“Stress and anxiety sap our energy, so it’s no wonder intense emotions will leave you feeling more tired,” explains Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, sleep expert and author of The Little Book of Sleep. In an ideal world, we can take onboard stress, feel tired and then recover from that during the night’s shut-eye. The problem is, our stress isn’t ending, meaning we don’t get a chance to restore.

“Stress hormones such as cortisol send our bodies into survival mode, making it harder to have lighter REM sleep and lower amounts of deep, restorative sleep. It’s why you may struggle to get out of the bed in the mornings, even after an eight-hour kip,” Dr Ramlakhan says.

This only adds to the cycle. “Getting good deep sleep is a good way to bolster one’s resilience during a stressful situation,” Dr Ramlakhan says. “Sleeping deeply enables hormonal shifts to occur more smoothly and emotions to be more balanced and even. When sleep is deep and optimal, the parasympathetic nervous system (which deals with rest, repair, recovery) gets a good reboot and the sympathetic nervous system (that deals with stress) is dampened down. But being stressed then often leads to insomnia or light sleep, which is counterproductive.”

Sleep might help your stress levels, but simply resting more isn’t the solution