Tag Archives: Stress

5 Ways Your Sleep Is Warning You About A Toxic Workplace

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There’s no such thing as the perfect workplace – but if yours is far from perfect, then it may well be keeping you up at night.

It’s not always obvious, but there are plenty of signs that workplace stress is seeping into your life – with it even affecting your sleep.

Speaking exclusively to HuffPost UK, sleep expert Martin Seeley, from MattressNextDay, walks us through five “red flag” signs that could indicate your work stress is impacting you more than you might think.

3am wake-ups (on repeat)

Waking up at the same time every night may serve as a signal that your subconscious mind is fixated on workplace stress.

Our sleep cycles are hugely influenced by feelings of stress. And our levels of cortisol, the hormone associated with stress, are higher in the morning.

Waking at the same time in the early hours every morning suggests that cortisol levels are peaking sooner than they should be.

“When you are in a heightened state of stress throughout the day, your body will remain in that state even when it’s time to rest. If you find yourself waking at odd hours, it may be worth evaluating if the workplace is to blame,” says Seeley.

Sleepless Sundays

We all know about the Sunday scaries – that feeling where dread sinks in on the last day of the weekend ahead of your Monday return to work.

But if you always struggle to fall asleep on a Sunday, even when sticking to your usual sleep routine, it’s very likely to be because of work.

The Sleep Foundation polled people who said Sunday is the hardest night to fall asleep and, of these, 63.9% cited next-day worries as a key factor in their Sunday scaries and 55% of these linked their worries to their jobs.

It’s no surprise that it can impact sleep, really – the thought of returning to work after the weekend triggers a stress response in the body as the brain visualises the upcoming pressures of the working week.

Seeley suggests that analysing whether feelings of stress gradually rise throughout the weekend is a great way to assess whether the thought of approaching a new week is impacting your wellbeing.

Workplace nightmares

Plenty of us spend most of our time at work, so it’s no surprise that, on occasion, we’ll dream about it. However, if you are dreaming of work several times a week and the dreams are more nightmarish than pleasant, it could be a warning sign that it’s impacting your overall health.

Seeley explains: “If the content of your workplace dreams are always surrounded by negativity such as missing deadlines, oversleeping, or even being fired, it suggests that workplace stress is engrained in the subconscious mind as the brain is not able to successfully disconnect from the workplace.”

Revenge bedtime procrastination

This refers to the act of procrastinating instead of going to sleep. Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, a Harvard physician, previously shared some of the signs of RVP:

  • Having consistent late nights: Even though you know you should go to bed earlier, you find yourself staying up late almost every night.

  • Feeling tired but resisting sleep: You might be exhausted, but you’re unwilling to go to bed because you want to enjoy some “me time.”

  • Engaging in low-value activities: You might find yourself scrolling through social media, watching mindless TV, or playing video games for hours on end.

  • Feeling guilty or regretful in the morning: You might wake up feeling tired and regretting your late-night choices.

“If you are staying up late and engaging in non-work-related activities, even though you know you need to wake up early, it can signal that you feel you have no or little control over your work/life balance and choose to delay sleep to recoup a sense of autonomy,” warns Seeley.

You have a weekday sleep schedule and a weekend schedule

If you sleep for several hours throughout the weekend to counteract work week sleep deprivation, this is a “clear sign” that your job is impacting your sleep cycle, adds the sleep expert.

“This scenario is often referred to as ‘social jet lag’ and can be incredibly disruptive to your overall health,” says Seeley.

“The body favours structure, and when your weekday sleep schedule is dramatically different from your weekend sleep routine, it leads to exhaustion and decreased cognitive function.”

What can you do about it?

It’s not always possible to just quit a job and start fresh (because time, money, job availability, etc.), so what can you do if your workplace is impacting your sleep? Seeley recommends the following:

Establish boundaries. Refrain from checking emails or working late into the evening to prevent stress from transitioning into bedtime.

Structure a nighttime routine. Take part in calming activities before bed, such as reading, meditating, or taking a warm bath, to signal to your body that it’s time to wind down.

Maintain a consistent sleep schedule. Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on weekends, to regulate your internal body clock.

Seek professional support. If workplace stress is leading to chronic insomnia or anxiety, consult a sleep specialist or mental health professional for guidance.

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Unable To Do Anything When Stressed? You’re Probably In ‘Freeze Mode’

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You’ve heard of fight or flight but do you know the third stress response? It’s called a freeze response and it’s more common than you’d think. Put simply: the freeze response renders sufferers immobile. This is an acute stress response, much like the fight or flight response.

What Happens During A Freeze Response?

A freeze response is actually a different physiological process than fight or flight. Researchers describe the response as ‘attentive immobility’ as when the person is in a ‘freeze response’, they are unable to move or take action against real or perceived danger. During a freeze response, sufferers experience:

  • Physical immobility
  • A drop in heart rate as opposed to the increase found in fight or flight
  • Muscle tension

What Causes People to Freeze?

While it may seem like a counterintuitive reaction, the freeze response, it does serve a purpose and is rooted in some of our most primal instincts

Research in 2017 suggests that the freeze response is similar and potentially related to disassociation. This is something that can occur when somebody goes through a particularly traumatic event. It makes the event feel less reason, causing the person to feel detached. This makes sense given that the freeze response is more common in people that have had traumatic experiences.

Are You Stuck In Freeze Mode?

While this sounds like a response to external triggers that won’t impact your day-to-day life, anxiety sufferers can be triggered into a stress response due to their nervous systems being overwhelmed. So, for what would usually be a small, inconsequential thing can set off the symptoms of a freeze response.

This can be especially stressful if you’re trying to get on with your daily life and work. According to psychologists, people stuck in Freeze Mode will find themselves feeling heavier, struggling to ‘get going’ with work or household tasks and will often stay in the same place feeling frozen for long periods of time. Of course, not being able to do the things that are usually second nature comes with its own issues such as guilt, frustration and low mood – all of which can compound the freeze response even further.

How To Snap Out Of Freeze Mode

While this can understandably feel inescapable for sufferers, freeze mode is something that you can bring yourself out of. The first thing you can do to help yourself, which may help to gain some clarity, is recognise that what you’re experiencing is freeze mode.

Be mindful of the symptoms that you’re experiencing and then acknowledge them for what they are. This creates a barrier between you and the response. Next, start at your toes and slowly move parts of your body all the way to your head to reconnect with your body and break free from the disconnect that freeze mode creates.

Finally, do something completely different in a different room. This could be pouring yourself a glass of water, washing your face or simply opening a window.

Be gentle with yourself in the days following a freeze response In the hours and days following a freeze response, you may feel tired, aching and even have some residual anxiety.

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Christmas Pay Dates Are Screwing Us More Than Usual This Year

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With both Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on a Sunday this year, the following Monday and Tuesday become bank holidays – which means the day you get paid will be moving.

The majority of companies opt to move their December pay date forward in this situation, which can feel like a real festive treat for employees at the time.

But come January, when you’ve potentially had 40 days or more between pay cheques, the disruption to your usual budget can really hit hard.

Every year when this happens, you’ll see tweets on social media with people joking about January pay day feeling a million years away.

But with the cost of living so high this year and people’s finances already at breaking point, for many households this will be no laughing matter.

All this means that preparing for the inevitable Christmas pay gap is even more essential than usual.

If you’ve already been paid this month, try to avoid using those early funds to pay for last-minute Christmas gifts and extras that aren’t essential.

To help with budgeting, Mat Megens, CEO of money-saving app HyperJar, recommends dividing your December salary into five as soon as it hits your account.

“If you’re used to a monthly salary lasting four weeks you can come unstuck when you’re paid earlier than usual in December,” he tells HuffPost UK.

“So make sure you divide what you have by five (depending when you’re paid) – not four – to get you through to that next pay cheque at the end of January.”

If you receive Universal Credit alongside your salary, a shift in pay date can also change the benefits you receive – something to factor into any budgeting.

Anna Stevenson, senior benefits specialist at the charity Turn2us, explains: “Unfortunately, if you’re on Universal Credit, this can cause problems, because it might look to Universal Credit that you got twice as much pay in the month as you actually did.

“Your employer is supposed to report pay on the usual pay date, even when they pay early but it might be a good idea to remind them of this and point them to the HMRC guidance.”

If you think your Universal Credit payment has been cut in January, Stevenson advises contacting the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to explain what has happened.

“If it has been cut, be sure to ask for an RTI (real time information) dispute,” she says.

“This means that the DWP can investigate and re-assign your missing payment to your next month’s payment. It is worth noting this can take over a month to rectify, so it is best to talk to your employer before you are paid to prevent this happening.”

Others have shared their own tips on social media, such as setting some money aside and ‘paying yourself’ on your usual pay date.

Megens provides us with these further tips for staying on top of your budget when your pay date has moved:

Swap brands for supermarket own-label
Food is one of our biggest monthly expenses. You can save around £40 in January by swapping big brands for supermarket own-label equivalents.

Forget regifting… resell instead
If you don’t have gift receipts, head to auction sites like eBay, or try Depop and Vinted for clothes and accessories, to get some cash back in your pocket in January.

Have a strategy for the sales
Set yourself a limit if you’re spending in the Boxing Day and New Year sales and don’t get carried away. Only buy what you’ve planned for, and double check the price now so you’re sure you’re getting a genuine bargain.

Take control: plan for pressure points
Use any downtime between Christmas and New Year to take your first budgeting steps into 2023. Plan for the year’s financial pinch points – those big expenses that come up every year, like house insurance, holidays and Christmas. Note when they’re due and how much you need to start putting aside to pay for them and avoid getting into debt.

And if you’re doing all that and you’re still worried about money, Stevenson says it’s worth checking whether you’re eligible for state support.

“Millions of people miss out on thousands of pounds each year because they’re not sure what they’re entitled to,” she says – urging people use the free Turn2us Benefits Calculator to find out what extra help may be available to you and your family at this time.

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This Is What Happens To Your Brain When You’re In Back-To-Back Meetings

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If you have ever felt like a full day of back-to-back meetings was draining your life force, you’re not alone.

Many of us dread a packed work calendar. Wasting too much time in meetings is a distraction preventing 67% of professionals from making more of an impact, according to a 2019 survey of nearly 2,000 people by organisational consultancy Korn Ferry.

But it’s not just that a high number of meetings can give us feelings of anxiety. There’s actually research that shows how attending too many — and seldom taking breaks — can cause our brains to work differently.

Study Finds Stress Levels Spiked Amid Back-To-Back Meetings

In 2021, researchers at Microsoft’s Human Factors Lab asked 14 people to take part in video calls while wearing electroencephalogram equipment that monitored electrical activity in their brains. On one Monday, some participants were given four half-hour meetings without breaks, while others had four half-hour meetings with a 10-minute break between each for meditation; then, on the following Monday, the two groups switched.

Among those who got no breaks, beta wave activity increased in the brain with each successive meeting, indicating heightened stress levels. In fact, just the anticipation of the next call caused a spike in beta activity during the transition period between meetings, researchers found.

In a Microsoft study last year, beta wave activity increased in the brains of people who had successive meetings with no breaks, indicating a rise in stress. Beta activity remained stable in those who took 10-minute breaks.

Brown Bird Design

In a Microsoft study last year, beta wave activity increased in the brains of people who had successive meetings with no breaks, indicating a rise in stress. Beta activity remained stable in those who took 10-minute breaks.

Meanwhile, the researchers also measured the difference in right and left alpha wave activity over frontal regions of the brain — known as frontal alpha asymmetry — which can indicate levels of mental engagement.

Participants who took breaks showed positive frontal alpha asymmetry, suggesting higher engagement during the meetings, while those without breaks had negative asymmetry, indicating that they were more mentally withdrawn.

When study participants had breaks between meetings, their brains showed signs of higher engagement.

Valerio Pellegrini

When study participants had breaks between meetings, their brains showed signs of higher engagement.

“I’m not surprised that people who took breaks between meetings felt better. People who take breaks in general feel better,” said Laura Vanderkam, a time management expert and the author of “Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways To Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters.”

“We all take breaks one way or another; it’s just [that] many times they’re unconscious. By choosing when and how to take a break, you notice the break happening and reap the rejuvenation,” Vanderkam said.

One big caveat to Microsoft’s findings, of course, is that the sample size of participants was small. But the study aligns with a large body of other research suggesting that meeting overload causes unproductive, unhappy employees who feel like their schedule is ruling their life.

In a recent survey of 76 companies, for example, management researchers found that employee productivity more than doubled when meetings were reduced by 40%.

“This is largely because employees felt more empowered and autonomous,” the researchers wrote in March for Harvard Business Review. “Rather than a schedule being the boss, they owned their to-do lists and held themselves accountable, which consequently increased their satisfaction by 52%.”

Making The Most Of Breaks In Meeting Marathons

If you’re looking for ways to make your own breaks more impactful, try to resist scrolling on social media or reading your email, experts said.

“Many people check email between meetings as a form of a break, and I get that,” Vanderkam said. “But [it is] even better to batch email at some point in the day, or only do it between every other meeting, and use those little bits of time for something else that will add joy and meaning to your life, like a 10-minute walk outside.”

Holistic health coach and mindfulness teacher Rosie Acosta recommended a relaxation technique in which you breathe in for three seconds and out for six, repeating as necessary.

“You only need to do three to five cycles before your body starts to respond and release tension,” she said. “Most of us sit at computers a lot. So if you do sit, perhaps use this time to stand and stretch. The biggest way to reset is to shut down the distractions.”

And if you’re a manager, try setting your teams up for success by avoiding marathon meeting days and building in more breaks.

“To make 10-minute breaks work, it’s helpful for organisations to set a culture that meetings start at, say, the hour and end 10-15 minutes early,” Vanderkam said. “That allows for a break or a ‘passing period’ like in a high school for people who need to travel.”

The big takeaway? It’s better to take a short breather than to power through a slew of meetings, as even a few minutes can make a big difference in our stress levels and ability to focus.

“When we are laser-focused on a task, we tend to create tension in our body, we stop breathing, and we stay in that tension throughout the day,” Acosta said. “If we are able to take short breaks to either do some breathing or even just relaxing of your shoulders, it gives your body the space it needs to feel relaxed.”

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You Do You: How To Set Micro Goals And Encourage Positive Lifestyle Changes At Your Own Pace

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