It’s a familiar sensation: you wake up with a jolt, your heart pounding and your forehead damp. But this isn’t for any particular reason; the day ahead contains no particular, known threat. It’s what’s known as morning anxiety, a highly unpleasant sensation you’ve somehow normalised to yourself, despite its damaging effects.
‘Morning anxiety isn’t technically a term recognised within mental health but is a phrase commonly described by anxiety sufferers,’ says psychologist Dr Marianne Trent, Clinical Psychologist with Good Thinking Psychological Services and author of The Grief Collective. ‘It’s typified by a sense of unease and sometimes overwhelm about the day ahead or even our actions in the days and weeks previously.’
While there are no formal stats around morning anxiety (due to it not being a specific medically-recognised condition), recent figures from Cambridge University found that anxiety has trebled in the past decade within the UK, particularly among adult women in the younger age brackets. The condition affects 30% of women aged 18-24 years old, and 22% of women aged 25-34.
Of course, feelings of anxiety are something we all get from time to time. So, first off, how do you know if your morning anxiety is a sign you suffer from medically-recognised anxiety (also known as ‘generalised anxiety disorder’ (or GAD) or else that it’s a passing, uncomfortable feeling?
‘It’s of less concern if it is specifically linked to big or novel event such as an interview, presentation or date and might also feature some excitement too which can feel a lot like anxiety too,’ explains Trent.
She adds: ‘When things become more problematic is when the feelings of anxiety are about events which happen everyday for example, your daily commute, a routine meeting with your supervisor or discussing finances with your partner. Generalised anxiety disorder will usually impact upon someone’s well being and functioning. People often report that their number of perceived problems are high. Over time, they may even start to feature traits of risk to themselves too.’ According to Trent, GAD tends to be diagnosed after symptoms have lasted for six months or more, while ‘morning anxiety’ might be a more transient experience that does not fall under the bracket of GAD.