/assets/images/provider/photos/2745790.jpeg)
How Your Sleeping Habits Are Linked to Your Mental Health
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in 3 American adults report failing to get enough sleep every day.
Almost 40% of adults say they’ve fallen asleep during the day without meaning to at least once per month, and some 50-70 million Americans have chronic, or ongoing, sleep disorders.
Sleep deficiency can be directly responsible for physical and mental health problems, injuries, loss of productivity, and a greater chance of early death.
Board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner Kanwaljit “Kavi” Sidhu NP-C, PMHNP-BC, diagnoses and treats sleep disorders at Sidhu Psychiatric in Palm Harbor, Florida. She and her team also provide mental health assessments and treatment for a variety of conditions. Many patients aren’t aware of how sleep disorders can interfere with mental health, so we're taking this opportunity to get you in the know.
The function of sleep
It’s during sleep that your body concentrates on supporting healthy brain function and maintaining your physical and mental health. It clears away cellular debris and metabolites and strengthens neural connections to help with memory formation and retention. The length and quality of sleep can also affect how well you think, work, learn, and get along with others.
In children and teens, sleep supports growth and development. Getting inadequate sleep over time can raise the risk for people of all ages for chronic (long-term) health problems like heart disease and diabetes.
Sleep affects mental health
A November 2021 study of 22,330 adults from 13 countries published in Sleep Medicine showed that 1 in 3 participants had clinical insomnia symptoms, and almost 20% met the criteria for insomnia disorder. These sleep disturbances were linked to higher levels of psychological distress, including high rates of anxiety and depression.
In addition, not getting enough sleep or getting only poor-quality sleep can increase your risk for mental health disorders. Insomnia certainly can be a symptom of psychiatric disorders, like anxiety and depression, but it’s now recognized that problems with sleep can also contribute to the onset and worsening of different mental health problems, including depression, anxiety, and even suicidal ideation.
Anxiety
Sleep deprivation studies show that people who are otherwise healthy can experience increased anxiety and distress levels following a lack of quality sleep. Those with mental health disorders are more likely than the general population to experience chronic sleep problems, and these problems are likely to exacerbate psychiatric symptoms and even increase the risk for suicide.
Fortunately, there are ways to improve sleep quality and quantity. Identifying and addressing sleep-related issues is critical to alleviating the severity of many psychiatric disorders.
Cognition
We need more data to understand the mechanisms underlying the connection between sleep and mental health; however, we currently know that sleep is important to a number of brain and body functions that process daily events and regulate emotions and behaviors. Sleep helps maintain cognitive skills, including attention, learning, and memory. That means poor sleep can not just make it more difficult to cope with relatively minor stressors, but it can even impact our ability to perceive the world accurately.
Studies from the National Institutes of Health also show that sleep deficiency changes brain activity in some areas. If you're sleep deficient, you may have difficulty making decisions, solving problems, controlling your emotions and behavior, and dealing with change. Sleep deficiency has also been linked to depression, risk-taking behavior, and suicide.
Children
Children and teens who are sleep deficient may:
- Have difficulty with personal interactions
- Feel angry and impulsive
- Have mood swings
- Feel downbeat
- Lack motivation
They also may have problems paying attention, may get lower grades, and may feel chronically stressed.
Changing sleep habits
Good sleep hygiene, such as going to bed and getting up at the same time each day, getting seven to nine hours of sleep each night, and not interacting with devices for at least an hour prior to bedtime, can help improve the quality of sleep for many people. However, those who have chronic insomnia should seek professional help that includes cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), which is recognized as a first-line treatment.
CBT-I involves education about the importance of sleep and good sleep hygiene and strives to change poor sleep-related behaviors and thought processes by teaching effective strategies such as stimulus control, relaxation techniques, and cognitive therapy; the latter changes the way you think about sleep.
If your sleeping habits are causing problems with your mental health in any way, it’s time to come into Sidhu Psychiatric for an evaluation to determine effective strategies for getting your sleep problems under control. To get started, call our office at 727-382-1383, or contact us online today.