Sleep is one of the most important yet often overlooked factors in mental health. On the milder side of things, a poor night’s sleep can lead to lack of concentration, under-performance, intolerance, impatience, agitation and general unhappiness. Research has shown that sleep problems contribute to major mental health issues like depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and bipolar. With up to 40% of the population having problems falling asleep or experiencing daytime sleepiness, it might be worth thinking about your own sleep patterns and address it before it impacts other areas of your mental health.
There are so many contributing factors to the way we sleep but none moreso than the one you actually have power over…
Habit.
So many get into a negative sleep habits and don’t even realise that we are doing it to ourselves. Here’s 3 common sleep habits that you might need to break before you get a better night’s rest:
- Going to bed too late: Have you ever woken up tired and thought, “why didn’t I just go to bed when I felt tired? Instead, I stayed up another 2 hours!” So many of us simply go to bed too late and we don’t wake up fully rested. We make excuses telling ourselves that “we can survive on 5 hours”, or that “there’s just not enough hours in the day to get everything done.” Interestingly, a recent survey suggests that many of us waste those last few hours of the day on television, social media, browsing the net or just procrastinating. If this is your pattern, try breaking it with an advanced decision to go to bed at a certain time – oh – and don’t take the phone to bed for the last dash of Instagram/FB.
- Doing something stimulating (to brain or eye) before bed: Most of us use a screen for our evening leisure activities, but unless you use a kindle or paperback, the chances are that your eyes are being overstimulated by backlit screens. A recent study by Harvard Medical School suggests that a backlit screen, like our modern televisions, computers, tablets and phones are shining directly into your eyes, stimulating the retina and delaying the ability for our eyes to finally rest. The article reported that,
“[people] found it took longer to nod off with an e-reader, which led to poorer quality sleep and being more tired the next morning.” They call it “blue light” which is essentially “the wavelength common in smartphones, tablets and LED lighting. [It] is able to disrupt the body clock. Blue light in the evening can slow or prevent the production of the sleep hormone melatonin.”
In other words, you may be getting lower quality sleep because of your over-use of screen-lit technology before bed. Unless it’s your date night with a movie, choose a bed time and turn the screen off an hour before that.
- Not enough exercise: Some of us get plenty of sleep but are still tired! There are many reasons why we could be tired even after an adequate sleep (like an iron deficiency) but research has shown that those who exercise for 30 minutes at some point in the day will have a better quality of rest and be much fresher in the day than if we don’t exercise at all. “Increasingly, the scientific evidence is encouraging as regular physical activity may serve as a non-pharmaceutical alternative to improve sleep.”
I would suggest that the amount of rest you get will directly affect your ability to be patient, kind, loving and tolerant – all of the things that build healthy relationships and positive self worth. There are probably dozens of advantages in being better rested… let us know your thoughts on it.
Have you come across a sleep habit that has made a difference in the quality of your rest? Please comment and share for us…
Touche. Outstanding arguments. Keep up the good effort.