Acute Stress

Stress is a normal part of life. On any given day, it’s only natural to encounter difficulties balancing all of your plans and obligations. There are many common occurrences that can cause stress throughout the day, such as a traffic jam during your morning commute, struggling to find a parking spot at the office, navigating a difficult task or client at work, or finding time for your hobbies once you get home.?

In surveys, U.S. adults often report experiencing a significant amount of stress on a daily basis. Stress can negatively impact mental health, behaviors and physical wellbeing. In one survey, more than 75% of American adults reported experiencing health effects of elevated stress (such as fatigue, headache, and depression) in the past month. In another, almost half of the participants stated that heightened stress had a negative impact on behavior , manifesting as tension, anger, and mood swings.

Acute stress in particular can significantly disrupt daily life. This article will cover what acute stress is, how it impacts wellness, and how WHOOP data can provide guidance for managing it.

Understanding Acute Stress

Acute stress occurs in response to specific stressful situations, and usually only lasts for a short period following the situation. Examples of triggers for acute stress include losing your phone, getting into an argument with a friend or family member, or having to deal with crowds and long lines. Acute stress is the body’s response to an event or situation that is difficult, new, or unexpected in some way.?

Typically, the symptoms that go along with an acute stress response are temporary and fade once the triggering situation has settled. These symptoms can include:

• Heart palpitations
• Headache
• Anxiety?
• Trouble sleeping
• Irritability
• Nausea and stomach pain
• Nightmares
• Difficulty concentrating

Acute stress can also be triggered by factors related to fitness and performance. For example, strenuous physical exertion, a major competition or meet, or a taxing mental challenge can all stimulate an acute stress response . If you’ve been preparing for a major athletic event for months, you might experience symptoms of acute stress in the week leading up to the event. In the days before you’re set to perform, you might notice increased insomnia, nightmares, and feelings of worry or being on edge.

Certain physiological changes occur in response to acute stress that are responsible for symptoms of the acute stress response, namely the body’s “fight-or-flight ” response. Once the body recognizes a perceived threat, whether it’s physical or psychological, the sympathetic nervous system springs into action to get ready to respond. Hormones including adrenaline and noradrenaline flood the body, spurring several downstream effects including increases in heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and blood flow to the muscles.?

The goal of fight-or-flight is to make sure the body is prepared to either tackle a threat head on, or to run away to safety. As a result, acute stress and the physiological processes that accompany it can potentially enhance performance in certain scenarios. Blood flow is diverted from nonessential areas to active muscle groups, muscle strength is elevated, cellular metabolism kicks into overdrive, and mental activity spikes. All together, these changes can facilitate physical feats and allow an individual to take on more strain than would be possible in normal, stress-free circumstances.?

The Impact of Acute Stress on Recovery

If acute stress only occurs once and awhile, it’s unlikely to have a lasting negative impact on health. When episodes of acute stress become a pattern, however, wellbeing and performance can suffer. The term for this phenomenon is episodic acute stress, which occurs when an individual experiences acute, stressful situations on a regular basis. Examples of lifestyle changes that are often associated with this type of stress include taking on a high-stress job, dealing with a taxing project at work, caring for an ill family member, or getting through finals week in college.?

With regular activation of the fight-or-flight response due to repeated exposure to daily stressors, lasting changes occur in the body. At the physiological level, a higher resting heart rate, more disruptions in sleep , and lower HRV than normal can be seen. The body’s natural recovery processes, such as tissue regeneration, muscle repair, and energy restoration, can also be affected. One study found that chronic psychological stress was linked to poorer recovery following strenuous exercise. Higher stress was also linked to lower perceived energy levels. In another study , mental stress experienced on a daily basis was linked to processes contributing to muscle atrophy and loss of muscle mass.?

Frequent or prolonged acute stress responses can make full recovery after a workout much more challenging. In the long run, this can significantly impact performance outcomes. Acute stress can make it harder to perform your best when training in the gym or when muscling through fitness or athletic events. It can also make it more difficult to function on a daily basis. The effects of being in constant fight-or-flight add up and take a major toll on both mental and physical health.?

Strategies for Managing Acute Stress

Fortunately, there are plenty of lifestyle interventions you can incorporate into your daily routine to help counteract the impact of acute stress and episodic stress. Examples of helpful strategies for managing acute stress include:

Eating a Healthy Diet

With episodic acute stress, high levels of the stress hormone cortisol can result in cravings for foods high in sugar and fat. A well-balanced diet ensures your body has all of the nutrients it needs to to function properly, and can boost energy levels. Research also indicates that certain healthy foods like vegetables can help keep cortisol levels in check.

Staying Hydrated

Dehydration can contribute to negative feelings including anxiety and depression. Studies have found that staying hydrated decreases your risk of experiencing negative mental health symptoms. Proper hydration can also decrease confusion, tension, and fatigue. Guidelines on how much water you should drink vary based on your gender, age, fitness level, and diet. A general recommendation is that women drink at least 9 cups while men drink at least 12.5 cups each day.

Improving Sleep Hygiene

High stress situations can lead to increased sleep disturbances, poorer sleep quality, and reduced sleep duration. All of these issues can increase daytime fatigue and increase feelings of irritability and anxiety. Focusing on your sleep hygiene can benefit your sleep as a whole and mitigate the impact of stress on both the waking and sleeping hours. Strategies to improve sleep hygiene include keeping consistent sleep and wake times every day, avoiding alcohol and caffeine consumption in the evening, limiting screen time before bed, and sleeping in a cool, dark environment with no distractions.

Adopting Relaxation Exercises

Relaxation exercises can be hugely beneficial in managing acute stress. There are a wide variety of exercises you can try to promote relaxation . Consider giving several a try so you can find the ones that work best for you. Popular relaxation strategies include progressive muscle relaxation, yoga, visualization, meditation, massage, and hydrotherapy.?

Trying Breathing Techniques

Breathwork is another important technique that can make a big difference in how your body responds to stress. Breathing techniques teach you to exert control over your breathing in order to counteract breathing patterns associated with stress and promote calming of the nervous system.?

WHOOP research found that breathwork was more effective than mindful meditation at boosting mood and decreasing respiration rate. The study also found that the benefits of breathwork increase with continued practice and session length. Putting in the effort to master breathing techniques can give you more precise control over your body’s response to acute stress.?

Utilizing WHOOP Insights to Monitor Acute Stress

With WHOOP , you can easily track acute stress events and identify patterns and trends in your metrics over time. WHOOP Stress Monitor provides a real-time stress score between 0 and 3 based on your current HRV and heart rate and how it compares to your baseline. WHOOP also factors in your current motion to ensure your stress score is related to actual stress and not simply physical exertion.?

Stress Monitor allows you to visualize your stress levels throughout the day and see comparisons between your current scores with those from the last week. Stress Monitor also provides guided breathwork sessions that can help manage the effects of acute stress. Two types of sessions are available, with the goals of increasing relaxation or increasing alertness. Breathwork with WHOOP can help you calm down after a stressful event or increase your energy levels if you’re feeling fatigued.?

Understanding how your body responds to acute stress can inform adjustments to training intensity, recovery protocols, and overall performance strategies. Once you have a clear understanding of how your metrics are affected by taxing situations such as stress at work or a strenuous fitness session, you can start trying out different recovery techniques and training adjustments to optimize your performance. Record your efforts in the WHOOP Journal and see which interventions are the most beneficial in order to improve your performance outcomes.?

Monitor Stress Response with WHOOP

Acute stress can result in a variety of challenging health symptoms that can make everyday functioning difficult in the short-term. With repeated exposure to daily stressors on a consistent basis, acute stress can seriously compromise your ability to perform and recover. The best way to prevent stress from getting in the way of your fitness and health goals is to track your stress levels with WHOOP. WHOOP Stress Monitor unlocks insight into your daily stress level, and lets you monitor changes based on the stress management techniques you choose to implement.