Morning Anxiety: Why You Wake Up Feeling Anxious
Waking up anxious is a common experience for people with or without an anxiety disorder. A racing heartbeat, a sense of dread in the stomach, or sudden rumination about the day ahead can be incredibly disconcerting, especially when you’ve not even stepped out of bed.
Anxiety in the morning can indicate an anxiety or panic disorder, but it can also signify some low-level stress in your life. There are well-understood biological reasons why we tend to be more anxious in the morning, but that doesn’t mean anxiety should always feature in your wake-up routine.
To explain morning anxiety and how it can be treated, this page will cover:
- What morning anxiety is.
- The biological causes of morning anxiety.
- Behavioral habits that make morning anxiety worse.
- What morning panic attacks look like.
- How different therapies can treat morning anxiety.
What Is Morning Anxiety?
Many people with an anxiety disorder report that their symptoms are worse in the mornings. This pattern is often described simply as “morning anxiety,” but it doesn’t just affect people with a diagnosed anxiety disorder. Research finds that for many people, anxiety is highest in the morning and lowest at night.[1][2]
Those with morning anxiety experience an intense spike in their physical and mental anxiety symptoms. A racing heartbeat, a sense of dread in the stomach, and catastrophizing thoughts hit them first thing and set a looming sense of panic for the day. Within seconds or minutes of waking, you may be racing through your to-do list for the day or ruminating over stressful events from the day before.[3]
Although worry is a normal part of life, it can cause considerable distress if it becomes uncontrollable and chronic. People with morning anxiety may have no sense of where their anxiousness is coming from. They may even worry that they have a physical health condition that is causing the anxiety.[2]
Research finds that it’s normal to get some morning anxiety, even if you don’t have a mental health condition like generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and for this to taper off throughout the day.[2] The difference is whether the anxiety fades as the day goes on or whether it stays with you from morning until night. Those with an anxiety disorder will typically continue to experience high levels of anxiety throughout the day.[2]
Whether or not your morning anxiety is connected to an anxiety disorder, understanding where that anxiety comes from can help.
Reasons for Morning Anxiety
There are various biological reasons for morning stress as well as behavioral habits that can make it worse.
Biological Factors
The main reasons for morning anxiety are biological. Your body undertakes several crucial processes during sleep and upon waking, which can result in feelings of anxiety for some people. Here’s what’s happening:[1][2]
- Throughout the night, blood sugar levels drop. Some people then wake up feeling dizzy, confused, weak, and in need of refuelling.
- Upon waking, our bodies instigate a surge of cortisol (the stress hormone) to prepare us for the demands of the day. In susceptible people, this surge can contribute to anxiety symptoms.
- Cortisol levels decline steadily throughout the day, which reduces anxiety levels for most people who don’t have an anxiety disorder.
As a result of these biological processes, people may experience:[3]
- Stomach pain.
- Chest heaviness.
- Headaches.
- Heart palpitations.
This is typical of cortisol anxiety, but it can still be an intense experience for the body.[3]
Behavioral Habits
Other reasons for elevated morning stress can be related to your lifestyle or habits. For instance, consuming caffeine and sugar first thing in the morning can create jitteriness and stomach tension that otherwise wouldn’t be there.[1] Caffeine, in particular, adds to the cortisol already in your system.
Another anxiety-inducing habit is nighttime rumination. If you stay up late dwelling on the things you’re worried about, you’re likely to wake up feeling stressed.[1] Your brain picks up where it left off, so when you fall asleep anxious, you often wake up anxious.
Not getting enough sleep is also a factor in morning anxiety. Being well-rested is a crucial foundation for a positive mood in the daytime, as sleep loss has multiple negative effects. A lack of sleep:[4]
- Makes you more tired.
- Can lower your mood.
- Can affect your ability to regulate emotions.
All of this can increase symptoms of anxiety.[4]
Checking your phone or emails immediately after waking can also increase morning anxiety. Your nervous system hasn’t had time to settle before you’re flooding it with information and demands.
Tending to these behavioral factors will be important when it comes to treating morning anxiety.
Severe Anxiety Symptoms Upon Waking
If your morning anxiety is so severe that it feels more like panic, you could be experiencing what’s known as a nocturnal panic attack. These are panic attacks that occur during sleep and cause you to wake up:[4]
- Struggling to breathe.
- Sweating profusely.
- With a racing heartbeat.
Morning panic attacks are common in people with panic disorder, occurring in 7 out of 10 people with the condition.[4] These intense anxiety symptoms upon waking can be incredibly frightening and last about 10 minutes before subsiding.[4] But ten minutes can feel a lot longer when you’re in the middle of a panic attack.
When seeking treatment for morning anxiety, it is crucial to tell healthcare professionals that you’re experiencing panic symptoms. Panic attacks need specific treatment, and your clinicians need all the information to decide what type of support you need.
Mission Connection is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
Types of Anxiety Treatment
There are many types of treatment available for anxiety. Broadly, these are split into medication and psychotherapy, with some combining the two. The right anxiety treatment for you will depend on the reasons for your morning symptoms and your own preferences.
Different anxiety treatments may aim to:[2][4][5]
- Reduce or eliminate anxiety symptoms.
- Teach strategies to get in touch with interoceptive states (what’s happening inside your body).
- Cultivate mindfulness and relaxation.
- Identify anxiety and panic triggers.
- Challenge thoughts and behaviors that perpetuate anxiety symptoms.
- Connect your anxiety with past life experiences and work through those connections.
- Nurture new behaviors that keep anxiety at bay.
In addition to the therapies themselves, progress also depends on your personal experience and whether a strong relationship is built between you and your therapist. Here are four of the most widely researched anxiety therapy options:
1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is considered by many to be the gold standard for treating anxiety disorders. A large part of it is psychoeducation, which will inform you about how anxiety works. This makes the relationship between you and your CBT therapist quite directive and educational in nature.[5]
Psychoeducation can be helpful for treating anxiety because it explains what’s going on in your body. You’ll learn that some anxiety is essential for your survival, but that your body’s alarm system is simply overactive. You’ll also learn that your body’s alarm system can be controlled, which is where relaxation comes in.[5]
CBT can teach you techniques for calming your body to reduce physical anxiety symptoms. If your anxiety is more mentally based (such as rumination or catastrophizing), CBT will focus on challenging and reframing thoughts so that they don’t spike your anxiety.[5] For example, if your first thought upon waking is “today is going to be terrible,” CBT teaches you to notice that thought and question it.
2. Somatic Therapy
Somatic therapy can help reduce the physical symptoms of anxiety, and also support:
- Sleep.
- Concentration.
- Emotional regulation.
Unlike therapies that focus on the mind or behavior, somatic therapy targets the mind-body connection. It gives great attention to bodily sensations and the body’s stress response, which makes it well-suited for treating morning anxiety or nocturnal panic attacks.
Somatic therapy uses grounding exercises and body scans to cultivate present-moment awareness and reduce anxiety symptoms. A somatic therapist may also carry out breathwork or encourage gentle movement to calm down your body and help you connect with it.
In addition, somatic work can help you access the emotions that are underneath anxiety, such as frustration or sadness. Sometimes anxiety is covering or resulting from something else, and therapy can bring that to the surface.
3. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a type of CBT that’s influenced by Buddhist philosophy. Its main aim is to build psychological flexibility, which is the ability to remain present despite distressing emotions and thoughts.
ACT shows you how to step back from your thoughts and cultivate present-moment awareness. This can support someone experiencing anxiety because it provides new tools for coping. For example, simply allowing anxiety to be there without reacting can be extremely effective in allowing it to pass.
The other large aspect of ACT is connecting you with your values and being committed to taking important actions in your life. Your therapist can help you cultivate an awareness of your values and an ability to act accordingly despite distressing symptoms, such as anxiety.
4. Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT)
Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) is often used with couples and families because of the way it can enhance relationships. However, EFT also has the potential to support emotional well-being and self-connection, reducing anxiety in turn.
The main goal of EFT is to improve emotional intelligence, which allows you to recognize, sit with, explore, understand, and express emotions. An EFT therapist would help you do so by exploring how your emotions impact your:
- Thoughts.
- Behaviors.
- Relationships.
- Anxiety levels.
You might discover that your morning anxiety is connected to something you haven’t been letting yourself feel.
Therapeutic work in EFT will help you build emotional regulation skills. When these aren’t well-developed, people are more prone to anxiety because they’re less able to tolerate emotional distress. When you have the right coping skills, your body is less likely to become anxious in response to life stressors because you’ll have other tools to rely on.
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Find Effective Therapy for Morning Anxiety With Mission Connection
If you are seeking professional support for your morning anxiety, reach out to us here at Mission Connection. Our licensed therapists provide the evidence-based therapies discussed here, alongside additional therapeutic approaches that can be tailored to your individual needs.
We treat anxiety disorders, panic disorders, and the stress that doesn’t quite fit a diagnosis but still makes life harder than it should be. We offer several options for effective outpatient treatment, including in-person programs at our locations in California, Virginia, and Washington, virtual telehealth, and a hybrid program that combines in-person and virtual care. Online sessions mean you can start treatment from home, without having to get through a difficult morning before your appointment even begins.
Mission Connection is Joint Commission-accredited. We also accept most major insurance providers, so that your recovery is not hindered due to financial issues.
Reach out to us online or call us at 866-833-1822 to find out how we can support your long-term recovery. Our compassionate team is available 24/7 to answer your questions and provide guidance with no obligation.
