If you get enough quality sleep at the right times, it will help protect both your physical and mental health, thereby improving your quality of life. It’s said that sleep can affect the way our minds work.
For instance, people with long-term sleeping problems usually suffer from mental health problems. Anxiety and depression make the condition worse. On the other hand, some people face sleeping problems when they have poor mental health conditions.
So treating sleeping problems is essential to improving your mental health. Let’s find out some essential facts about how sleep is related to brain or mental health.
How Does Your Brain Deal With Sleeping?
According to Columbia University’s associate professor, Marie-Pierre St-Onge, sleep plays an instrumental role in mental ingenuity and cognitive function. While you go to sleep, your brain starts dealing with the information collected throughout the day.
Interestingly, it removes tau proteins and amyloids linked with Alzheimer’s disease. So your brain works as a cleaning machine when you sleep. The pressure of going to sleep gets depleted once you sleep, and thus, you feel fresh in the morning.
Research says that sleep’s dreaming phase boosts memory, emotional well-being, and learning ability. Now, these things get disrupted by sleep disruptions. Poor sleep impacts the levels of stress hormones and neurotransmitters released by the brain. Eventually, you can face difficulty thinking and controlling your emotions.
Long, fragmented sleep is said to interrupt the sleeping cycle.
Can Sleep Affect Mental Health?
Lack of sleep or poor quality of sleep can affect mental health by causing certain issues. Some people who can’t sleep properly can suffer from psychosis at times. Disordered thinking and hallucinations are rare occurrences, but the chances are still there.
On the other hand, a combination of sleep and mental health concerns is often noticed in some people. For example, people suffering from depression report having poor sleep or failing to sleep properly.
According to some experts, severe sleeping problems increase the risk of certain mental illnesses. Similarly, some mental illnesses can lead to problems sleeping.
So treating mental health can help you address your sleeping problems, or vice-versa.
How to Deal With Sleep Problems?
Sleeping problems can cause certain issues or disorders that have a lasting effect on our regular lives. And one of the most common conditions that people with sleeping disorders have is insomnia.
Nearly two-thirds of adults suffer from insomnia, a condition when one can’t fall asleep or even stay asleep and faces problems with thinking. In certain cases, insomnia is often associated with sleep deprivation that severely affects physical and mental health.
So many insomnia patients opt for sleep enhancers or aids that usually include over-the-counter medications and prescribed drugs. Some adults also consume dietary supplements, including silicon dioxide, which is known to boost the body’s natural ability to wipe out toxins.
These sleeping enhancers or aids help adults with insomnia get the sleep and rest they need. Each sleeping aid has some potential benefits. They contain some kinds of sedatives that make one feel sleepy. But note that they have downsides too, and thus, it’s recommended to consult with a doctor before taking any sleep enhancers or dietary supplements.
How Sleep Benefits Mental Health?
Getting enough sleep helps the brain work as it’s supposed to. When you sleep, your brain gets ready and makes you prepare to work the next day. It simultaneously creates new pathways to improve thinking and learning abilities. And studies attest to the fact that enough quality sleep boosts problem-solving and learning skills. It increases the ability to make decisions, pay attention, and think creatively.
Sleep deprivation is also known to cause changes in the activity of some brain parts. Eventually, you can face problems making decisions, solving problems, adjusting to any change, and often controlling emotions. The risks associated with sleep deficiency include suicide and depression.
How Sleep Benefits Physical Health?
Good-quality sleep also improves your physical health. Below are some of the significant benefits of good sleep –
- Supports a healthy hormonal balance.
Good-quality sleep helps maintain a healthy hormonal balance. The hormones leptin and ghrelin are responsible for making you feel full and hungry, respectively. Poor sleep or sleep deprivation reduces the level of leptin and increases the level of ghrelin. Eventually, you will be hungrier.
- Maintains the insulin level.
The insulin hormone works to control your blood sugar level. If you have a sleep deficiency, it can increase your blood sugar (glucose) level, thereby increasing the risk of diabetes.
- Improve growth and development.
Good-quality sleep influences the body to liberate the hormone that encourages normal growth. Apart from increasing muscle mass, this hormone aids in repairing tissues and cells in humans.
- Improve your ability to fight germs and sickness.
If you are facing sleep deficiency consistently, your body might change the way it naturally works against diseases and germs. So you can become more vulnerable to infections.
The Best Ways to Improve Your Sleep
Experts recommend following the below things to improve your sleep:
- Maintain good sleep hygiene and a calming space.
- Avoid taking alcohol or caffeine before bedtime.
- Avoid consuming heavy meals or supplements before bed.
- Evict bright lights from cell phones, TVs, lamps, and any other electronic devices.
- It is better not to take sleep enhancers or aids.
- Stay more active so that you are tired enough to fall asleep.
- Avoid taking naps.
- Maintain the same time for going to sleep and waking up every day.
The Takeaway
Sleep aids, or enhancers, are safe to consume as long as your doctor prescribes them. Try to take these aids safely, maintaining the right time and dosage. Never take extra doses, even if you are suffering from sleeping issues.
It’s recommended to follow the ways mentioned above to improve your sleep. Getting enough, good-quality sleep every night will benefit your brain’s health.
