Sleep Disruption in Adults: Depression, Anxiety, and Solutions
Published: 11/20/2025 | Updated: 11/20/2025
Insomnia and mental health are closely intertwined, with sleep impacting mood and mood impacting sleep. For example, both anxiety and depression can result in sleep issues, and an irregular sleep schedule is known to increase these conditions in return. This can become a vicious cycle that feels impossible to break out of.
Fortunately, experts have a good understanding of how sleep, fatigue, and mood symptoms interact. So, if sleep issues are something you experience, there is a great deal of support available for getting your sleep back on track.
This page explores the connection between sleep and mental health, as well as the methods you can use to improve both. It covers:
- The types of sleep disruption and signs of sleep deprivation
- The connection between sleep and mental health
- Symptoms of depression and anxiety
- Resolving sleep issues with therapy, lifestyle changes, and medication
- Where to find professional support
What Is Sleep Disruption?
Sleep disruption comes in many forms, and it’s surprisingly common. More than a third of American adults don’t get enough sleep, and a quarter have chronic sleep disorders.1 In fact, about a third of people across the world experience sleep disruption of some kind, whether that’s difficulties with falling asleep, staying asleep, or staying alert throughout the day.2
Sleep disorders include a range of experiences; they’re broadly characterized as abnormal sleeping patterns that somehow interfere with emotional, mental, or physical functioning. However, how they interfere with our functioning can vary. For example:6
Insomnia: involves trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up too early, or experiencing daytime fatigue.- Parasomnias: Includes issues like sleepwalking, sleep talking, sleep paralysis, and sleep terrors, among others.
- Sleep apnea: When breathing stops and starts during sleep, often causing people to snore loudly due to an airway obstruction.
- Nighttime worry or sleep-related anxiety: This occurs as a result of anxiety and sleep disruption.
- Narcolepsy: When someone falls asleep spontaneously at any point during the day.
Sleep disorders can impact both mental and physical health if they persist long-term. For example, people may struggle to perform normally at work or school, be at risk of injuries and accidents, or develop cardiovascular health issues.6
Signs of Sleep Deprivation
People tend to need between seven and nine hours of sleep a night to feel that they’re functioning normally. You may be experiencing sleep disruption if it’s taking you more than an hour to fall asleep every night, you’re waking up frequently, or you’re noticing signs of sleep deprivation during the day.
Signs of sleep deprivation include:3
Daytime sleepiness- Poor concentration
- Fatigue
- Moodiness
- Decreased libido
Conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), narcolepsy, substance abuse, depression, and anxiety can mimic these sleep deprivation signs.3 Always speak to your primary healthcare provider if you’re worried about a specific condition.
Sleep Disruption and Mental Health
It’s often important to speak about sleep and mental health together because these two life domains have a bidirectional relationship (they impact each other). Not only is sleep deprivation found to reduce the control we have over our emotions, but psychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety can cause sleep problems.1
For instance, people with insomnia are 10 times more likely to have depression and 17 times more likely to have anxiety.1 Poor sleep has also been connected with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), psychosis, and eating disorders.2
Like other bidirectional relationships in psychology, it’s difficult to say which comes first. As sleep and mental health are so closely intertwined, it’s hard to determine whether sleep habits or mental health conditions are to blame for someone’s symptoms.1
In the next section, we’ll focus on how mental health conditions can cause sleep issues. But it’s important to note that lack of sleep can also make us more susceptible to anxiety and depression. This is particularly true if you’re in a state of sleep deprivation for a longer period of time, as this can create a cycle in which executive function, mood, and energy are impaired.3
What Are Depression and Anxiety?
Depression and anxiety are two of the most common mental health problems (CMHP), arising as a result of both genetic, biological, and environmental factors. Both of these conditions can significantly impact sleep, and vice versa.
Depression Sleep Issues
Major depression and fatigue are commonly seen together. You may be depressed if you’re experiencing some of the following symptoms:4
Persistent feelings of hopelessness or sadness lasting over two weeks- Difficulty concentrating and remembering things
- Loss of energy or daytime sleepiness
- Weight changes, such as loss or gain
- Loss of interest or motivation in activities that were once pleasurable
- Thoughts of suicide or self-harm
Depression involves disruptions to your circadian rhythm, as well as to the neurotransmitters in your brain involved in sleep. Furthermore, if you have depression, things like arguments with your spouse, financial difficulties, or a large workload can impact you more than if you didn’t have depression. Therefore, you may be more susceptible to stress and associated sleep problems.4
Anxiety Sleep Issues
Anxiety disorders are also associated with sleep disturbances and affect around 20% of adults. Signs of anxiety include:5
Excessive nervousness- Poor concentration
- Irritability and restlessness
- Having a sense of dread or impending doom
- Muscle tension, trembling, or night sweats
- Digestive discomfort
- Fatigue
Anxiety comes in all shapes and sizes. While there is generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), in which people experience looming worries about many aspects of their lives, there are also more specific forms of anxiety. For instance, some people have specific phobias or social anxiety that only impact them in one aspect of life. The wide umbrella of anxiety also includes panic disorder (characterized by recurring panic attacks) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).5
Anxiety is marked by a state of hyperarousal in the mind and body. This is a crucial driver of insomnia as it makes your body more alert. For instance, when in bed, you may be ruminating about different worries or simply feel too hypervigilant to fall asleep.5 This pattern can also create a sense of worry about getting enough sleep, which can fuel nighttime anxiety symptoms. Nighttime anxiety help may be needed if this cycle persists.
If you’re concerned that you may have a mental health condition like depression or anxiety, you can take a self-test to learn more about your symptoms.
Solving Your Disrupted or Irregular Sleep Patterns
It’s normal to sometimes experience disrupted sleep during periods of increased stress, but it can become problematic if it persists. You should speak to a doctor if you’re:5
Struggling with sleep for three or more nights per week- Experiencing significant daytime irritability, fatigue, or trouble with concentration
- Worrying excessively beyond your control
- Experiencing panic attacks or frequent nightmares
- Relying on drugs, alcohol, or medications to fall asleep
Although disrupted sleep can feel like it’s taking over your whole life, it is possible to recover from it. Next, we’ll explore therapy, lifestyle changes, and medications that may help you resolve your sleep issues.
Counseling and Psychotherapy for Anxiety and Depression
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been found to improve sleep, depression, and anxiety.1 There is even CBT-I, which is CBT specifically for treating insomnia. CBT for insomnia focuses on the behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs around sleep that worsen sleep disruption. Effective CBT-I methods include initial sleep restriction, relaxation techniques, reducing certain foods and substances, and education about your biological clock.8
Further, when stress is affecting sleep, it’s often worth going to therapy to address the underlying factors that are causing you to be stressed. These could be issues at work, relationship problems, traumatic experiences in your past, or low confidence, to name a few.
There are many types of therapy that could help with these issues; the best one usually depends on your personal symptoms and preferences. While CBT is quite quick and action-based, other therapies tend to be slower and more emotionally-focused. These include:
Humanistic counseling: Focuses on here-and-now emotions and believes clients have their own inner wisdom for coping with life’s challenges.- Psychodynamic therapy: Tends to explore the past, identifying unconscious patterns that may be causing issues in the present.
- Trauma-focused therapy: A type of psychotherapy specifically for people with trauma. It’s likely to combine psychodynamic or humanistic counseling with elements of CBT, helping you to explore painful memories and develop coping skills in the present.
Furthermore, some sleep disorder treatments are provided within residential mental health programs. These may be ideal for those who would benefit from more intensive care or medication management.
Lifestyle Changes for Improving Sleep
Even if people are night owls, research finds that going to bed and waking up earlier is better for mental health. Studies find that regardless of sleep time preferences, people who go to bed late are at greater risk of depression and anxiety.1 This contradicts the popular idea that we each have an ideal “sleep chronotype,” whereby some naturally feel like staying up late or going to bed early.
16% of people in the US work outside of the typical 9-5 hours, known as “shift work.” Shift work is associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety, as well as other psychiatric conditions. It may be tricky for some people to make a change to this routine, but if it’s possible for you, it may be worth investigating whether you can adjust your working hours.1
Further, things like caffeine (which can take up to eight hours to wear off) and alcohol can reduce the quality of your sleep, so it’s a good idea to reduce them as much as possible.1,7
Relaxation techniques are another way some people manage their sleep issues. Progressive muscle relaxation involves systematically tensing and relaxing each muscle in your body, eventually resulting in a feeling of stillness. Deep breathing, meditation, and guided imagery are other techniques for creating relaxation before sleep.5
Other aspects of good sleep hygiene include maintaining a consistent sleep schedule (even on weekends), avoiding screens before bed, and not working from bed in the daytime.1 Plus, since daylight helps set our sleep patterns, you should aim to get at least 30 minutes of outdoor sunlight every day.7
Medications for Sleep Disruption
If your sleep issues are caused by anxiety, when appropriate, your doctor may prescribe you anti-anxiety drugs or antidepressants. These won’t cure your underlying anxiety, but they may help to manage your physical symptoms. Be aware that beta-blockers can cause sleep disturbances, so these are not ideal for treating anxiety if you have sleep issues.5
One supplement that is often recommended for sleep issues is magnesium. However, it can interact with medications, so check with your doctor before taking magnesium if you’re using prescription drugs. Nevertheless, magnesium citrate is easily absorbed and can promote relaxation by supporting your nervous system.5
Mission Connection: Get Mental Health and Sleep Support Today
Sleep difficulties can take over your whole life and feel impossible to overcome. Fortunately, there are many tried and tested methods for improving sleep quality and treating depression and anxiety.
At Mission Connection, we don’t just provide evidence-based mental health treatments, but we also strive to craft personalized mental health care for each person who comes to us seeking support.
If sleep issues are impacting your day-to-day life and well-being, our team can help you get to the root of the problem and find restful relief. Browse our facilities or contact us today to get a mental health evaluation and begin your treatment journey.
References
- Tompa, R. (2025). How sleep affects mental health (and vice versa): What the science says. Stanford Medical News. https://med.stanford.edu/news/insights/2025/08/sleep-mental-health-connection-what-science-says.html
- Scott, A. J., Webb, T. L., Martyn-St James, M., Rowse, G., & Weich, S. (2021). Improving sleep quality leads to better mental health: A meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 60, 101556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2021.101556
- Hanson, J. A., & Huecker, M. R. (2023, June 12). Sleep Deprivation. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK547676/
- Johns Hopkins Medicine. (2025). Depression and Sleep: Understanding the Connection. https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-prevention/depression-and-sleep-understanding-the-connection
- Suni, E. (2024). Anxiety and Sleep. Sleep Foundation. https://www.sleepfoundation.org/mental-health/anxiety-and-sleep
- ADAA. (2019). What are Sleep Disorders? https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/related-illnesses/sleep-disorders
- Harvard Health Publishing. (2020, October 13). Tips for beating anxiety to get a better night’s sleep. https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/tips-for-beating-anxiety-to-get-a-better-nights-sleep
- Stanford Medicine Health Care. (n.d.). Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-treatments/c/cognitive-behavioral-therapy-insomnia/procedures.html