Stress doesn't just affect your mental and emotional well-being—it also causes physical symptoms. Many people experience jaw pain as a result of stress due to unconsciously clenching their teeth or tightening their jaw. The stress of teeth clenching and jaw tightening can contribute to or worsen a painful condition called Temporomandibular Joint Disorder, or TMJ. Symptoms of TMJ can include pain in the muscles, nerves, and joints in and around the jaw, neck, and shoulders. Here, we'll explore the connection between stress and jaw pain, as well as offer practical tips that can help you manage stress and reduce jaw pain.

What is TMJ disorder?

TMJ is the name of a group of conditions that affect the two joints that connect the lower jaw to the skull. These joints allow the jaw to move when you talk, yawn, and chew. Dysfunction or misalignment in these joints is known as TMJ.

Common symptoms of TMJ include:

• Clicking or popping sounds when opening or closing your mouth
• Difficulty chewing and/or swallowing
• Teeth grinding or clenching
• Jaw pain or tenderness
• Headaches, neck pain, earaches, and/or upper back pain

Stress and jaw pain

In stressful situations, the body often enters fight or flight mode, releasing hormones that increase heart rate and muscle tension, including jaw clenching. You may not know that you clench your jaw when you're stressed.

In some people, jaw clenching goes hand in hand with grinding the teeth (a condition known as bruxism). Many people grind their teeth and clench their jaw while sleeping. Both of these actions put additional stress on the jaw joints and muscles, which can result in TMJ symptoms.

Relaxation techniques to reduce stress-induced jaw pain

If you're experiencing jaw pain that may be related to stress, there are steps you can take to ease your TMJ symptoms. Taking steps to relieve stress and increase happiness can help you find relief.

Some stress management techniques that you can try to lower your overall stress levels include:

• Meditation: Spending a few minutes each day in guided or silent meditation can help to proactively manage stress.
• Progressive muscle relaxation: Taking a few moments throughout the day to notice where you're holding tension in your body can help you relax your muscles, lessening the likelihood that you'll clench your jaw.
• Deep breathing exercises: Try box breathing to lower stress levels quickly. Take a breath in for five seconds, hold for five seconds, exhale for five seconds, and pause for five seconds. Repeat two to three times.

Lifestyle changes to manage stress and physical tension

Making lifestyle changes can support your mental health by helping to lower your stress levels. Exercising four to five times each week for at least half an hour can help you keep stress at bay. Noticing how what you eat affects your stress levels can also be helpful (many people find that overconsumption of sugar and caffeine can increase stress).

Talking to a mental health professional can also help to lower stress levels. Reaching out to a counselor or therapist can provide you with the support you need to manage your unique life stressors. If you're not sure where to start, talk with your doctor or other healthcare professional for a referral or recommendations on counseling centers in your area.

Tips for managing jaw pain: exercises and posture

Jaw exercises and posture awareness can help to lower your stress-related jaw pain. Stretching your jaw daily can create flexibility that lowers jaw pain. Try opening and closing your mouth slowly a few times each day (it may be helpful to set a reminder on your phone). You can also try moving your jaw slowly from side to side.

Poor posture can also contribute to jaw pain. Checking your posture a few times each day, sitting in chairs that provide ergonomic support, and practicing yoga can all help to keep your posture aligned.

If you find that at-home remedies aren't providing you with TMJ relief, you may want to talk with your healthcare provider, dentist, or chiropractor about other options (like a mouthguard you can wear at night) that can help to alleviate your symptoms.

Using technology to manage and lower stress levels

It can be tough to notice when you're living with high levels of stress, especially if your stress is chronic. Using technology can help you understand when you're under stress, and can provide information that shows connections and patterns between stress and other factors.

Monitoring and tracking your nutrition, moods, sleep, hydration, and physical activity can help you see how changes in your lifestyle affect stress. Consistency is key, and watching for patterns over time can help you zero in on lifestyle factors that are causing stress in your life.

Evidation: Here to give you the insights you need to live a healthy life

We're here to support you as you work to become your happiest, healthiest self. Tracking your health data is a fantastic start to understanding your health needs. At Evidation, we take it one step further. With your permission, we use your health data to provide you with personalized, content-based insights that can inform your next steps forward. We can't wait to start supporting you! Click here to learn more about how Evidation works and download our app today.

Hangxiety—the combination of a hangover and anxiety that can occur the morning after drinking—is a common phenomenon. The effects of alcohol can wreak havoc on your nervous system, making it difficult to relax. Here, we'll explore why anxiety happens, how alcohol affects your brain chemistry, and what you can do to work your way out of a state of hangxiety.

What is hangxiety, and why does it happen?

After a night of drinking, many people experience hangxiety: the symptoms of a hangover melded with high levels of anxiety. You might feel worried about what happened the night before, especially if you drank to the point where parts of the previous night are fuzzy or blank. Sometimes, hangover anxiety can happen even if you remember the events of the night before.

The onset of hangxiety can be caused by several factors, including alcohol-related changes in brain chemistry and your body's predisposition to anxiety. The physical symptoms you may experience as a part of a hangover can also contribute to hangxiety.

The impact of alcohol on brain chemistry and mood

Alcohol causes certain chemical changes in the brain that can affect your mood and your nervous system. When you drink, alcohol affects the brain's gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptor and the neurotransmitter glutamate. Normally, the brain works to maintain homeostasis between the two, as glutamate causes excitement and GABA works to inhibit certain nerve transmissions, creating a calming effect.

Alcohol consumption causes an increase in the brain's GABA levels, causing a relaxed feeling. The brain, however, works to keep things in balance. When GABA is increased, the brain may also increase glutamate levels.

In people who drink occasionally, the increase in glutamate alone can cause hangxiety. When people drink heavily or regularly, the brain may reduce its overall number of GABA receptors in an effort to maintain homeostasis, causing intense hangxiety followed by increased daily anxiety, even when alcohol is not consumed.

In the short-term, alcohol may cause reduced feelings of anxiety and a boost in self-confidence. In most people, these effects wear off quickly and can lead to feelings of depression, anger, and anxiety, regardless of your mood when you begin drinking.

How dehydration and poor sleep contribute to hangxiety

Research shows that drinking any amount of alcohol has a negative effect on both physical and mental health.

Alcohol consumption makes many people urinate more frequently, which can contribute to dehydration. Most people also do not drink enough water to counteract the dehydrating effects of alcohol. Dehydration on its own can cause anxiety, and can certainly contribute to higher-than-normal anxiety levels after drinking.

Drinking can also affect the quality of your sleep. While it might be easier to drift off to sleep after a night of drinking, the sleep that you get is likely to be low-quality and broken. Whether you're constantly waking up to use the restroom, are experiencing a racing heart rate due to dehydration, or your sleep is disturbed by the physical symptoms of a hangover (such as digestive issues, migraine headaches, and sensitivity to light), fatigue related to poor sleep can contribute to hangxiety.

Drinking frequently can also lead to increased levels of belly fat, as heavy drinking can decrease the body's ability to burn fat. High levels of belly fat can cause sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing stops several times each night, resulting in poor sleep quality and next-day fatigue.

Tips for reducing hangover anxiety: hydration, nutrition, and rest

Waking up with hangxiety can feel overwhelming, and treating the physical symptoms of a hangover first can help you begin the process of getting your brain and body back on track. If you're experiencing a headache, taking an over-the-counter pain reliever with a large glass of water can help. You may also find that a light meal and extra rest can help.

Once you're physically feeling a bit better, it can be easier to begin to treat your anxiety symptoms. A light workout (like yoga or a walk outdoors) can also provide relief.

Preventing hangover anxiety before it starts can help reduce the number of times that you experience the condition. If you decide to drink, be sure that you're well-hydrated, have recently had a healthy meal, and are well-rested. Setting a predetermined number of drinks that you'll have before you switch to non-alcoholic beverages can help prevent negative symptoms the morning after a night out.

If you're struggling to get a handle on your drinking, it's a good idea to talk to your healthcare provider to learn more about resources in your area that can support you as you work to get sober and healthy.

Mindfulness and relaxation techniques to manage anxiety

To further lower anxiety levels, you may want to consider utilizing mindfulness techniques, including:

• Meditation: Try guided meditation to help you get centered and focused when you're experiencing anxiety.
• Grounding: Try finding five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste to help center your awareness on the present moment.
• Single-tasking: When you feel anxious, it may be tempting to try to get through many things at once. Instead, focus on single-tasking. Taking a shower in silence, watching a TV show quietly, or reading a book without distraction are all good ways to start.

Take control of your self-care habits with Evidation

Whether you choose to drink alcohol or not, it's important to be aware of how your actions affect your health. At Evidation, we help to put your health data to good use. With your permission, we use the health data that you're already tracking to give you personalized, content-based insights that can help to inform your next steps. No matter where you're at on your health journey, we're here to support you. Click here to learn more about the Evidation app and get started today.

It can be hard to get the sleep you need when you deal with anxiety and racing thoughts the moment your head hits the pillow. For some people, moving from one activity to the next throughout the day can keep anxiety at bay, only for it to rear its ugly head the moment you try to quiet your mind.

Anxiety-related insomnia and other sleep struggles can make it tough to get the rest you need to feel your best. Some people find that nighttime anxiety creates a vicious cycle: anxiety makes it hard to sleep, and fatigue causes more anxiety. Here, we'll take a look at how anxiety can affect the quality of your sleep, and holistic steps you can take to ease the symptoms of anxiety at night.

The impact of anxiety on sleep quality

You already know how hard it can be to sleep when you're feeling worried, and it can become even more difficult when you start to get anxious about not getting enough sleep. Research shows that approximately 50% of people who have anxiety experience sleep disturbances, and that failure to get enough sleep can make anxiety worse.

Anxiety can affect sleep in a number of ways, including:

• Difficulty falling asleep: Anxiety can make it harder to fall asleep at night, or to fall back asleep after you wake up before your alarm.
• Nightmares: People who have anxiety are at a greater risk of experiencing nightmares. Anxiety affects rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, the phase of sleep during which vivid dreams are common. Anxiety can turn dreams into nightmares that may wake you up.
• Difficulty waking up: Some people who have anxiety find that poor sleep makes it harder to get out of bed in the morning.

Researchers believe that anxiety and sleep disruption may share neural circuitry, allowing one issue to exacerbate the other. The relationship between sleep and anxiety is highly individual. People who have anxiety may find that they need more sleep during anxious times, or they may find the opposite to be true. Using a sleep tracker and mood tracker to help you understand your personal sleep-anxiety connection can help you determine the steps you need to take to improve your sleep quality. Thankfully, there are a variety of holistic methods that can help put a stop to the sleep-anxiety cycle.

Relaxation techniques

Practicing relaxation techniques throughout the day can help with stress management and can improve your sleep quality.

Try these methods to lower stress levels during the day to reduce the likelihood of anxiety interfering with your sleep at night:

• Breathing exercises: Practicing breathing exercises throughout the day can help to lower anxiety. These techniques can also help you drift off to sleep when you're dealing with racing thoughts. Box breathing is a simple way to get started: breathe in for four seconds, hold your breath for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, and pause for four seconds before repeating the cycle.
• Meditation: When you're dealing with racing thoughts, it can be hard to calm your mind, and meditation can help. While it might seem counterintuitive, meditation can teach you to increase the control you have over your thoughts. A quick, simple guided meditation is a good place to start.
• Yoga: You don't need to be a flexibility champion to enjoy the benefits of a regular yoga practice. Whether you choose to go to a yoga studio for an instructor-led class or you prefer to flow through a yoga video at home, a regular yoga practice can help calm anxiety. Starting with free, at-home videos can help you get started.

Herbal teas and supplements for calming anxiety

Certain dietary supplements and herbal teas may help to ease the symptoms of anxiety. Supplements and teas can have different effects depending on your personal chemistry, so you may need to go through some trial and error before you find the right combination to help improve your sleep.

Herbal teas that may help you fall and stay asleep include:

• Chamomile: This herbal tea contains apigenin, an antioxidant that can decrease anxiety.
• Lavender: The scent of lavender has been shown to reduce anxiety and agitation while promoting restful sleep.
• Valerian root: This herb works to increase GABA—a neurotransmitter that can decrease anxiety and depression— levels in the brain.

Dietary supplements that may help you get better sleep include:

• Vitamin D3: This supplement can improve mood and energy during the day, which can lessen anxiety and make it easier to sleep.
• Magnesium: Magnesium supplements can help to manage muscle tension, regulate serotonin, and improve brain function, all factors that can contribute to healthy sleep.
• Melatonin: This common sleep aid may be helpful for reducing feelings of anxiety at night.

An important note: It's a good idea to talk with your doctor before adding herbs and supplements to your diet, especially if you're taking prescription medications.

Create a bedtime routine to reduce anxiety

Creating and sticking to an evening routine can help to reduce anxiety, setting the stage for restful sleep.

Try these bedtime routine tips to calm anxiety:

• Create and stick to a sleep schedule. Do your best to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on the weekends. This can help your body recognize when it's time to unwind, making it easier for you to relax.
• Stay away from screens for an hour or two before bedtime, as the blue light produced by electronic devices can suppress the release of natural melatonin. While it can be tempting to scroll on your phone when you're having trouble falling asleep, it's a better idea to read a book, stretch, or listen to music.
• Try aromatherapy. Lavender, Bergamot orange, and sandalwood can all help to ease anxiety and promote restful sleep.

Dietary adjustments to promote relaxation

What you eat during the day can make a difference when it comes to falling asleep at night. Often, psychologists and psychiatrists work with patients to help them understand how diet can affect anxiety.

Try making these changes during the day to make it easier to fall asleep at night:

• Stay away from caffeine and alcohol. Both can make it harder for you to get the sleep you need, and can reduce the quality of the sleep that you're able to get once you drift off. While it may be easier to initially drift off to sleep after drinking alcohol, it's not worth the night sweats, frequent wake-ups, and dehydration that drinking alcohol creates.
• Eat foods rich in magnesium, including leafy greens, legumes, nuts, and seeds to get a boost of this muscle-relaxing nutrient.
• Enjoying oysters, cashews, beef, and egg yolks provides your body with a high amount of zinc, which has been linked to lower anxiety levels.
• Eat plenty of produce rich in antioxidants, including beans, apples, prunes, sweet cherries, blackberries, strawberries, walnuts, pecans, broccoli, and spinach to combat anxiety.
• For many people, a diet high in sugar can make it harder to quell anxiety and fall asleep. Try cutting down on processed sugar to lessen anxiety.

Use technology to your advantage

Today's technology can provide information that helps to manage anxiety and restful sleep. Using a wearable fitness tracker can provide you with insights on your sleep, as well as tangible measures of anxiety (such as rising blood pressure) that offer clues about the connection between your anxiety and sleep. Mood tracking apps, like Evidation, can also help to detect patterns in your anxiety.

If you're concerned about sleep-related health conditions, like sleep apnea, it's a good idea to talk to your doctor about getting a sleep study. This can provide you with the information necessary to help you sleep soundly and safely.

At Evidation, we're here to help you feel your best

At Evidation, our app works to put the health data you choose to share to good use. With your permission, we use the health data that you're already tracking to find patterns and give you personalized, content-based insights that can help to inform your health decisions. Analyzing your sleep data, nutrition data, and other health information lets us make the most of your health data, allowing you to harness the power of the information you're tracking without any extra work. Click here to learn more about how Evidation works and download our free app today.

For many people, the start of a new season can be a great way to plan and kickstart some healthy habits. Whether you want to enhance your current lifestyle or find new ways to relax and destress, spring is the perfect time for a fresh start. Taking time to plan some actionable goals to help reduce stress can help you make the most out of a new season. Here are a few ideas to consider. 

‍Support Your Mental Health

‍Mental health has become increasingly important when talking about self-care. This can take shape in a variety of ways, from something as simple as taking a day off to relax and do an activity you enjoy, to something more involved, such as a form of therapy.

While sometimes it’s hard to recognize personal signs of mental strain, there are a few things to look out for. Having low or no energy at all, large changes to your eating and sleeping habits, mood swings, and more can be signs of poor mental health. By listening to your body more closely, you can better understand what actions you should take to support yourself.

It’s important to take your mental health seriously, as it has an immeasurable effect on your life. Look into some tips to ease your stress and anxiety so you can balance your mental health and stay in the right headspace.

‍Organize Your Finances

‍Finances are often a large factor of stress for many people these days as many circumstances are outside of our control. From managing monthly bills to paying off debt and saving for retirement, there are lots of various money problems people may face that might cause additional stress. While some issues can be difficult to cope with, there are small steps you can take to better manage your finances and remove additional stress from your life.

Budgeting is a great way to improve financial wellness and helps you track where your money is going. Tracking the ins and outs of your finances can better help you understand your current position, and how to get where you want to be. This can be for small items like eating out, or for larger ones such as buying a car or home. 

If you have greater control over your finances, you should also prepare for your financial goals to reduce additional stress and ensure you have an organized plan to achieve them. For instance, if you’re working toward becoming a homeowner, researching necessary financial requirements and determining how much house you can afford beforehand can help you create a realistic budget and timeline. However, if you’re more focused on retirement planning, enrolling in your company’s 401(k) program and looking into other investment opportunities can put you on the path for future financial stability. While some financial situations may be uncontrollable, doing your best to mitigate these burdens can help you relieve some stress.  

‍Stay Active

Exercise is a great way to help reduce your stress levels. Almost any type of exercise can help lower your stress such as yoga, running, lifting weights, doing home workouts, and more. Simply getting on your feet or stretching for small periods of time can improve your mental health and reduce any negative aspects or stress you may be feeling. Especially as the weather gets warmer, spring is the perfect time to get active and enjoy the outdoors. 

This doesn’t mean you have to start hitting the gym 7 days a week, but ideally, you’re getting some form of physical activity every day. Something as simple as a 20 minute walk can pay dividends for your stress levels and overall health, not to mention getting a breath of fresh air. Explore some different activities or actions that can help revitalize your health moving forward.

‍Rethink Your Diet

Stress can affect your appetite in several ways, mostly boiling down to eating too much or too little. Stress often activates the “fight or flight” response in your brain, which can cause you to not feel like eating. However, consistent stress releases other hormones which can increase your appetite. Knowing how stress affects your everyday diet is one of the first steps toward being able to control it. That said, different bodies react differently to stress, so it’s important to be patient and understand how yours will behave.

Additionally, diet alone can cause stress. Worrying about eating too much or too little, or the right foods or wrong ones, can build negative emotions and associations. There are several types of foods that can contain stress-reducing qualities. These foods contain vitamins and minerals that have a positive effect on your body’s stress levels, so implementing these into your diet regularly can help you relax. 

While not all these tips may directly apply to you, reducing your stress is an important topic you should pay close attention to. Figuring out what works for you is largely personal, but it’s key to take time to explore whatever stress-reducing actions help you the most. With spring in full bloom, now’s a great time to take action so you can relax and destress this season.

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