Waking up with anxiety is a common problem, and it makes the whole day feel harder. You open your eyes, your heart beats fast, and your mind goes straight to your worries.
You are not imagining this feeling. Your body is designed to wake up alert, and stress or poor sleep turns that alertness into worry.
Small daily changes help you feel calmer. Research shows that a few habits in the morning and at night make anxious mornings easier to manage.
Why waking up with anxiety happens
Morning anxiety usually has more than one cause. Your hormones, your sleep and your daily habits all affect how you feel when you wake up.
Your stress hormone rises after you wake
Cortisol is your body's main stress hormone. Its level rises quickly in the first 30 to 45 minutes after you wake up. Scientists call this the cortisol awakening response, and its job is to help you get out of bed.
The size of this rise depends on what you expect from your day. A 2019 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that people who expected a stressful day had a bigger cortisol rise the next morning. When you worry about a meeting or a bill, your body reacts before you even open your eyes.
Poor sleep makes your brain more anxious
Poor sleep and anxiety affect each other. A 2020 study by UC Berkeley researchers in Nature Human Behaviour found that one night without sleep raised anxiety levels by up to 30%.
The same study found that deep sleep lowered anxiety. People who got more deep sleep woke up feeling calmer. The quality of your sleep has a direct effect on how you feel in the morning.
Daily habits increase anxiety after waking
Some everyday habits make anxiety after waking worse:
-
Checking your phone in bed fills your mind with emails, news and problems before you get up.
-
Drinking coffee on an empty stomach raises your heart rate, and you feel this as anxiety.
-
Drinking alcohol at night helps you fall asleep, but it disturbs your sleep later in the night.
-
Going to bed and waking up at different times confuses your body clock.
One of these habits alone does not cause anxiety. When you combine several of them, a normal morning starts to feel rushed and tense.
Build a calming morning routine for waking up with anxiety
A calming morning routine tells your body that the day is safe to start. You do not need a long routine, because 15 minutes is enough to make a difference.
Breathe slowly before you check your phone
Slow breathing is one of the quickest ways to calm your body. A 2023 Stanford study in Cell Reports Medicine asked people to do five minutes of breathing exercises every day for one month. The group that practiced "cyclic sighing" had a bigger improvement in mood than the group that practiced mindfulness meditation.
Cyclic sighing is easy to learn. You breathe in through your nose, take a second short breath in, and then breathe out slowly through your mouth. You can repeat this for five minutes while you are still in bed.
We recommend that you keep your phone on the other side of the room at night. You then spend the first minutes of your day on yourself instead of your inbox.
Get daylight and move your body
Try to get daylight within the first hour after you wake up. Morning light helps set your body clock, and a steady body clock makes it easier to fall asleep at night.
Light exercise also helps. A 2023 review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine looked at more than 1,000 trials and found that physical activity reduced anxiety symptoms. Harder exercise gave bigger benefits, but every type of activity helped, including walking.
Eat breakfast and limit caffeine
Many people feel shaky when they drink coffee on an empty stomach. You can avoid this by eating breakfast before or with your coffee.
You also need to watch how much caffeine you have. Health Canada's guidance on caffeine in foods sets 400 mg a day as the limit for healthy adults. That limit equals about three 8-ounce cups of brewed coffee.
Write down your worries
Worries feel bigger when you keep them in your head. Take two minutes to write down the three most important tasks for your day and the first step for each one.
A short list turns your worries into a clear plan. Your day stays the same, but you know where to start.
Stop waking up with anxiety by preparing the night before
A calmer morning starts the night before. Deep sleep lowers anxiety the next day, so good sleep habits protect your morning.
Clear your mind before bed
A 2018 Baylor University study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General tested a simple habit. People who wrote a to-do list for five minutes before bed fell asleep about nine minutes faster than people who wrote about tasks they had already finished.
People who wrote more detailed lists fell asleep even faster. You can write tomorrow's tasks on paper, close the notebook and leave it outside your bedroom.
A regular sleep schedule also helps. Canada's 24-Hour Movement Guidelines recommend seven to nine hours of good sleep each night for adults aged 18 to 64. The guidelines also recommend that you go to bed and wake up at the same times every day.
Make your bed comfortable and calm
Your bedroom affects how deeply you sleep. A cool, dark and quiet room helps you stay asleep in the second half of the night, when anxious thoughts often wake people up.
Your bedding also plays an important role. When you get too hot at night, your sleep breaks up. Breathable fabrics such as bamboo sheets and a breathable duvet cover help you stay cool through the night.
The weight of your duvet matters as well. A duvet that is too warm for the season makes you wake up and kick off the covers. Our duvet warmth ratings guide helps you choose the right weight for each season.
Your pillow affects how you wake up too. A pillow that keeps your head and neck in line helps you avoid waking up stiff and restless. A supportive bamboo pillow is a good choice for back and side sleepers.
Scent also helps you relax. A 2019 review in Phytomedicine found that lavender reduced anxiety scores, including in studies where people only breathed in the scent. The studies were small, so lavender works best as a comfort and not as a treatment. A lavender pillow adds a calming scent to your bedtime routine.
Know when to see a doctor
A good routine helps with everyday morning anxiety, but some signs need professional care. Speak to your doctor if any of these signs apply to you:
-
You wake up anxious on most days for several weeks.
-
Anxiety stops you from working, studying or seeing people.
-
You have panic attacks with chest pain, shortness of breath or a strong sense of fear.
-
You wake up very early, cannot fall back asleep and feel low most of the time.
Your family doctor can help you find the right treatment, such as therapy or medication. If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, you can call or text 988 in Canada at any time.
FAQs about waking up with anxiety
Is morning anxiety a sign of an anxiety disorder?
Morning anxiety is not always a sign of an anxiety disorder. Many people have anxious mornings after a stressful week or a short night. If you feel this way on most days for several weeks, you need to speak to your doctor.
Why does my anxiety feel worse in the morning?
Your cortisol level is highest in the first hour after you wake up, and it falls during the day. Your mind also starts thinking about the day ahead before you have done anything to feel in control.
How long does a calming morning routine take to work?
Some steps, such as slow breathing, help on the same morning. Other steps take longer to show results. The Stanford breathing study lasted one month, and new sleep habits usually need a few weeks before you notice a change.
Can the wrong bedding make anxiety after waking worse?
Bedding does not cause anxiety, but it affects the quality of your sleep. When you wake up hot, cold or stiff, you lose deep sleep, and less deep sleep is linked to higher anxiety the next day.
Do I need to stop drinking coffee if I wake up anxious?
You do not need to stop drinking coffee completely. You can drink it with food, keep your total under 400 mg a day and see whether a smaller cup helps your morning anxiety.
Waking Up With Anxiety: What Can Help You Build a Calmer Morning
Waking up with anxiety is a common problem, and it makes the whole day feel harder. You open your eyes, your heart beats fast, and your mind goes straight to your worries.
You are not imagining this feeling. Your body is designed to wake up alert, and stress or poor sleep turns that alertness into worry.
Small daily changes help you feel calmer. Research shows that a few habits in the morning and at night make anxious mornings easier to manage.
Why waking up with anxiety happens
Morning anxiety usually has more than one cause. Your hormones, your sleep and your daily habits all affect how you feel when you wake up.
Your stress hormone rises after you wake
Cortisol is your body's main stress hormone. Its level rises quickly in the first 30 to 45 minutes after you wake up. Scientists call this the cortisol awakening response, and its job is to help you get out of bed.
The size of this rise depends on what you expect from your day. A 2019 study in Frontiers in Psychology found that people who expected a stressful day had a bigger cortisol rise the next morning. When you worry about a meeting or a bill, your body reacts before you even open your eyes.
Poor sleep makes your brain more anxious
Poor sleep and anxiety affect each other. A 2020 study by UC Berkeley researchers in Nature Human Behaviour found that one night without sleep raised anxiety levels by up to 30%.
The same study found that deep sleep lowered anxiety. People who got more deep sleep woke up feeling calmer. The quality of your sleep has a direct effect on how you feel in the morning.
Daily habits increase anxiety after waking
Some everyday habits make anxiety after waking worse:
Checking your phone in bed fills your mind with emails, news and problems before you get up.
Drinking coffee on an empty stomach raises your heart rate, and you feel this as anxiety.
Drinking alcohol at night helps you fall asleep, but it disturbs your sleep later in the night.
Going to bed and waking up at different times confuses your body clock.
One of these habits alone does not cause anxiety. When you combine several of them, a normal morning starts to feel rushed and tense.
Build a calming morning routine for waking up with anxiety
A calming morning routine tells your body that the day is safe to start. You do not need a long routine, because 15 minutes is enough to make a difference.
Breathe slowly before you check your phone
Slow breathing is one of the quickest ways to calm your body. A 2023 Stanford study in Cell Reports Medicine asked people to do five minutes of breathing exercises every day for one month. The group that practiced "cyclic sighing" had a bigger improvement in mood than the group that practiced mindfulness meditation.
Cyclic sighing is easy to learn. You breathe in through your nose, take a second short breath in, and then breathe out slowly through your mouth. You can repeat this for five minutes while you are still in bed.
We recommend that you keep your phone on the other side of the room at night. You then spend the first minutes of your day on yourself instead of your inbox.
Get daylight and move your body
Try to get daylight within the first hour after you wake up. Morning light helps set your body clock, and a steady body clock makes it easier to fall asleep at night.
Light exercise also helps. A 2023 review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine looked at more than 1,000 trials and found that physical activity reduced anxiety symptoms. Harder exercise gave bigger benefits, but every type of activity helped, including walking.
Eat breakfast and limit caffeine
Many people feel shaky when they drink coffee on an empty stomach. You can avoid this by eating breakfast before or with your coffee.
You also need to watch how much caffeine you have. Health Canada's guidance on caffeine in foods sets 400 mg a day as the limit for healthy adults. That limit equals about three 8-ounce cups of brewed coffee.
Write down your worries
Worries feel bigger when you keep them in your head. Take two minutes to write down the three most important tasks for your day and the first step for each one.
A short list turns your worries into a clear plan. Your day stays the same, but you know where to start.
Stop waking up with anxiety by preparing the night before
A calmer morning starts the night before. Deep sleep lowers anxiety the next day, so good sleep habits protect your morning.
Clear your mind before bed
A 2018 Baylor University study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General tested a simple habit. People who wrote a to-do list for five minutes before bed fell asleep about nine minutes faster than people who wrote about tasks they had already finished.
People who wrote more detailed lists fell asleep even faster. You can write tomorrow's tasks on paper, close the notebook and leave it outside your bedroom.
A regular sleep schedule also helps. Canada's 24-Hour Movement Guidelines recommend seven to nine hours of good sleep each night for adults aged 18 to 64. The guidelines also recommend that you go to bed and wake up at the same times every day.
Make your bed comfortable and calm
Your bedroom affects how deeply you sleep. A cool, dark and quiet room helps you stay asleep in the second half of the night, when anxious thoughts often wake people up.
Your bedding also plays an important role. When you get too hot at night, your sleep breaks up. Breathable fabrics such as bamboo sheets and a breathable duvet cover help you stay cool through the night.
The weight of your duvet matters as well. A duvet that is too warm for the season makes you wake up and kick off the covers. Our duvet warmth ratings guide helps you choose the right weight for each season.
Your pillow affects how you wake up too. A pillow that keeps your head and neck in line helps you avoid waking up stiff and restless. A supportive bamboo pillow is a good choice for back and side sleepers.
Scent also helps you relax. A 2019 review in Phytomedicine found that lavender reduced anxiety scores, including in studies where people only breathed in the scent. The studies were small, so lavender works best as a comfort and not as a treatment. A lavender pillow adds a calming scent to your bedtime routine.
Know when to see a doctor
A good routine helps with everyday morning anxiety, but some signs need professional care. Speak to your doctor if any of these signs apply to you:
You wake up anxious on most days for several weeks.
Anxiety stops you from working, studying or seeing people.
You have panic attacks with chest pain, shortness of breath or a strong sense of fear.
You wake up very early, cannot fall back asleep and feel low most of the time.
Your family doctor can help you find the right treatment, such as therapy or medication. If you are in crisis or thinking about suicide, you can call or text 988 in Canada at any time.
FAQs about waking up with anxiety
Is morning anxiety a sign of an anxiety disorder?
Morning anxiety is not always a sign of an anxiety disorder. Many people have anxious mornings after a stressful week or a short night. If you feel this way on most days for several weeks, you need to speak to your doctor.
Why does my anxiety feel worse in the morning?
Your cortisol level is highest in the first hour after you wake up, and it falls during the day. Your mind also starts thinking about the day ahead before you have done anything to feel in control.
How long does a calming morning routine take to work?
Some steps, such as slow breathing, help on the same morning. Other steps take longer to show results. The Stanford breathing study lasted one month, and new sleep habits usually need a few weeks before you notice a change.
Can the wrong bedding make anxiety after waking worse?
Bedding does not cause anxiety, but it affects the quality of your sleep. When you wake up hot, cold or stiff, you lose deep sleep, and less deep sleep is linked to higher anxiety the next day.
Do I need to stop drinking coffee if I wake up anxious?
You do not need to stop drinking coffee completely. You can drink it with food, keep your total under 400 mg a day and see whether a smaller cup helps your morning anxiety.