A classic side effect of a stressful day or event is that come bedtime, you’re battling with a mind that simply won’t turn off.

This makes it harder to fall asleep quickly and may even cause you to wake multiple times throughout the night. If this has been you, staring at the ceiling wishing desperately you were asleep, you know first-hand how frustrating it can be.

So, what’s happening on a biological level to cause this situation? And what supplements for stress are available to start remedying it? Click here to skip straight to the supplements or keep reading to learn how your sleeping pattern normally works when not adversely affected by stress.

What Happens When We Sleep?

We all have an in-built body clock, called a circadian rhythm. This term is used to refer to the different physical and mental changes we cycle through each day, in response to the cycles of day (light) and night (dark).

When in balance, your body produces two primary hormones that govern this rhythm:

1. Cortisol is a stimulating hormone, which your body starts producing as the sun rises with the light prompting you to wake up and start your day.

Notes on cortisol: Cortisol is designed to peak in the morning (rising from around 5:00am). As the day goes on, normally cortisol levels should fall, leaving you with your lowest levels at night, ready to sleep.¹

2. Melatonin is a sleep-promoting hormone, which starts to be produced in response to the sun setting and darkness falling. Having good levels of melatonin is important as it's the most powerful healing antioxidant in the body, which helps to protect you from the impacts of stress.

Notes on melatonin: Levels of melatonin are highest at night (peaking around 11.00pm), helping you sleep, and should drop off as cortisol starts to rise again come morning.¹

Illustrative diagram of circadian rhythm below – Source: Getty Images

Our circadian rhythms were designed to have us starting the day awake and energised, and slowly start to feel sleepy and ready for bed come evening. It’s this cycle that allows us to live our days productively but also have a restorative sleep each night.

However, for many people, this natural rhythm can become disrupted. A common event that causes this disruption is that higher cortisol levels, with multiple high peaks throughout the day. There are a few issues with this happening:

• Firstly, cortisol is stimulating. The more it peaks, the more you feel wired and alert.
• This usually impacts your body's ability to signal natural rhythms to help you create melatonin, resulting in less chance for restorative melatonin to circulate in your body.

This leads to melatonin levels peaking lower or later, leading to poorer sleep quality or quantity, adding to that feeling of sluggishness in the morning. One of the biggest triggers causing this imbalance is… You guessed it, stress!

How Does Stress Affect Sleep?

Stress evokes the fight or flight response via the sympathetic nervous system. This system produces the stress hormone adrenaline, and further increases cortisol production. Together, they stimulate the body, keeping it on high alert, primed and ready to fight or flee from the perceived stressor.

While useful when necessary (i.e. when faced with a life-threatening situation), high levels of stress hormones can prevent your circadian rhythm from cycling properly, which can affect melatonin come nighttime with poor sleep as the result.

Best Supplements for Stress

If you feel your stress levels could be interrupting your circadian rhythm, leaving you unable to fall asleep and stay asleep, there are a few natural ingredients to support stress and sleep:

1. Fast-Acting and Traditionally-Used Herbs: Lavender oil, passionflower, Californian poppy and Zizyphus 

When sudden stress hits and your brain won’t switch off, certain herbs can counteract its stimulating effects. Here's how they can work:

• Lavender oil² mild sedative and anxiety-relieving properties, helpful for falling asleep.
• Passionflower³ and Californian poppy⁴ boost GABA, a calming brain chemical, to help you relax.
• Zizyphus⁵ used in Chinese medicine to quiet the mind and ease sleeplessness.

These ingredients are found in NeuroCalm® Sleep tablets can help you get to sleep and stay asleep longer.

Magnesium to Soothe a Wired Brain

Stress can drain your magnesium levels, which in turn makes you more sensitive to stress.⁶ Low magnesium is also linked to muscle cramps, restless legs, and difficulty sleeping.⁷,⁸

Magnesium is essential for producing GABA and for deep, restorative stages of sleep.⁹ Adults need around 310 mg a day for women and 420 mg for men.

To support balance, MetaRelax® Daily provides 210 mg per tablet to help meet these needs and support a healthy stress response.

Supercharging Sleep with Extra Evidence-Based Ingredients

For extra nighttime support, SleepX powder combines magnesium with lutein, zeaxanthin, withania, and ornithine.

• Magnesium at a total daily intake of around 500 mg has been shown to raise melatonin, lower cortisol, increase total sleep time, and shorten the time it takes to fall asleep.⁹¹⁰
• Lutein & Zeaxanthin are antioxidants that filter blue light from screens. Supplementation can reduce eye strain, improve sleep quality, and help you fall asleep faster, even if you use devices late at night.¹⁰,¹¹
• Withania (Ashwagandha) is an Ayurvedic herb shown to reduce cortisol, ease anxiety, and improve deep sleep. It may help you fall asleep quickly and wake feeling more refreshed.,¹²
• Ornithine is an amino acid that supports the sleep–wake cycle. At 400 mg a day, it can lower morning cortisol, improve sleep quality, and reduce the time it takes to enter deep sleep.¹³

Bottom line: If stress is sabotaging your sleep, these herbs and nutrients can help calm your nervous system, balance stress hormones, and support deep, restorative rest.

What Else Can I do to Relieve Stress and Fall Asleep Quickly?

1. Mindfulness meditation: Read this article for some suggestions on how to create mindfulness practices. You could try doing this 30 to 60 minutes before wanting to go to bed, to support your cortisol and adrenaline dropping, and your melatonin levels rising.
2. Journaling: Journaling is a great technique to include in your bedtime routine, especially if you are feeling stressed. Writing down your thoughts, worries or to-do lists on paper can help clear your mind, so you can wind down and fall asleep much easier.

Final Thoughts on Supporting Better Sleep

As feeling stressed is certainly a part of life at times, it’s up to each of us find what soothing and stress busting supplements and practices will calm the body and mind to ensure we’re still getting a good night’s sleep.

If you suspect your circadian rhythm has become out of balance due to longer term stress, seek the support and guidance of a Healthcare Practitioner, who can work with you to holistically address your stress and support your sleep. Creating a nourishing plan to address your stress can then mean looking forward to that peaceful, sound slumber.

To learn more about effective natural tools to support sleep, click here to explore our Sleep & Insomnia Range.

References:

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7. Cuciureanu MD, Vink R. Magnesium and Stress. In: Vink R, Nechifor M, editors. Magnesium in the central nervous system. Adelaide: University of Adelaide Press; 2011. p. 251-68.
8. Braun L, Cohen M. Herbs and natural supplements: An evidence-based guide. 4th ed. Vol 2. Sydney (AU): Elsevier/Churchill Livingstone; 2015. p. 677-92.
9. Abbasi B, Kimiagar M, Sadeghniiat K, Shirazi MM, Hedayati M, Rashidkhani B. The effect of magnesium supplementation on primary insomnia in elderly: A double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. J Res Med Sci. 2012 Dec;17(12):1161-69. PMID: 23853635.
10. Stringham JM, Stringham NT, O’Brien KJ. Macular carotenoid supplementation improves visual performance, sleep quality, and adverse physical symptoms in those with high screen time exposure. Foods. 2017 Jun 29;6(7):47. doi: 10.3390/foods6070047.
11. Culver MF, Bowman J, Jutur V. Lutein and zeaxanthin isomers effect on sleep quality: A randomized placebo-controlled trial. Biomed J Sci & Tech Res. 2018 Sep 10;9(2):7018-24. doi: 10.26717/BJSTR.2018.09.001775.
12. Auddy B, Hazra J, Mitra A, Abedon B, Ghosal S. Standardized withania somnifera extract significantly reduces stress-related parameters in chronically stressed humans: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. JANA. 2008;11(1):50-56.
13. Miyake M, Kirisako T, Kokubo T, Miura Y, Morishita K, Okamura H. Randomised controlled trial of the effects of L-ornithine on stress markers and sleep quality in healthy workers. Nutr J. 2014 Jun 3;13:53. doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-13-53.