Improving sleep for your mental health

Why is sleep so important for our health?

Sleep - something that is often overlooked in our busy lifestyles - plays an incredibly important role when it comes to maintaining health and wellbeing.

Sleep impacts and is impacted by – our mental and physical health. It works both ways. When we are stressed, such as with money worries; or if we are struggling with physical aches and pains from a long day’s physical work; our ability to switch off and get good quality of sleep might be impacted. At the same time, poor sleep makes everything more difficult and impacts our health.

When we sleep, our bodies use this time to repair themselves, strengthening our immune system. With this in mind, poor sleep or lack of sleep can lead to various health issues, negatively impacting different areas of our wellbeing. 

Physical Health

Poor sleep is linked to an increased risk of chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. Without sufficient sleep, we are also more likely to become unwell with viruses such as colds and flu, which can then lead to exerting yourself to continue working or experience financial issues. It can also impact our appetite and metabolism, increasing the risk of obesity.

Mental Wellbeing

Poor sleep and lack of sleep can impact our mental health, leading to mood swings, anxiety, and depression. This can make you feel that you don’t have control of your emotions or impact your relationships.

Mental Processing

Poor sleep can affect our memory, attention, and decision-making abilities, making it difficult to stay organised at work. This can be even more important when you are self-employed. During the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep, our brains process and organise our memories from the day. Without adequate REM sleep, our ability to learn and retain information may be impacted, which can impact our ability to remember what we need to do the next day. This can lead to making mistakes, forgetting to pick up essential materials, and difficulty keeping on top of payments.

With all of this in mind, it is clear that sleep is a fundamental part of our overall health, impacting everything from our mood to our physical well-being. It's essential to make sleep a priority and establish good sleep hygiene habits to enhance our quality of life and mental health.

What is sleep debt?

We often treat sleep as a luxury that we have to earn – rather than as a necessity. Sleep is as essential for our health and our wellbeing as food and water. Because we often have so many demands on us in this the modern world, sleep can be neglected (even when we are exhausted, and our bodies are crying out for it!). As a result, we can find ourselves getting into sleep debt!

Sleep debt is essentially the difference between the amount of sleep you should be getting and the amount you actually get.

Just like any other type of debt, sleep debt can pile up over time. If you're consistently not getting the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep per night, or not getting good quality sleep, you're going to experience repercussions. These can range from feeling groggy and unproductive, to serious health implications such as weakened immunity, and mental health challenges.

We can often underestimate the importance of sleep, often sacrificing sleep to watch another episode on Netflix, or staying up late with a drink even if we have an early start or a long day the next day. We often treat it as a luxury or a reward that we have to earn. We can even think of sleep as something that gets in the way of us doing things that we need to do. But it’s during sleep that our body starts to undergo critical processes of repair and rejuvenation, and our minds solidify memories and learning from the day. It’s very difficult to function well without it!

It's also worth mentioning the false belief of 'making up' sleep. Sleeping in on weekends or napping to recover from a sleep-deprived week unfortunately does not effectively erase sleep debt. Napping, particularly falling asleep on the sofa after work, can actually make night time sleeping worse! Consistency in sleep patterns is the key to protect your health.

Remember, your sleep is an investment in your overall wellbeing. Don’t let sleep debt bankrupt your health.

If you are consistently struggling with your sleep, or never feeling rested, please reach out to your GP. Challenges with sleep and even sleep disorders are treatable, and addressing these issues as soon as possible increases the likelihood of returning to normal more quickly.

Circadian Rhythms – what are they?

Our body runs on an internal clock, that runs on a 24-hour day-night cycle. This means that our body naturally does things like clockwork! Our circadian rhythm controls lots of our biological processes – from hunger, to when we go to the toilet, and also plays a key role in dictating our sleep patterns.

As sunlight breaks and daylight grows, we instinctively start to wake up. As darkness falls and temperature drops, our brains produce a hormone called melatonin – a chemical that makes us feel tired and signals that it’s time to sleep.

This 24-hour cycle is instinctive and is the reason you might find yourself naturally waking up at the same time every day, eating meals at similar times, and becoming tired and falling asleep at the same times.

Unfortunately, modern life can disrupt this in-built cycle. Light exposure, particularly from phones, laptops and TVs can all trick our brains into believing it is still daytime – stopping our brains from producing the melatonin that helps us to sleep. This alone can make it difficult to fall asleep, stay asleep and lead to fatigue.

Doing your best to have consistent bed times and wake times can help to regulate this in-built cycle, and improve our quality of sleep. 

Avoiding bright lights and electrical devices for 30mins-1 hour before bedtime can help with falling asleep, and other lifestyle changes such as avoiding caffeine late in the day and reducing stress can also improve our sleep, and as a result – our mental and physical health. 

It is also important during quieter seasons to get natural daylight in the day. Even on an overcast, rainy day, 10-20mins will make a difference. Just like plants, we need natural sunlight for our bodies to function properly.

Remember, sleep and mental health are intricately linked. When our sleep suffers, so does our mental health. So, prioritising good sleep hygiene is not just essential for physical well-being, but it's also a vital aspect of maintaining and improving our mental health.

Content provided by our expert partners PMAC.