Nighttime emotional upset: 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 trouble sleeping.

Although the night is that phase of the day that socially and biologically we associate with well-being and rest, for others it becomes at a time when their own mind sets them up and makes them worry about things that at that time they will not be able to sort out.

Nighttime emotional distress is that set of emotions that we experience while trying to sleep and that, even having succeeded, it disturbs our sleep hygiene, affecting us not only at night but also also during the day. Next we are going to explore what causes and what supposes this problem.

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What is nocturnal emotional distress?

The night, despite being the time when we should dive into the deepest of dreams, sometimes becomes our nightmare. What should be a time to rest and regain energy becomes something feared, gloomy and disturbing, not because of the fear of the dark but because of how it can make our emotional distress.

We feel bad, so bad that we do not 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 become very aware of all the ideas that make up our psyche. As 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 topics that, far from making us sleep, make our mind still activate plus. Sooner or later we will fall asleep, but our sleep will be disturbed and it will not help us to rest.

Of all the moments of the day, the night is the one that seems to make us the most emotionally vulnerable., left alone with our mind that, in case of being emotionally tense or there is some problem in our day by day to which we have not solved yet, it will appear with full prominence in the dark nocturnal. All of this makes up what we call emotional nocturnal discomfort, worries that break with the tranquility and rest of the moment when we should be calmer.

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Why does the emotional distress intensify at night?

The night has a series of distinctive characteristics that promote diverse psychological states, depending on the predisposition of the person.

On the one hand, it is the reduction of external stimuli, both from the environment and social. While we are lying in bed we do not speak to anyone, nor do we hear or see anything. The environment is calm, there are no noises or striking visual stimuli, nothing that can distract us. When we find ourselves in this situation, the bodily sensations are increased, not because they become stronger in themselves but because when feeling isolated, it gives the sensation that they are stronger.

At night we feel more strongly our chronic pain, muscle tension, tachycardia, the urge to urinate and any other bodily sensation that is minimally uncomfortable.

Throughout the day we do not pay much attention to them, but at night and, especially when we cannot sleep, we begin to worry and may even make we begin to think that we are sick of something: "My heart beats strong, what if I have a problem?", "It bothers me a lot knee. I should go to the traumatologist... "," Lately I urinate a lot, will I have prostate cancer? "

On the other hand, we tend to give a lot of importance to not being able to sleep when we cannot sleep, being fuel for nocturnal emotional distress and that, 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 get 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 means that we do not perform well the next day and, when it is time to go to sleep, we cannot help but worry that 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 deep of our mind, rummage through drawers of our psyche that by day we do not even realize that they exist even. We have a hard time keeping our minds blank and that is why we entertain ourselves by 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 day-to-day life that we have not solved yet, when night comes, we will start to think about it even more. The problem is that we will be able to do little while we are lying in our bed, so thinking about it will only make us get more nervous unnecessarily. Giving a lot of mental turns to something while in bed the only thing that gets us is entangled in a spiral of suffering and more emotional discomfort at night.

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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 louder than the loudest of alarm clocks. This prevents our rest and mental hygiene, which is a risk factor not only for being tired the next day but also which also damages our mental health, increasing the risk of suffering from mood disorders such as depression.

So that we can carry out an adequate mental and physical recycling, balance body and mind, it is necessary that we enjoy a good rest, going through REM and non-REM phases repeatedly. Anxiety is one of those factors that prevents us from going through these phases properly, we do not allows us to sleep well because we feel bad and we feel emotionally and physically exhausted daily following.

What could be behind the emotional distress at night?

It is common that, when a person feels emotional discomfort at night, this is, in reality, the discomfort emotional life has taken center stage at night, when there are not too many distractions Feeling anxiety at night is a sign that there really is a lot of poorly managed emotional tension, as would happen if any other negative emotion manifests itself during the hours that we sleep.

Without entering into beliefs of the interpretation of dreams, dreams are considered to be elaborations that are generated in order to manage 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 reposition what we have not consciously organized while we were awake, taking advantage of the hours of inactivity in the real world that means 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 more heavy and complicated. For this reason our rest can be very altered, and if we add that we may have the predisposition to fall asleep late, this anxiety can cause us to wake up earlier than our part, preventing us from sleeping the 8 hours that we recommend. We may also have nightmares, night terrors, sleep paralysis, repeated dreams, or constantly interrupted sleep.

As we said, all this has an impact on our psychological state, being a magnet for mental disorders. AND Although we do not suffer from any disorder, not having rested well complicates the management of daily tasksIn addition, it causes us fear by not knowing what will happen the next night, if we will be worried again, we will sleep badly or we will have nightmares.

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How to manage this problem?

Although it is normal that from time to time we feel an intense emotional discomfort at night for the reason that be it, of becoming something very everyday or that it becomes a prolonged stage of our lives must request psychological help.

This discomfort, no matter how nocturnal it may be, is still the tip of the iceberg of a major problem, an anxiety or depression that affects all aspects of our life, but because we are so distracted by our chores and social events, we don't even realize how bad it is. we're.

But when we have no distractions and the mind is unoccupied, already we take care ourselves of occupying it with witty ideas, rumination and fears that disturb our tranquility.

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 to elaborate and manage everything we are experiencing, in addition to acquiring tools to be able to control these intrusive ideas that prevent us from sleeping adequately.

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 distress, we need to understand that it requires us to assess what factors have contributed to our feeling this way. Other considerations to take into account are the following:

1. To solve the problems

In order to rule out worries, the problems that cause them must be solved. While we try to fall asleep, it is common for all those problems that we have not been able to solve to come to our conscience and that we look for a solution while we are trying to rest.

As we have said, we will be able to do little at night, since the problems of the day are solved during the day. If it happens that at night a solution to such a problem comes to us, the best thing we can do is to write it down on a piece of paper and try to stop thinking about it any more. By leaving them in writing, it is more likely that the next day we will take them more into account, and motivate ourselves to apply the solution once and for all.

2. Regulate physical activity schedules

Both lack and excess of exercise can alter 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 that, if it coincides with the moment of going to sleep, it will help us to fall asleep quickly. However, if exercise time gets too close to sleep time, even though these endorphins are they will release sooner or later, we will still be physiologically overexcited and it will be difficult for us to sleep.

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3. Maintain good eating habits

Eating after hours and badly influences sleep, so we must maintain good eating habits, eating healthy and avoiding copious dinners. If we go over dinner, we are more likely to suffer interruptions in 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. While they are not a panacea, they are easy-to-apply tools that can help reduce nighttime emotional distress.