Individuals with an overactive thyroid often exhibit marked anxiety and nervousness along with emotional liability, impatience and irritability. At the same time some individuals may exhibit anxiety not because an overactive thyroid is triggering it but because their overactive thyroid is presenting other symptoms that can generate anxiety. These may include factors like weight loss, heart palpitations, sleeping inconsistencies and others.
However, while an overactive thyroid may at first symptomize anxiety or even trigger it, by contrast anxiety by itself cannot lead to hyperthyroidism.
Increased levels of the thyroid hormones released from the thyroid gland can cause the heart to beat more rapidly and strongly. As a result, some individuals may experience rapid heartbeat where the heart beats more than a hundred beats per minute while others may feel irregular heartbeat or a pounding of the heart known as palpitations.
While palpitations can also occur in other types of heart disease, when caused by an overactive thyroid, they do not necessarily indicate a more serious underlying heart condition.
An overactive thyroid gland can present sleep problems as the condition overstimulates the nervous system, making it difficult to fall asleep. Hyperthyroidism may also cause night sweats, causing the individual to wake up repeatedly at night and resulting in a sleep deficit.
Since the body is in a state of overdrive most of the time, it becomes very difficult to relax and tension, nervousness, and a high heart rate collectively make it physically uncomfortable to get some rest.