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Anxiety can affect a person's mood, social behaviors, relationships, work and physical health. This includes having irregular sleep, and in some cases, it can even cause insomnia. Anxiety is one of the leading causes of insomnia.

In a lot of situations in life, we want to identify the problem before we can come up with one or more solutions. After all, that is the logical thing to do. However, the issue with anxiety-induced insomnia is that it resembles the question about which came first, the chicken or the egg. 

Anxiety coupled with sleep disorders like insomnia may be due to some underlying medical or psychiatric condition. For some people, anxiety causes insomnia; for others, insomnia causes anxiety. There have been a lot of studies on the association between anxiety and insomnia. Whatever the case, the main problem is that it becomes a cycle -- anxiety causes insomnia, which causes anxiety, which causes insomnia, and so on.

How to break the cycle

In some cases, this goes with depression and other mental health issues, so the goal is to address anxiety, insomnia, and other issues concurrently so that you don't get sucked back into the cycle. 

Sleep health and wellness researcher Alicia Sanchez says to break this cycle, you need to create a nighttime wellness routine that works for you. You can start by maintaining a regular sleep schedule that includes a bedtime routine. For example, you can practice yoga or write in a journal before bed. Whatever it is, make sure that you do it regularly to condition your mind and body.