Whether or not you are getting enough sleep can have a significant impact on your mental health. Here we explore the relationship between sleep and mental wellbeing and offer practical tips to help you ensure you are getting sufficient - and good quality - sleep.
Sleep is crucially important for us to function. It enables our minds and bodies to recharge, and even heal, leaving us ready and with energy for the next day - and it has a significant impact on our mood and mental health.
Whenever we get too little or poor-quality sleep, we often feel tired and grumpy, setting a negative tone for the rest of our day.
All of us occasionally experience a night of little or low-quality sleep. However, long-term sleep problems can both be caused by mental health conditions or contribute towards the development of mental health conditions.
Furthermore, sleep can also impact the way we deal with our mental health. So sleep and mental health are closely linked. In fact, research published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, suggests that people who aren't depressed, but suffer from insomnia, are at twice the risk of developing depression compared to those who don’t suffer with lack of sleep.
Specific mental health conditions impact our sleep and can prevent us from sleeping in different ways:
· Depression can lead us to sleep more, as we may seek to take a break from feelings of depression, and feel we lack motivation. However, depression can also lead us to sleep less
· Anxiety can cause us to have repetitive and even obsessive thoughts, making us feel tense, and therefore stopping us from falling asleep
· Psychosis may stop us from sleeping, as it can cause hallucinations (such as hearing voices)
· Paranoia may make it hard to sleep, as we may think and feel that we in some way at threat. Thinking that we are being watched, when we are not, is an example of this
· Post-traumatic stress disorder can lead to nightmares and flashbacks, which in turn can impact quality of sleep or prevent sleep altogether
· Bipolar disorder may stop us from sleeping due to the highs and lows that result from the condition.
Little and poor-quality sleep can impact us in a multitude of ways. It can cause irritability, low mood, anxiety, forgetfulness, absent-mindedness, tiredness and more.
There are many causes of too little and poor-quality sleep. If we wish to improve our quality of sleep, it’s important to avoid and deal with its causes, which can include:
· Mental health conditions, as previously mentioned
· Stress
· Trauma
· Sleep disorders, such as sleep apnoea and narcolepsy
· Certain medications
· Recreational drugs and alcohol
· Over-consumption of stimulants such as caffeine
· An irregular sleeping pattern
· An uncomfortable sleeping situation
· Night or shift work
· Being a parent or carer.
Whilst the amount a person should sleep is variable, dependent on age and lifestyle, it is usually recommended that adults aim for seven to nine hours a day. But it isn't just the amount of sleep we get that's important; it's also the quality of that sleep. Our quality of sleep is greater the longer we can sleep undisturbed. Regular disturbances lead us to have lighter and poorer quality sleep, leaving us feeling tired and drained when we awake.
Here are some tips and advice on how to increase your amount of sleep and improve its quality:
· Establish a routine with a regular bedtime
· Avoid using devices such as mobiles, tablets, computers, television, right before bed
· Avoid napping, particularly during the day
· Exercise regularly but try to avoid vigorous exercise right before bed
· Try not to get wound up about how you can’t sleep; try to relax
· Avoid taking stimulants, such as caffeine or nicotine, before bed
· For more severe cases of sleep disorders, such as insomnia, sleep medications can be prescribed.
It's important to point out that, although good-quality sleep is crucially important to maintain our mental wellbeing, it is not a treatment for mental health conditions, nor is it a cure.
Please don’t suffer alone. Reach out to the organisations on this website if you are struggling. You can find local sources of support for your mental health here.
