Having a good night’s sleep can prove to be of great importance to our mental health and how efficient we are the next day. Being one of the many healthy lifestyle tips you can follow to become a happier and more productive person, sleep has a direct relation to how you feel and operate on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, the modern lifestyle we follow nowadays may interfere with our sleep patterns or even sleep quality.
In order to avoid that from happening, we need to make sure that we understand the significance of quality sleep by looking into the 5 main reasons why we need to focus on having a good night’s sleep day in and day out.
Sleep Can Increase Focus and Productivity Levels
Sleep is key to many and different areas of a proper cognitive performance. This essentially refers to the fact that we can concentrate better and be more productive when completing daily tasks and responsibilities.
In other words, cognition and productivity can be affected in a negative way by sleep deprivation.
Different studies have shown that short sleep can negatively impact our brain function in a similar manner as how would feel when intoxicated with alcohol. [1]
On the other hand, quality sleep can increase our problem solving skills and improve memory output in individuals of different age groups. [2]
Low Quality Sleep Is Related to Depression
Mild mental health disorders like depression are strongly related to poor quality or low amounts of sleep.
Studies have shown that 90% of people diagnosed with mild depression often highlight their lack of sleep. In addition, individuals with sleeping disorders like insomnia or even sleep apnea, have also suggested that they are more depressed – when compared to people who do get to sleep in sufficient amounts. [3]
Sleep Can Impact Emotions and Social Activities
Improper sleep can decrease our mental output when interacting socially.
In specific, one study reports that individuals that did not sleep well the previous night had difficulty in recognising facial expressions and emotions during conversations. [4]
In fact, research suggests that poor sleep can have a direct impact to our ability of processing emotional information and understanding social cues when interacting in social activities.
Poor Sleep May Cause Increased Inflammation
Sleep may lead to a substantial negative effect on in the brain and body.
The reason behind this is that sleep loss is closely related to cell damage as well as stimulating inflammation in the brain.
Studies have shown that sleep deprivation can be an important factor to causing long-term inflammatory issues. [5]
Sleep Deprivation May Lead to Brain Fog
Daily symptoms of brain fog can be caused by sleep disorders due to the fact that it’s critical to the way our brain functions in both the short and the long term.
While we sleep, our brain consolidate memories so we can actually remember all the information we learned the previous day. Our brain loses cells on a daily basis but every night we get the opportunity to create new ones as long as we get enough high-quality and uninterrupted sleep. [6]
Missing out on a good night’s sleep can be main cause of poor memory, coordination, mood, judgment, and even ability to deal with stress the following day.
Getting adequate sleep can help you cure many symptoms of brain fog you may be experiencing.
Other Effects of Poor Sleep Quality
Searching for research based articles online, you will soon realise that sleep deprivation can also have side effects to other areas of your life, other than optimal mental performance.
The different areas low sleep quality can affect us on include disturbance of our metabolic rate, increasing the risk of heart disease, reducing athletic performance, and even promote weight gain.
Now that we have seen what a night may do to our brain performance and overall health, we need to make sure to concentrate on following a healthy lifestyle comprised of quality sleep. So, make this your priority and see the benefits for yourself starting from today.
Marios Kokolakis is a health and fitness motivator blogging about healthy lifestyle tips and other health related content on BrainSharp.
References
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10984335
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25052368
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16259539
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20337191
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3995194/
- https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/03/sleep-found-to-repair-and-reorganize-the-brain/
Image: https://pixabay.com/en/boy-male-man-young-sleeping-828850/
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Great article!
You are completely right, sleep is linked to mental and physical health problems. such as anxiety and depression.