Insomnia sucks. Work stress wrecks your sleep, especially if you’re not happy with your job. Find out why stress wrecks your sleep if you hate your job and how to get your sleep back.
Insomnia Sucks
If your job stresses you too much, or if you just hate your job and can’t leave it, that stress can wreck your sleep. I’ve been there. You can’t tell if you hate your job because you can’t sleep or if you can’t sleep because you hate your job.
Insomnia Ruins Every Day
Sleep deprivation makes surviving your job and looking for another one seem impossible. It can seem like everything reminds you of how much you hate your job.
Before you can think about searching for a new job, you need to sleep well. Sufficient sleep can make everything better, even that hated job.
So let’s work on sleep.
A great start will be to sign up for my 7 Days to Crushing Job Misery email course.
On The Edge of Everything
A problem I often hear is people who can’t sleep because they hate their jobs.
I remember that.
I was so angry, I lay there stewing. The more I thought about how mad I was at the people I thought were causing all my stress, the angrier I got. Sleep wasn’t happening. That, in addition to what it was doing to my relationship with my family.
That happens when thoughts run wild.
Ruminating thoughts venture into dark places. They explore and dream up all manner of wild adventures and accusations, most of which will never happen or aren’t true.
You feel like the Gunslinger in Stephen King’s Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three:
“I may be able to walk perhaps a dozen miles if I press myself to the last extremity. I am, in short, a man on the edge of everything.”
Is it Really the Job?
In my case, I made it out to be far worse than it really was.
Some jobs are just hatable, though.
So I’m not going to try and convince you why you shouldn’t hate your job.
Let’s just work on your sleep.
Insomnia will only compound the stress, anger, depression and the drainage of what used to be your energy and purpose. If you can’t sleep, the deprivation makes it all seem worse and get worse.
See how the compound effect works.
Why Can’t I Sleep?
The reason stress–whether from a job or anything else–keeps us awake when we need to sleep is that it gets our thoughts running wild.
The brain can’t tell the difference between that argument scenario you replay over and over, the one where you tell that greedy s.o.b. just what a greedy s.o.b. he is, then march out the front entrance to applause from your fellow oppressed (now former) coworkers.
We don’t look back to see them begging us to stay or the emotional destruction we return with a double bird salute, pointing to Heaven and declaring who’s number one. Even the security guards cheer us on.
All Revved Up and No Place to Go…
But the battle never happens. Like the Meatloaf song, we get “all revved up and no place to go” as our bodies flood with adrenaline and cortisol that would naturally sharpen our focus, boost our strength and charge our energy to fight off a bear.
We don’t run or fight, though. We stew, simmer and sear. That energy doesn’t burn off. It lingers, clogs and contaminates. Here’s a list of all the bad things that too much lingering cortisol causes.
That’s stress, brought on by feral thoughts.
I hope you don’t get as angry as I did. I’ve talked to some who carry a lot of rage towards their employers, but even without the rage, the stress is doing horrible things to you.
…Not Even to Sleep
The lack of sleep just exacerbates the problem.
The poor sleep quality and stress compound on each other. It’s a vicious circle fueled by rogue thoughts.
You’ve got to wrangle those thoughts.
Focus on something that won’t send you into fight mode. Adrenaline won’t let you sleep if you need to fight.
Remember what Dumbledore said:
“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”
Adrenaline doesn’t know.
Save Your Sleep
When I started a practice of focusing my thoughts, I got my sleep back.
Save Your Relationships.
Save Your Life.
Practice focusing your thoughts on where you want them. Thinking deliberately, you know you don’t want your mind going to those raging, frightening, dark places.
Take the 7 Days to Crushing Job Misery email course.
Keep it real. Focus on life’s enormousness, not life’s enormity.
How do you control your thoughts? It takes practice.
Introduce some Mindfulness Triggers.
That’s all it is, practice.
You don’t just show up unprepared for a rescue and expect success. It takes practice. Just a few minutes every day, deliberately focusing your thoughts where you want them focused, like your breath.
Please share with us in the comments how your job stresses you out. Go ahead and vent right here. More help is on the way. Sign up to stay on top of it and get your life back.
Question:
What do you think about when you can’t sleep at night?
