How can sleep pattern affect our mental health?

Thank you to those of you who read our first article for A Lust for Life last month – What is Stress?

Hopefully you found some interesting information or were able to apply some of the tips to help and increase your understanding of stress in our lives.

This month’s article regarding sleep patterns and how it can affect our mental health particularly resonates with us as we both have young children and like many of you out there – if not everyone – we have all, at some point in our lives, burned the candle at both ends – staying out or up until 2 or 3am and then getting up to attempt to operate at full tilt from 7 or 8am.

The truth of the matter is we will all experience lack of sleep at some point, maybe through insomnia which can be driven by an anxiety of sorts, lack of sleep if we are preparing for a big event which we feel requires us to stay at it until the small hours or just because…….it can and will affect our cognitive ability, thus can increase stress levels in our life.

Aside from mental health, lack of sleep or sleep deprivation has been known to affect our physical health, by contributing to obesity issues, high blood pressure and can increase safety risks driving and operating machinery.

According to WHO (World Health Organisation) study on sleep in 2015, lack of sleep can contribute to Heart disease as much as smoking or lack of exercise. When we sleep our blood pressure has a chance to regulate, our brain has time to process our new learnings and thoughts from that day and our body physically has an opportunity to rejuvenate and repair itself. Good sleep patterns allow the body’s immune system to get a good boost and to prepare our bodies to deliver optimum performance the following day

In a Harvard Medical review from June of this year, they discussed how sleep can affect your psychological state. Their stats show that 50 to 80% of those with psychiatric disorders also show signs of chronic sleep problems. In our lives we’ve both agreed that on every baby we’ve both had, during the adjustment to lack of sleep both our own and our partners mental health has suffered; to the point where usually straight forward daily tasks like remembering that the milk goes in the fridge; not the remote or kid’s toys and that simple calculations are extremely challenging; arguments in the house are more frequent simply because the body and brain are suffering from sleep deprivation.

According to several studies, it has been recognised that sleep disorder in psychiatric patients where historically it was found as a symptom of the disorder, has now been also noted that sleep issues may in fact directly contribute to mental health disorders. Lack of sleep can alter your mood significantly as mentioned in our own lives above where irritability and confusion can seep in almost unknowingly to those in the moment…

Lack of sleep can be connected to symptoms of many disorders, including:

• Depression
• Bipolar
• Anxiety disorders
• ADHD

In the same way lack of sleep can affect mental health so can oversleeping – now not just your odd Saturday morning sleeping in til 10 or 11 but consistent sleeping until mid-afternoon, or spending a lot of time lying down ‘dosing’. Too much sleeping can be also linked to cognitive processing abilities and trouble concentrating. Oversleeping for some can be a sign of depression and as always if you notice this in either yourself, a friend or family member the first port of call is always with a professional either in the form of a g.p. or local support service.

Everyone’s sleep pattern will be different based on our individual needs, activity, and age– some need 8 hours and some need 10 – again each to their own. However, as always, we found some tips to hopefully help some of you look to a better night sleep.

1. Limit the dreaded Blue light – as mentioned in our previous blog, What is Stress? reduce the social media usage, but not just that…. – exposure to the blue light on our phones and tablets can trick the brain into thinking its daylight, confuses our internal body clock and in turn can reduce the creation of melatonin which is the chemical that helps us to relax.
2. Exercise – go for a walk before planning to hit the hay for the night. Not right before obviously as we tend to have a slightly higher blood pressure/heart rate following activity, but about 2 hours before bed time get out and about in the fresh air where possible. This also allows us to digest our thoughts from the day.
3. No naps (during the day) – some people are in the habit (we know a few) of napping during the day and then complaining about lack of sleep at night. Absolutely, short naps can have a positive outcome for some and be beneficial; but long, drawn out napping can, as above with blue light, affect our internal clock and can confuse the internal system.
4. Limit the alcohol – Alcohol can also affect the production of Melatonin and thus cause us problems relaxing and drifting off.
5. Declutter your room – Clutter can contribute to a feeling of stress (and in one of the mental health guys especially) for a lot of people. If you are having difficulty sleeping, and your bedroom in messy, give it a go; tidy it. Your room is a place that you should be able to relax and fall asleep; therefore, it should represent this sort of environment. For those of you that have ever had the opportunity to attend a health spa…….is it ever cluttered? And if it was would you relax?………..

In Conclusion:

Sleep is so important. It allows our body to renew, revive and rest. It allows our minds to relax, process our thoughts from the day and allow new thoughts to emerge. Too little or too much sleep can have detrimental affects on our systems and can confuse our internal body clocks causing the production of essential hormones/ chemicals to be altered negatively. When we are physically ill we are always recommended to sleep to help with recovery – for a reason. When we have difficulty processing a tough decision or plan we are recommended to sleep on it – for a reason. Sleep appears to be fundamental to our physical and mental health and should be considered with great importance.

Till next time, look after each other and yourselves.