Are you Stressed, or are you just Tired?

In many ways, the symptoms of stress and fatigue are similar. Long-term stress sends our body into a state of overdrive, where we need extra energy to support our mental and physical functions. We crave high-fat, high-glucose foods, junk food in other words. When we deprive ourselves of sleep, our body’s production of hunger-related hormones leptin and ghreline gets out of wack, causing us to not only be more hungry, but feel less satisfied after meal. 

When we are stressed, we are irritable, quick to anger and we are at a higher risk for depression and mental exhaustion. When we are sleepless, our brains and bodies are affected. The thyroid gland, for example, plays an important role in emotional stability, it produces a lot of handy hormones that keep us calm and pleasant. The thyroid depends on getting enough sleep, and when you don’t get your recommended 7 to 9 hours, you guessed it, you become irritable, quick to anger and you’re at a higher risk for depression. 

Sleeplessness causes hypertension, and so does stress. Sleep deprivation causes sexual dysfunction by lowering testosterone in both men and women, the same mechanism exists for prolonged stress. I could go on. 

The pictures of sleep deprivation and stress are clinically almost indistinguishable. The symptoms: unhealthy eating, hypertension, emotional instability are the same. Finally, both stress and a lack of sleep mess with our bodies production of cortisol, the stress hormone. 

You may know that cortisol is essential in activating your stress-response or fight-or-flight mode, but you may be unaware of the role cortisol plays in your sleep schedule. In stressful situations, you body’s Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis (HPA Axis), the connection between the hormone producing glands in your brain and on top of your kidneys, makes sure that you have enough cortisol in your blood to take action. 

Cortisol is not bad in and of itself, it helps us function at a higher level, be more alert and active. The problems start, as they often do, when we are under prolonged pressure or stress. See, in normal human functioning, cortisol levels are highest in the morning, drops off by the afternoon and production is very low in the evening and night. These low levels of cortisol help you get to sleep. When we have persistently high levels of cortisol in our bodies over long periods of time, these can start to affect our sleep. We’ll sleep less and sleep less deeply. 

Those who live high-pressure lives and have demanding jobs are often both stressed and sleepless, with a whole host of ailments as a consequence. If you’re still not convinced of the intimate link between the two, consider this: the number one cause of work-related stress is working longer hours. The result of longer hours is often less sleep. Take a moment, if you like, to go over periods of high-stress for you, and carefully consider whether you’ve aggravated your feeling of being ‘stressed-out” by not getting enough sleep… 

It is very easy to confuse the two and to only treat one when we actually need to tackle both. That’s why I always tackle both stress and sleep with my clients, even if initially, they are only concerned with one of the two. Stress has become a very important, weighty subject. We recommend our employees learn about their stress response, take up meditation or yoga, take long baths and get enough ‘me-time’. We do self-care and go to the spa. 

Being tired, however, is seen as normal. In some environments, being tired, pulling “all nighters” is even seen as heroic, a badge of honour, a sign of your dedication to your goals or you company’s future. 

This has been called the “Type A Fallacy” by Dr Sara Mendick. She describes a logical fallacy where people think that the longer they work, the more productive they are. This has caused a significant number of workers to sleep less in order to accomplish more at work. 

Unfortunately, this strategy rarely pays off. Sleep deprivation decreases mental functioning. It makes us less alert, less able to make decisions and reduces our ability to analyse all of the input we get through our senses. 

We know now, through decades of scientific study and data gathering, that more sleep makes for more productive hours, more alert employees and better decisions. 

So what about you, are you stressed, or are you just tired?