Chasing Some Zs: Why Sleep is Important to Your Mental Health and Ways to Get Quality Rest
Sleep and Wellbeing
When we are busy, one of the first things we might do is shave off some time from our sleep. We say, “I’ll just stay up late” or “I’ll get up extra early” to get all the things we need to do done. But, limiting sleep and changing our sleep rest/wake routine (or not having a routine at all!) can actually make us less able to focus, remember information, regulate our emotions, and be productive.
Did you know?
Sleep is so instrumental to our wellbeing that many mental health concerns, such as depression, anxiety, mania, and trauma, include disturbances in sleep as a possible symptom.
Sleep also plays a role in our memory formation and our physical health through its impact on our cortisol levels. Poor sleep is associated with greater cortisol (stress hormone) levels; that means your brain is swimming in more stress hormone after getting poorer rest. Continued sleep difficulties and exposure to high levels of cortisol is associated with weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, mood difficulties, lower energy, and forgetfulness.
Sleep disturbance is also associated with greater risks of cognitive decline. Sleep plays a role in our brain’s ability to “clean out” toxins in our brain. When we sleep, research suggests our brain essentially gets “bathed” in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). It is thought that this CSF bath helps to wash out harmful waste proteins that may be associated with dementia.
So How Can You Improve Sleep?
Assuming that your bed, pillow, and temperature control is not problematic and you have a decently comfortable, quiet space to rest, there are a number of other strategies that may help you sleep better.
Improving sleep can depend on how your sleep is disrupted. Do you lay in bed awake for a long time before finally falling asleep? Are you waking up frequently in the night? Are you napping in the day?
Try some or all of these strategies – and persist with them. Your efforts to change your sleep behaviours are an investment that will pay out over time: Improving your sleep will not happen immediately, but you can notice improvements over a few weeks of working to address your sleep patterns.
1. Establish a routine: Whatever you do, do it with consistency
If you have no schedule, set a wake up time and stick with it – 7 days a week (yes, that means weekends too). Even if you are up much later into the evening, get up at the same time. Eventually, your body is likely to adjust to your consistent wake time and at night you will start to feel tired earlier.
2. Limit the activities you do in your bed
Your bed is your space reserved just for sleeping and intimacy.
Your brain makes connections between your environment and your activities. If you are up late in bed on your phone, watching TV, doing homework, sending emails, getting that last little bit of work done, or worrying about all you have to do, you are telling your brain that it needs to be awake and alert when you are in bed. This means that when you are then trying to sleep in your bed, your brain is saying, “But this is where I am supposed to be awake!”
Toss the gadgets in your bedside table or far from temptation (putting them down out of your bedroom is even better!). It is okay to disconnect and rest!
3. Limit the activities you do before bed
Try to limit yourself to calming/relaxing activities for about an hour leading up to bed.
If you are working on other aspects of your mental health, try to do your exercises (especially the one that require deep thinking or those that provoke anxiety or excitement!) at least couple of hours before bed.
Bath your brain, not your body
A hot shower or bath might sound relaxing, but it is actually quite stimulating. While our brains need sleep in order to clean out harmful waste, showers or baths are best when they happen well before we are ready to try to sleep. If this is a part of your nightly routine, try to put it at the start of your routine rather than right before you are ready to lay down.
4. Difficulties falling asleep
If you spend lots of idle time in bed with your mind wandering or fretting, try some deep breathing, mindfulness, muscle relaxation, or guided imagery exercises.
Whatever you try, the goal is to shift your focus to your present experiences and not allow it to be dominated by your thoughts while doing an activity that brings relaxation.
5. Difficulties staying asleep
If you wake up frequently to use the bathroom, limit your liquid intake for a few hours before bed and try to consume more of your fluids in the day.
Avoid engaging activities when you wake up in the middle of the night. Practice a relaxation technique. Don’t check the clock. If you estimate you have been awake for 15-20 minutes, then get out of bed and leave the room. This space is for sleep, not wakefulness. Find some boring, mundane, sedentary (non-strenuous) activity that you can do in a quiet, non-stimulating place—avoid bright lights, screen time, loud sounds, exercise, eating, smoking, or a warm shower/bath. Return to your bed when you notice yourself feeling tired again and try not to fall asleep when not in bed. Repeat this as often as necessary until you fall asleep.
6. Exercise
Not only is exercise good for your physical health, but it is great for your mental health and for your sleep.
Becoming physically healthier through exercise may also improve your breathing while sleeping at night
7. Cut out naps
Sometimes too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing and this is true of sleep: You can get too much sleep. While a brief 10-20-minute nap in the early to mid-afternoon might have some benefits, longer naps can interfere with your ability to fall asleep at night.
8. Limit eating before bed
Your body will be busy digesting your food instead of sleeping. Try to finish eating a few hours before bed.
9. Limit caffeine
Caffeine can be a great pick-me-up when we are tired, but it can also make you more tired. Try to limit your caffeine intake each day and try to not have caffeine within 6 hours before your intended sleep time.
If you need a boost, get up and move around and/or try replacing your afternoon coffee/tea/energy drink with a glass of cold water.
10. What else can you do?
If the above strategies are not helping to make positive changes to your sleep after persisting with them for a few weeks, you might want to consider talking with your psychologist to discuss your sleep difficulties in more depth and develop strategies specifically tailored to you.
If you or a loved one is interested in learning more about the emotional and/or cognitive impact of poor sleep, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at Waterloo Psychology Group for help!
Article Author: Dr. Ava Agar, C. Psych. (Supervised Practice)