Published May 2026 | Source: Frontiers in Psychology; PMC Umbrella Review, 2025
Anxious Times
The News Section of StopAnxiety.org
Key Finding: A single night of sleep deprivation significantly increased state anxiety in healthy adults and altered brain activity in ways that made everyday situations feel more threatening. Sleep disruption may be a direct cause of anxiety, not just a symptom.
Most people know that anxiety can make it hard to sleep. What’s less well understood is that the relationship runs in both directions — poor sleep doesn’t just follow from anxiety. It may actively generate it.
A 2025 study in Frontiers in Psychology examined the neural effects of 24-hour sleep deprivation on state anxiety in healthy participants. Using resting-state EEG and standardized anxiety assessments, researchers found that sleep deprivation produced a significant increase in anxiety, accompanied by measurable changes in brain activity — patterns specifically associated with anxious states. Separately, research has shown that sleep-deprived individuals display increased threat expectancy: they begin to perceive previously safe situations as dangerous. A bad night’s sleep can, quite literally, make the world look scarier than it is.
The anxiety-insomnia cycle — and how it starts
Poor sleep increases anxiety. Increased anxiety makes sleep harder. We cover this cycle in depth in our article on the anxiety and sleep deprivation cycle. The next night is worse. Over time, this feedback loop can escalate from occasional poor sleep to clinical anxiety and chronic insomnia — conditions that are significantly harder to treat once entrenched. Research from Johns Hopkins tracking more than a thousand young men over three decades found that persistent insomnia significantly raised the risk of developing clinical depression, a condition closely linked to anxiety disorders.
What this means for you
Treating sleep and anxiety as two separate problems may be part of what keeps both from improving. The research suggests they need to be addressed together. Natural supports — consistent sleep timing, magnesium glycinate before bed, limiting evening screen light, cooler bedroom temperatures, and breathwork — address both the sleep deficit and the anxiety that feeds it simultaneously. See our full guide on building a sleep routine that calms anxiety.
Sources: Hao C, Xie F, Bu N. Frontiers in Psychology, 2025. PMC: Effects of Sleep Deprivation on Physical and Mental Health Outcomes: An Umbrella Review, May 2025. National Geographic, March 2026.
Looking for something specific?
Search all our science-backed articles on natural anxiety relief.