raging in your body. With that concoction you are bound to have a response or what scientists call a “cortisol awakening response”.
A similar response can be expected at night, especially if you were asking how do I stop waking up in the middle of the night with anxiety, or similar questions. This is what the experts believe are nocturnal panic attacks. As the name suggests, it is a type of panic attack that has you waking up with anxiety at night when you should have been sleeping peacefully. You are usually suffering from these symptoms during this time – a sudden state of panic, the experience of physical reactions like a racing heart, sweating and also having difficulty breathing (gasping for air). An increase in cortisol levels worsens symptoms of anxiety, such as heightened blood flow and adrenaline levels, which can be excessively high at night times. The underlying basis of this type of condition are is not dissimilar to the cortisol awakening response such as:
- Anger management issues.
- Anxiety disorders such as GAD.
- Clinical depression.
- Sleep problems like Insomnia or sleep apnea.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
- Substance use disorders, including alcohol use disorder.
An Underlying Physical Or Mental Condition Might Be The Problem
These feelings of anxiousness can also be contributed by the virtue of you or your loved one having a physical condition such as diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, asthma, psoriasis, depression, or cancer as having either of these can be extremely debilitating. A person with an ongoing medical issue may develop health-related anxiety(1). That type of anxiety can always contribute to you having to wake up with anxiety in the morning or at night as it can lead to the cortisol awakening response or nocturnal panic attack that we talked about previously. If the affected individual has another disorder, such as depression or bipolar disorder, their anxiety symptoms may also get worse. This exacerbation might lead to a person waking up with anxiety in the morning.
Preventative Measures
Prevention is always better than cure, even though the cure in this case is literally treatment. As a side note, mental conditions that tend to be hereditary can’t usually be cured as it is a lifelong affliction but it can always be treated and if done right, affected people can have and lead a full life. But prevention is always better. Let’s see how we help prevent you from waking up with anxiety.
Have a morning routine in place
Being consistent in whatever you do is tremendously helpful and extremely beneficial. This way, the morning anxiety symptoms and even the night panics tend to significantly decrease. It is the case that what is going to happen next will likely decrease uncertainty, which therefore will decrease anxiety and this way you won’t be waking up with anxiety for no reason.
Change your diet and sleep patterns
Certain foods like brazil nuts, eggs, pumpkin seeds, or chamomile are anti-anxiety and antioxidants, all have good benefits. This can improve not only your sleep but also improves your anxiety and has a twofold effect on anxiety(2).
Physical activity is also a good way to take care of your anxiety
It is recommended by the American Association of Anxiety and Depression to dwell in physical activity to find relief from symptoms related to anxiety(3). In addition to the medicinal and physical benefits, physical activity is also associated with improving things like the ones below as with these physical activities, you won’t be seeing yourself waking up feeling anxious:
- lifting your mood
- reducing anxiety symptoms
- improving your body’s ability to handle stress
- helping you calm down
- reducing all kinds of tensions, including hypertension
- improving sleep patterns
Anything, be it brisk walking or even going for a run on a treadmill for 30 to 45 minutes is good enough to ensure you would not be wondering about questions like will there be morning anxiety when I wake up or something like how do I stop waking up in the middle of the night with anxiety.
Mediation and mindfulness
Living in the moment should not be underestimated, especially if you have been waking up with anxiety. Meditation and mindfulness is all about self-awareness. This is where you try to observe and identify your thoughts, feelings, and body states in the present moment without reacting to them. This has a couple of very cool benefits such as reduced fatigue, less stress, improved sleep and reduced blood pressure.
Deep breathing techniques
If you have been having trouble sleeping and you are basically waking up with anxiety then don’t just rush and calm yourself down by trying different types of breathing exercises. These can include:
- Box breathing.
- 4-7-8 breathing.
- Five-finger breathing.
- Alternate nostril breathing.
Treating
If you are asking questions like “Why do I wake up anxious?”, “Why do I wake up with anxiety?”
, or “Why do I wake up with anxiety in my chest?”, and if the prevention was not done properly, then treatment is the only option. Professional support is extremely important when it comes to treating anxiety disorders such as GAD. Treatment can be differentiated into two categories if you have been waking up with severe anxiety: psychotherapy and medication.
Psychotherapy
Also called “Talk” therapy, it is the kind of therapy where you are given the opportunity to challenge your negative thought process. Through it, you can essentially help yourself understand how anxiety affects your life and how to manage it. It can also involve activities that take part in a controlled environment and things like homework, all made to help you come to terms with your negative feelings and thought processes. Obviously, all of this happens under the strict monitoring of a mental health professional.
Medication
Taking medication like antidepressants such as selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), both of which target neurotransmitters during high neural activity to decrease anxiety can be a good consideration. Keep in mind though, there can be side effects related to them, so getting advice from a mental health professional is always a good idea. The ones that reality matter are the ones called anti-anxiety pills such as benzodiazepines, which doctors may prescribe for short-term anxiety or
anxiolytics, which doctors may prescribe for longer periods of time can really help in treating your morning anxiety symptoms or for anxiety when waking up at night. Additionally, you can complement medication of either kind described above with psychotherapy, to treat disorders such as GAD. You can also take medication management to get a monitored management of your medication.
Conclusion
If you have been waking up with anxiety a lot, then don’t think about it, just go for treatment from one of the leading providers of the treatment of anxiety-related disorders such as PTSD and other mental conditions like ADHD, Insomnia, or Psychosis. Alternative treatment methods like telehealth psychiatry are also available. Book an appointment today.
References and Footnotes
- Lebel S, Mutsaers B, Tomei C, Leclair CS, Jones G, Petricone-Westwood D, Rutkowski N, Ta V, Trudel G, Laflamme SZ, Lavigne AA, Dinkel A. Health anxiety and illness-related fears across diverse chronic illnesses: A systematic review on conceptualization, measurement, prevalence, course, and correlates. PLoS One. 2020 Jul 27;15(7):e0234124. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0234124. PMID: 32716932; PMCID: PMC7384626.
- https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322652#foods-that-help-reduce-anxiety
- https://adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/managing-anxiety/exercise-stress-and-anxiety