The Relationship Between Sleep and Mental Health
Written By: Pimtawan Jatupornpakdee
August 7, 2020
Sleeping and mental health are closely related. Not getting enough sleep can disrupt your emotions, and the long-term consequence for sleep deprivation is a greater risk of developing a mental health condition. Around 400 years ago, William Shakespeare described sleep as “nature’s soft nurse” in one of his books. His description of sleep is closer to the truth than he had realized.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have listed the diseases a person can develop due to having insufficient sleep. The diseases include type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Aside from preventing physical sickness, getting sufficient sleep can maintain your cognitive skills as well. One research has suggested that if you stay up for 3 days or more without sleep, you will progressively have hallucinations, perceptual distortions, and delusions. Researchers are finding interest in this area, since nowadays technology is putting pressure on our sleep time. We do not realize that social media, video games, and the Internet are keeping us from going to bed. The ideal duration of sleep that the CDC suggests for adults is between 7 to 9 hours. However, in reality, according to the 2012 National Health Interview Survey, around 29 percent of adults in the United States get less than 6 hours of sleep.
Researchers recognize that poor sleep is a risk factor for a variety of mental issues. In a study which included 979 young adults from Michigan, they found that insomnia is related to a risk of having depression 3 years later. In addition to the risk of developing depression, insomnia can also lead to bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders. The Lancet Psychiatry states that sometimes, doctors can be slow to address that the issue to mental health is insomnia. Prof. Daniel Freeman, a psychiatrist, conducted an experiment that included 3,755 students diagnosed with insomnia from 26 universities in the United Kingdom. In the experiment, the students were randomly assigned to receive either cognitive behavioral therapy for treating insomnia (CBT-I) or usual care. The results from the experiment was that the group of students who received CBT-I showed significant improvement. They experienced less paranoia and hallucinations.
The CBT-I treatment involves educating people about sleep and changing people's sleeping behaviors and thought processes. The behavioral techniques include sleep restriction, stimulus control, and relaxation. The cognitive techniques include putting the day to rest, paradoxical intention, belief restructuring, mindfulness, and imagery.
Sleeping and mental health have a closer relationship than we perceive. It’s important to get enough sleep to maintain a healthy body.
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