The Value of a Good Sleep Rest for Your Mental Health

Time and time again, we have been reminded of the importance of getting a good night’s rest. Unfortunately, many of us are sleeping less, and the quality of our sleep is also wanting.

We want you to sleep better.

So, whether it’s your health, environment, attitude, or lifestyle that’s interfering with your natural sleep pattern, it's time you sought effective remedies to ensure you enjoy a good night’s sleep.

Often, simple remedies like changing your ten-year-old mattress, using a hypoallergenic duvet or throwing in a comfortable and warm throw blanket on your bed can improve your sleep.

But if the above remedies don’t work, you can always speak to your doctor about other sleep solutions.

One of the negative consequences of deprived sleep is poor mental health. Multiple studies indicate that lack of sleep may be both a cause and a result of poor mental health. When you have a mental health problem such as depression, you often find it harder to fall asleep.

On the other hand, when you don’t get enough sleep, you suffer from mental disorders such as anxiety, depression, and stress. Thus, getting enough sleep can help prevent major mental health issues and positively impact any existing mental health condition.

And if you aren’t convinced yet, here are five other reasons why a good rest is vital for your mental wellbeing.

1. Improves Your Mood

A night of tossing and turning results in a lousy mood during the day. When you don’t sleep well, you wake up feeling angry, irritable, and frustrated. This makes it harder for you to cope with even the minor issues in your life. You might even find yourself having a short temper or getting frustrated by relatively minor problems. When sleep deprivation becomes a habit, it increases the risk of developing mood disorders such as stress and depression.

According to the findings of a study done by the University of Pennsylvania, subjects who were deprived of four to five hours of sleep for a week reported feeling more stressed, sad, mentally tired, and angry. However, when the participants went back to their normal sleep patterns, they had a dramatic improvement in their moods.

2. Improved Cognitive Performance

During sleep, your brain gets to work. The brain activity level also changes during rapid-eye-movement (REM) and the non-rapid eye movement (non-REM) sleep stages. But poor sleep interferes with the normal functioning of the brain during the sleep cycles impairing cognitive functions such as:

· Attention

· Concentration

· Memory

· Creativity

· Problem-solving

· Judgment

· Emotional processing

The short-term impact of poor sleep on cognitive performance includes fatigue, drowsiness, slow thinking, and reaction. Prolonged sleep deprivation will reduce your attention span and negatively affect learning and processing.

Besides, disrupted sleep has also been linked to cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s and dementia. Fortunately, studies have also shown that improved sleep can enhance cognitive performance and reduce your risk of suffering from age-related cognitive disorders.

3. Positive Emotions

Chronic insomnia does not only result in a bad mood, it also raises your level of negative thinking. Negative thinking occurs when you focus too much on unhelpful thoughts. For instance, after a bad night, you might feel that you aren’t doing well in your studies or contributing enough money to your family. Such thoughts lay the perfect foundation for depression and anxiety.

Studies have shown that people who don’t get enough sleep tend to get fixated on negative thoughts. And the more sleep-deprived they get, the harder it is for them to get over negative emotions. A 2020 study had participants look at neutral and pleasant images after five nights of normal and deprived sleep. The results indicated that subjects who had restricted sleep were more likely to give negative responses about the images than subjects who had enough sleep.

Moreover, individuals with sleep disorders have a harder time ignoring or moving on from negative experiences. The reason, during the healthy REM sleep stage, you unlearn painful and frightening experiences. But poor sleep interferes with REM sleep consolidating negative emotions, which over time contributes to a negative mindset.

4. Reduced Risk of Mental Illness

In the past, doctors believed that sleep disturbances were a symptom of mental disorders. However, current research suggests that sleep disorders increase the risk and even contribute to the development of some mental illnesses.

For instance, insomnia is a risk factor for mental disorders such as depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Past studies indicate that people with insomnia are twice as likely to develop depression than people who sleep well. In fact, the link between these two conditions is so crucial that some researchers suggest that a diagnosis of depression in patients without sleep disturbances should be made with caution.

Lack of sleep is also a proven risk factor for suicide. Doctors believe that if they can treat sleep disorders, they might prevent more people from committing suicide and suffering from mental illnesses.

Similarly, if you already have a mental illness such as PTSD or anxiety, lack of sleep only exacerbates the severity of the illness.

5. Reduces Feelings of Loneliness

Over the past few years, chronic loneliness has become a significant health issue. Over the same period, there has been a rise in sleep disorders. And now research suggests that these two health issues may be related.

The less you sleep, the more you distance yourself from others. A recent study by the University of California, Berkeley, found out that lack of sleep makes you more withdrawn and likely to avoid contact with others. Brains areas of people who are sleep deprived were shown to be less active in understanding other individuals’ actions but more active in signaling warnings about others getting too close.

Further, people who didn’t get enough sleep were recorded to have increased feelings of alienation and loneliness even when they were perfectly healthy. Sleep-deprived individuals were also seen as lonely and less socially attractive by their friends, which compounded their loneliness.

Loneliness caused by sleep disorders might seem like a trivial mental health concern. Unfortunately, it’s not as loneliness results in other health problems such as weight gain, high blood pressure, and aging.

In closing, it’s time for you to acknowledge that poor sleep is a pressing health problem. Getting enough sleep is good for your overall physical and mental health. And if you aren’t sleeping well, it's time you did anything possible to assuage your sleeplessness. Treating your sleep problems as early as today will help protect your mental wellbeing.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or the management of EconoTimes