Sleep and Mental Health are closely connected. Some people suffering from mental health problems like insomnia find it difficult to stay asleep. At the same time, some individuals suffering from depression are more likely to spend too many hours sleeping and hiding inside their rooms.
To further add things, studies have also found that persons who are sleep deprived are more likely to develop psychiatric conditions. In this video, we’ll be exploring the complex relationship between sleep and mental health, interesting facts about sleep and mental health’s correlations, and how to sleep better to maximize your mental and physical capacity.
Sleep and Mental Health
Sleep problems, be it too much or too little sleep, are common amongst individuals suffering from anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and sleep problems are more likely to affect individuals suffering from these psychiatric disorders than a person from the general population. In even some cases, psychiatrists have found that treating the sleeping disorder first can help alleviate the symptoms of the mental health problem.
Interesting Statistics
According to an article by Harvard, 50% to 80% of psychiatric patients suffer from chronic sleeping problems. Considering that humans spend an average of one-third of their lives sleeping, it’s interesting how up to one-third of the population also suffers from insomnia.
On average, a normal sleeper cycles between two major categories of sleep every 90 minutes or so. This changes with the length of time spent sleeping as the duration progresses, but it generally stays the same. During a person’s quiet sleep, their body temperature drops, muscles relax, and heart rate and breathing slow down. This part of sleeping is the part that produces physiological changes helping boost the individual’s immune system.
The second sleep category, which everyone has probably already heard of, is REM or rapid eye movement sleep. This is the moment when we start to dream. Our body temperature rises, muscles tense, heart rate and breathing increase to the point where it levels or even exceeds the rates of awake individuals. REM helps enhance our learning and memory, and it also contributes to our emotional health.
So what happens when we don’t get enough sleep? This cycle is broken, and sometimes we don’t even get a REM or quiet sleep when we only sleep for a couple of hours. This rids our bodies of the natural processes that balance our emotional and physical state and results in many problematic conditions. Aside from mental health problems, lack of sleep also leads to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure, obesity, a lower sex drive, and a lot more.
How to Sleep Right
Sleeping right seems to be a simple thing to do. Just go to bed and sleep for at least 8 hours. Right? Not really. There are a lot of other things you can do to get better sleep. Consistency is important as it helps create our circadian rhythm that helps with our physical, mental, and behavioral changes in a 24-hour cycle.
Creating an environment that’s perfect for sleeping should also be a priority. Make sure your bedroom is quiet, dark, relaxing, and at a temperature, you’re comfortable with. However, it’s also perfectly fine to sleep with a nightlight or with your Bluetooth speaking playing soft white noise. Whatever you’re comfortable with and whatever puts you to sleep quicker and better is great.
Believe it or not, getting some exercise also helps with sleep. Being physically active during the day boosts our circadian rhythm and also helps us fall asleep more easily at night because we won’t have any “leftover” energy.
Alongside practicing good sleeping habits, it’s important to keep track of your sleeping. If you’re having problems and they continue to affect you daily, visiting a doctor is highly suggested. If you feel like you have conditions like Narcolepsy, Sleep Apnea, or RLS, it’s also important to bring these up and immediately consult a doctor as it might end up affecting your mental state as well.
Therefore, sleeping is essential to everyone, and it’s an important aspect of our health both physically and mentally. Taking care of it should be a priority, and we must never take it for granted.
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