Many factors go into your overall wellbeing both in and outside of work, from your diet and level of physical activity to more intangible elements, like your personal relationships and feelings of fulfilment with your work and career.
However, there is one element that overarches all of these factors, and that’s sleep. Without plenty of quality rest, everything from your physical health to your relationships to your productivity and creativity suffers. Unfortunately, although sleep should be a priority, for many people, sleep-deprivation is just a fact of life. According to Mental Health UK, almost 1 in 5 people in the UK aren’t getting enough sleep on a regular basis, with 37% of adults in the UK citing that work reduces the amount of control they feel they have over their sleep.
Sleep problems stem from a wide range of causes. For some people, sleep deprivation is brought on by irregular schedules (such as shift workers or people who travel a lot), while for others it’s a matter of lifestyle choices, such as staying up too late and getting up too early. Some may be affected by medical conditions or the medication they take for them; for example, there is a strong link between anxiety and sleep, with sleep disturbances often brought on by these conditions.
Regardless of the cause of sleep deprivation, the outcome is that people aren’t living up to their full potential at work, and may be negatively affecting their physical and mental wellbeing.
By making sleep a priority and getting 7-9 hours of quality rest every night, you’ll see some major changes in your body and mind.
Discover the importance of sleep, and how to improve it, in this guide created by Isaiah Atkins of The Sleep Advisor.
3 ways sleep improves your mental wellbeing
1. Improved mood
Whenever you see a cranky toddler or young child acting out, what’s your first assumption? Most likely that the child is tired and needs some rest. Well, it’s the same with adults. When you don’t get enough sleep, it has a significant effect on your mood, causing irritability and agitation. People who get less than 4.5 hours of sleep per night often report feeling mentally exhausted, more stressed, and more easily annoyed or angered than those who get plenty of sleep. Not only that, but when you are stressed and irritable, it can send your body into a state of being hyper awake, making it harder to sleep, creating a vicious cycle - and in many cases, affecting your relationships at work and at home, and the perception that others have of you. Think of it like this: would you like working with someone who is irritable and grumpy all the time?
2. Reduced risk of anxiety and depression
When you consider the link between mental disorders and sleep, it’s almost a chicken and egg scenario. Difficulty sleeping is often one of the first signs of depression, and anxiety can keep you awake, but a lack of sleep can also trigger depression and anxiety symptoms. In fact, studies have shown that people with insomnia are five times more likely to develop depression. Although sleep is not the only factor that contributes to anxiety and depression, the link is strong enough that sleep needs to be a priority if you want to protect your mental health.
3. Increased Creativity
It’s probably been suggested to you at some point in your life that you should just “sleep on” a problem, since you’ll have more clarity in the morning. As it turns out, there is some science behind this recommendation.
Not only does getting some sleep help you better regulate your emotions, but there’s increasing evidence that what’s happening in your brain while you sleep is actually very important to your creativity and problem solving skills - provided you get the right kind of sleep.
Researchers at Cardiff University theorise that the interplay between REM sleep and non-REM is what helps the brain make connections between seemingly unrelated bits of information, which can translate into more creative problem solving in the morning.
At the risk of oversimplification, the researchers discovered that during non-REM sleep, which includes the deepest periods of sleep, your brain is consolidating and organising new information and integrating it into what you already know, creating memories and your concept of the world you live in. During REM sleep, though, that process is disrupted, and the brain begins processing seemingly unrelated concepts, making new connections. The connections between neurons are most flexible at this point, and can become stronger or weaker.
What this means for you in the morning is that, while you slept, your brain was busy uncovering new ideas and ways of approaching problems that you might not have otherwise considered, because the concepts were unrelated. It only stands to reason, then, that the more sleep you get - and the better the quality of that sleep - the better you’ll be able to solve problems and flex your creative muscles.
Combined with sleep’s ability to improve your focus, memory, and mood, it’s easy to conclude that it’s one of the most important elements in your mental well-being and your satisfaction and fulfilment at work.
5 ways to improve your sleep
With the importance of sleep clear, it’s time to prioritise sleep and your sleep routine. Here are five ways you can start on improving the quality of your sleep:
Get to the root cause of your stress and anxiety to better understand and alleviate it.
Try one of these 21 relaxation techniques that you can do in minutes.
Add sleep to your self-care plan.
Take up breathing exercises before bed.
Explore our Mindfulness for Sleep Ecourse, offering self-paced learning on how to create a nurturing bedtime routine that reduces stress, promotes self-care and ultimately improves your overall quality of sleep.
Written by Isaiah Atkins of The Sleep Advisor