A study of 2,000 adults found half (50 per cent) have had their sleep affected by the pandemic and are currently losing between an hour and two hours of shut-eye a night.
But with millions of people being plunged into tougher lockdown measures, bad dreams are not the only things keeping Brits tossing and turning throughout the night.
Wellness brand CBII asked Brits what is making them lose sleep and causing anxiety during Covid-19, with 62 per cent admitting to obsessively watching the news on their phone or TV before going to bed.
And 47 per cent are spending up to half an hour ‘doomscrolling’ – continuing to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening, or depressing.
Images of Boris Johnson and Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty topped the Covid stress poll with an extraordinary 94 per cent claiming that seeing pictures of the pair are causing a huge spike in anxiety.
More than half of women (56 per cent) of women confessed their stress levels go up when they see a photo of Boris while a further 42 per cent of those polled admitted Whitty made them feel stressed.
Worryingly, 35 per cent of adults feel heightened anxiety after the Prime Minister’s COVID updates on the news, with a further 28 per cent feeling depressed, 21 per cent feeling angry and 19 per cent sad.
It also emerged 35 per cent of Brits are currently struggling with anxiety for the first time due to the stress of Covid-19.
Almost a quarter (23 per cent) have been affected so badly that they have had to consult a medical professional for advice, with 13 per cent taking a chance with medication to help get through their daily struggles.
Since the pandemic started, 31 per cent of adults are struggling to wind down after work, with 54 per cent taking action to try and improve their sleeping.
Nearly half (47 per cent) choose to read a book, 26 per cent limit their news consumption and 29 per cent rely on music to lull them to sleep.
Almost one in four (24 per cent) have resorted to turning their phone off hours before going to bed to solve sleepless nights, while 26 per cent are stopping all conversation about Covid-19 in their household in the lead up to bed.
However, the research also found that it’s not just political and medical figures raising the stress levels of Brits at this time.
Three quarters of Brits (74 per cent) found an image of a packed tube to be stress inducing and more than 60 per cent felt the same just looking at an image of basic PPE.
Charlotte Dormon, holistic health coach said: “There are a few things that you can do to build better sleep habits – one of them in particular is to take CBD. That’s something I absolutely swear by.
“If you’re someone who suffers from anxiety, CBD is a really good solution for you.
“Take CBD under the tongue, a few drops under there, I’d like to say give it a go – it certainly worked for me.”
Internationally award-winning research fellow in clinical psychopharmacology at UCL, Dr. Chandni Hindocha said: “In terms of psychopharmacology, we do know that CBD definitely, at high doses, affects sleep and anxiety.”
In a survey of UK CBD users, Dr. Hindocha found that anxiety was a top reason for taking CBD.
She added: “People are desperate because their current medical treatments are failing them.
“Society is more stressed than it’s ever been and here comes a potential little bottle that can maybe fix that for you, so why not try it?”
The research also found that politics and medical issues aren’t the only things spiking anxiety during the pandemic, as toilet paper shortages (29 per cent), supermarket queues (28 per cent) and empty bank accounts (25 per cent) are also causing stress levels to increase.
Also, featuring high up the list of triggers is family safety, with one in 10 adults thinking about the safety of their loved ones up to five times a day.
Many are also seeing the physical effects of the pandemic with 43 per cent admitting gaining weight during lockdown.
And one in five have stopped exercising completely since the pandemic began.
Phoebe White, marketing manager at CBII, said: “These are very emotionally exhausting times, for everyone, and many of us are suffering from heightened symptoms of anxiety or struggling to sleep at night more than usual.
“Using CBD products can provide a safe, natural remedy to help calm anxiety and support a restful night’s sleep, so you can wake up feeling refreshed, restored, and ready to take on the world (in whatever state it’s in right now!).
“We recently ran a survey of our customers, of which 70 per cent of the respondents said they use CBD for sleep and anxiety”
CBII is a natural, botanical, full spectrum CBD oil. Sourced and extracted in the purest, gentlest way possible and delivered to you exactly as nature intended. Discover the full range here: https://www.cbii-cbd.com/
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