Sleep is one of the most critical functions of your body, although it’s underrated, especially in adolescence and early adulthood. It’s common for people to get sleep deprived when studying or partying and skipping a good night’s sleep is okay from time to time. But missing many days’ worth of sleep, combined with poor dieting and lack of an active life, can lead to serious issues with your mental wellbeing. Moreover, it can also affect your body’s condition and lead to insomnia.
Many factors can also lower the quality of your night’s sleep, such as continuous stress, anxiety and night shifts at work. Dealing with a sleeping problem is like a paradox because you stay up late to finish a task or do something productive while losing focus and ending up with health issues.
If you struggle with having a good sleep schedule, we’ll get into the benefits of sleep and what are the downsides of not prioritizing a good night’s sleep.
Sleep improves your memory capacity
Getting seven or eight hours of continuous sleep is known to improve your memory and learning capacities. But that happens if your brain goes through all stages of a sleep cycle. During these stages, your brain kind of sorts all your memories and eliminates unimportant events so that your brain can cope better with unpleasant circumstances.
On the other hand, if you’re not getting a decent amount of sleep, your learning capacity can decrease by as much as 40% than usual. Experiencing sleep deprivation for an extended period can make it more difficult to remember the things that happened recently since the brain doesn’t have enough time to process all the information. This also leads to poor emotional and behavioural control, as well as poor decision-making skills.
Sleep helps with depression
When going through depression, people often experience a lack of sleep. This usually happens due to unbalanced brain chemistry, which is common in people with mental wellbeing issues. Some people sleep for too many hours (which is also unhealthy), while others find it difficult even to fall asleep since their thoughts are off the charts. However, what’s sure is that poor sleep worsens depression symptoms and can sometimes lead to insomnia, hypersomnia and obstructive sleep apnea.
But the good news is that getting just enough sleep can help minimize these symptoms and make you feel better. Here are some tips to help you manage this issue:
- Try different types of therapy, from essential psychotherapy to psychodynamic counselling;
- Create and respect a routine for going to sleep and waking up at the same time every day;
- Have a self-care moment before sleep, where you pamper yourself and wear high end pajamas;
- Avoid alcohol, especially a few hours before bed, since alcohol can contribute to sleep disturbance;
- Exercise regularly: walk, run or do some yoga;
Sleep helps lower stress levels
According to Statista, around 20.4 Canadians have stressful lives, affecting both professional and personal parts. A high percentage of this number stated that their primary source of stress is the lack of good sleep, followed by the inability to relax and other mental wellbeing problems, such as anxiety and depression.
A study by APA showed how much one hour in plus matters to stressed people ―anyone who slept less than eight hours reported increased stress levels than those who slept at least eight hours a night. And this is not something unbelievable because a good sleep routine restores the body’s condition and sharpens judgement, which helps you manage stress levels better than when you’re moody and tired due to fewer hours of sleep.
Sleep deprivation affects your body on many levels since it links with a few diseases, such as high blood pressure, diabetes or stroke. Being tired all the time also increases the chances of getting hurt since you’re less aware of your surroundings, and your brain is only focusing on the poor condition of your body.
Sleep boosts your mood
Sleeping properly may boost your mood and make you happier, which decreases the chances of your brain getting negative emotions from something it can’t handle. If your sleep condition worsens, you might be prone to experiencing a mood disorder. Some examples include the following:
- Major depressive disorder with prolonged moments of sadness;
- Bipolar disorders include alternating times of depression and mania;
- Seasonal affective depression happens from fall to early spring (mostly in northern and southern latitudes);
- The premenstrual dysphoric disorder occurs during the premenstrual phase of the cycle;
But sleeping enough helps regulate the body’s circadian rhythm by promoting consistent and restorative sleep. During a good night’s sleep, your body’s processes are optimized and coordinate mental and physical systems. You produce proteins, and hormones are regulated, one of the essential processes your brain needs to function correctly during the day.
Sleep increases performance and productivity
The quality of your day-to-day activities is highly linked with how well you sleep at night. If you skip sleep for much longer than it should, your brain will slowly become less functioning in completing usual tasks, which will affect your school or work performance, leading to stress and even depression. On the other hand, by respecting the same program and going through all sleep phases, your brain will be able to respond quickly to solve problems.
At the same time, getting enough rest will make you feel more motivated and productive to get everything done throughout the day. Having a continuous positive sleep experience will allow you to avoid stress since you won’t be piling up papers or avoiding challenging tasks, as your brain will be ready to face any difficulty.
Bottom line
Sleep is one of the most underrated tasks people prioritize. However, it’s also one of the most important and without it., your body isn’t able to function well, and as a consequence, you might develop certain disorders, but your mental wellbeing will be the most affected. Therefore, if you want to improve your overall wellbeing, try to sleep better for at least seven to eight hours daily.
