Are These Key Mental Health Factors Keeping You Awake?
Editor’s Note: Part 1 of this series (find it here) covered the fourth and third most common mental-health causes for insomnia. In today’s article, you will learn about the second and first most common mental health reasons you experience insomnia.
When it comes to the top factors causing insomnia, mental health has taken the lead over the past decade, outpacing other reasons for you not being able to fall asleep or stay asleep. In Part 1 of this series, we discussed how unprocessed grief and PTSD (unprocessed trauma) can disrupt your sleep. In this article, we focus on the other two leading causes.
As a therapist, I truly believe that these two have managed their way to the top of the list because of how subtle they are, yet, when unmanaged, how much havoc they can wreck on our ability to maintain a good night’s rest. Without further ado, here are the top two.
2. Day-To-Day Stress
We all experience times in life when we find ourselves lying in bed recounting our day to make sure we’ve completed everything we had set out to do. Though it’s normal for this to occur every once in a while, it shouldn’t be the norm. And if it is, it’s an indication that you have taken on too much.
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Recurring day-to-day stress is an indication that we’ve taken on too much responsibility. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus calls the burdened person to Him, saying that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Though the passage doesn’t insinuate God’s assignments are easy, it indicates that when we are walking in the midst of our God-given assignment, He supernaturally flows in and through us and we’re able to accomplish things we otherwise wouldn’t be able to on our own. So if you feel that you’re crumbling beneath your daily load, I implore you to check in with the Holy Spirit, who knows the Father’s will for your life (see Rom. 8:27). Ask Him to show you what you need to put down, what you need to delegate and what you need to keep.
1.Transitional Stress
Now, I know there are times when we can’t help having to undergo multiple transitions at once. Let’s say you’re in the midst of planning a wedding while looking for a new job and planning your move to a new house. In this case, your best approach is to adjust your expectations. You have to expect that for a period of time, you will be putting more pressure on yourself. To prepare yourself, make sure you get enough sleep and maintain a healthy diet.
Most importantly, find something that is steady in your life and use it as an anchor. Your time with God is a great example of this. During times of transitional stress, make sure that your time with God does not go out the window. This is normally the first thing we put on the back burner. We justify this action by saying, “God understands” or, “I’ll get to it when I can,” when in reality your enemy wants nothing more than for your time with God to go out the window because the further you are from your Father‘s voice, the more influence your enemy can have over you.
God’s faithfulness gives you hope, and in times of stress, hope anchors you to the reality that no matter how many things seem out of control right now, God is still in control. God is unchanging. He is steady. Jesus is the Prince of Peace (see Isa. 9:6), and what do you need more than anything during transition and when a bunch of unknown factors are up in the air? His peace.
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Kenza Haddock, LPCS, BCPC, is a licensed professional counselor supervisor and accredited clinical trauma specialist with expertise in treating complex mental health conditions through both clinical and biblical methods. A former Muslim, she has spoken at conferences and churches and been featured in numerous news outlets regarding the intersection of Christianity and mental -health counseling. Haddock and her husband own Oceanic Counseling Group LLC, an outpatient mental health agency headquartered in South Carolina. She was also a co-founder of the #healSC campaign, which raised awareness about mental health issues. Her new book, “The Three Enemies of Your Mental Health,” releases this October and is now available for preorder through Amazon.
