On average, sleep takes up 33% of our lives. So you’d think we’d be good at it by now right?
According to U.S. statistics, roughly one-third of Americans say they aren’t getting quality sleep each night, with nearly 20% saying they rarely feel well-rested in the mornings.
As sleep begins to shape the way the brain functions, it becomes increasingly important to take care of how and when we sleep. Not only can it affect our physical health, but especially our mental health; ultimately fatiguing overall cognitive performance.
Today, let’s dive deeper into the ways poor and sufficient sleep affects one’s mental and physical health and performance, along with a few tips on how to sleep better.
What Affects the Way We Sleep?
The amount of sleep a person needs—as well as their preference for waking early or staying up late—varies from person to person.
Many factors play into how we sleep including cultural, environmental, and behavioral influences that can significantly impact when and how much we sleep. Everyone is different depending on the specific factors that apply to an individual.
Recent research has suggested that “social features of environments, family, social cohesion, safety, noise, and neighborhood disorder can shape and/or impact sleep patterns; and physical features such as light, noise, traffic, pollution, and walkability can also influence sleep and is related to sleep disorders among adults and children.”
Clearly, there are many external factors impacting the quality of our sleep, but is there anything internally that could be affecting us as well?
Turns out that there are many internal factors such as body aches or pains and even emotional interactions such as stress or anxiety that could potentially influence the way we sleep. Some of these variations in sleep duration and timing—like many other characteristics, such as eye or hair color—are genetically determined.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute undertook a study on gene differences to explain why some people need more sleep than others with 13 generations of fruit flies.
These flies were either sleeping 18 hours or 3 hours a night. After collecting genetic data, they found 126 variations in 80 different genes that could reasonably be linked to sleep duration.
This research would further solidify that genetics had a direct effect on sleep quality and time; therefore, internal factors are just as considerable as external ones.
The Effects of Poor and Sufficient Sleep
Sleeping is a basic human need, like eating, drinking, and breathing. Similar to those, sleeping is vital for good health and well-being throughout your lifetime.
Poor or inadequate sleep can immensely impact both our mental and physical well-being. Keeping this in mind, it’s important to analyze how the quality of our sleep influences these aspects of our overall well-being; allowing us to find ways to fix these problems.
Another note by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says “The cumulative effects of sleep loss and sleep disorders have been associated with a wide range of deleterious health consequences including an increased risk of hypertension, diabetes, obesity, depression, heart attack, and stroke.”
In this way, the consequences of poor sleep have the potential to not only enter the world of mental health but can also become a threat in the aspect of sickness, disease, and many other concerning health conditions.
In addition to sleep’s potential to damage physical health, mental well-being is also a common victim.
According to Mind, if you have insufficient sleep, you might:
- be more likely to feel anxious, depressed, or suicidal
- be more likely to have psychotic episodes—poor sleep can trigger mania, psychosis, or paranoia, or make existing symptoms worse
- feel lonely or isolated—for example, if you don’t have the energy to see people or they don’t seem to understand
- struggle to concentrate, or make plans and decisions
- feel irritable or not have the energy to do things
- have problems with day-to-day life—for example, at work or with family and friends
These are only a few of the ways sleep can put your mental performance at a deficit. When you deprive yourself of sleep, you open yourself up to a vast array of illnesses, disorders, and even life-threatening physical damage.
Tips for Better Sleep
Poor or inadequate sleep can negatively impact our mental and physical well-being, as long as we let it happen.
There are many different methods to make sleep more feasible, but only some act as universal helpers for all kinds of people. These evidence-based methods are as follows: create a sleep schedule, optimize your environment, reduce blue light and caffeine exposure.
1. Sleep Schedule
Your body’s circadian rhythm functions on a set loop, aligning itself with sunrise and sunset.
Being consistent with your sleep and waking times can aid long-term sleep quality. This is the whole idea behind a sleep schedule.
Surveys have shown that people with irregular sleeping patterns—especially changing on the weekends—tend to have poor sleep hours. Since the body is supposed to have a consistent sleep-wake schedule, the subject is unable to sleep and wake up when they want.
Further studies have noted that irregular sleep patterns can alter your circadian rhythm and levels of melatonin, both in charge of signaling your brain to sleep.
Getting in the habit of waking up and going to bed at similar times can be essential for someone looking to sleep on track. After several weeks, you may not even need an alarm.
2. Environmental Optimization
Bedroom environment is thought to be one of the biggest factors to determine your sleep quality.
These factors include temperature, noise, external lights, and even furniture arrangement. Each is as significant as the other.
Several studies highlight the importance of keeping a proper bedroom environment when it comes to sleep. External factors, such as noise, can lead to insufficient sleep on top of long-term health concerns.
In addition, dim lighting and noise cancelation have been shown to reduce sleep disturbance and increase overall sleep quality in adults.
3. Blue Light Exposure & Caffeine Consumption
Choosing to reduce blue light and caffeine in the evening can be a key deciding factor between good and bad sleep quality.
Exposure to light during the day is beneficial, but nighttime light exposure has the opposite effect due to its ability to alter your circadian rhythm and melatonin production.
Studies on this topic have highlighted the ways bedroom light can reduce your sleep quality by, again, keeping your melatonin hormone at a minimum. Blue light—which electronic devices like smartphones and computers emit in large amounts—is the worst in this regard.
Similar to blue light, caffeine can have similar effects on sleep quality.
Although caffeine has its benefits, it is important to be mindful of the time you are consuming it. When consumed late in the day, caffeine stimulates your nervous system and may stop your body from naturally relaxing at night.
In one study, caffeine consumption up to 6 hours before bed significantly worsened sleep quality and increased the chance of consistent sleep disturbance throughout the night.
This is because caffeine can stay stimulated in your blood for 6–8 hours before it begins to slow down. Therefore, drinking large amounts of coffee after 3–4 p.m. is not recommended for someone looking to keep a healthy sleep dosage.
As long as we are cautious, anyone can get a good night’s rest.
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