Understanding The Importance of Sleep for Optimal Health
The world moves faster than ever, with a seemingly constant call for productivity and action. Commitments surrounding professional, family, and social lives can quickly fill the day, leaving little time for quality rest. It’s nearly become a badge of honor to sacrifice sleep to meet demands. However, skipping out on too much sleep will have the opposite effect, eventually taking a toll on your health.
At Sillon Wellness, our focus is on improving the mental health of San Antonio residents, so we’re well aware of the connection between poor quality sleep and poor mental health. Let’s dive into the specific reasons sleep matters, how it can impact your health, and ways to improve it sooner rather than later.
Why Quality Sleep Matters
Sleep is an important component of wellness. It is the body’s way of resting and resetting. While you’re sleeping, your body and brain both get a chance to process and restore, preparing for a new day ahead. Consistently experiencing sleep deprivation leads your body to rebel, creating system-wide struggles that will impact your daily life.
- Cognitive Decline: Lack of sleep contributes to brain fog, memory problems, lack of concentration and focus, and poor decision-making.
- Emotional Instability: The stress of poor sleep will eventually leak into your emotional state, causing increased stress and irritability along with heightened emotions.
- Physical Health Decline: When your body doesn’t get the chance to rest properly, your immune system may weaken, increasing your risk of illness, disease, and weight gain.
Understanding The Science of Sleep
The concept of sleep seems simple, but there’s more to it than you might think. Sleep comes in multiple stages that cycle throughout the night, each with its specific purpose and benefit.
- NREM Sleep: NREM Sleep is a form of non-rapid eye movement sleep, coming in three stages from light to deep. By the time a person gets to the third stage, they are in a deep, restorative sleep. During this type of sleep, your breathing, heart rate, and brain waves will slow down as your muscles relax. This is the time your body restores itself through immune system strengthening, tissue repair, and bone and muscle building.
- REM Sleep: Rapid Eye Movement – or REM – sleep is an active sleep mode that involves quick eye movements, irregular breathing, and increased brain activity. This is the stage of sleep where you might find yourself dreaming. During REM, your brain is hard at work consolidating memories, processing emotions, and enhancing cognitive function.
The body requires both stages of sleep to ensure quality physical and mental rejuvenation. Interruptions to the cycle mean the body and brain can’t perform their tasks, causing issues in your day-to-day life. Sleep problems may occur due to a multitude of reasons:
- Sleep Apnea or other breathing disorders
- Insomnia
- Inconsistent Sleep Habits
- Diet
- Pain
- Lack of Exercise
- Stress
- Depression or Anxiety
Interestingly, you may not even realize your quality of sleep is lacking. Sometimes people are in their bed “asleep” for a healthy amount of time, but disrupted cycle patterns can mean the sleep you’re getting isn’t high quality. Some common signs you’re dealing with a sleep disorder include:
- Difficulty falling or staying asleep
- Snoring or choking during sleep
- Waking up exhausted even after a full night of rest
- Excessive sleepiness throughout the day
- Excessive irritability
- Restless legs during the night
These and other symptoms are a sign it may be time to discuss your struggles with a professional for an evaluation. A general physician can investigate physical symptoms to determine necessary tests or treatments. Schedule an appointment with a mental health professional like those at Sillon Wellness to dive deeper into how working through anxiety or depression symptoms can improve sleep.
The Impact Of Not Enough Sleep
No one enjoys feeling tired, but the impact of a chronic lack of quality sleep goes far beyond a mild annoyance, harming multiple aspects of your well-being:
- Mental Health: The risk of mental health issues increases with a lack of sleep. Depression, anxiety, and overall stress are exacerbated when the brain doesn’t have time to properly rest. This will cause issues with focus, emotions, mental clarity, mood, coping ability, and more.
- Physical Health: Without proper sleep, your immune system will weaken, making illness more likely. No system within your body will perform at its highest level without quality sleep. The risk increases for weight gain, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic pain, and more.
Poor sleep can easily become a cycle, with the negative impacts making it even more difficult to get the sleep you so desperately need. Disrupted sleep cycles, too much screen time, and late hours can disrupt our body’s natural circadian rhythm that oversees the sleep cycles. When that happens, it’s more difficult to fall asleep, continuing the pattern. With effort and consistency, though, you can find your way back to healthy sleep habits for a healthier life.
Improving Sleep Naturally For Better Health
The therapists at Sillon Wellness understand the importance of healthy habits and consistency, and this extends to your sleep hygiene. It can take time to recalibrate your habits, but once you do the benefits will be worth the effort. These simple tips can help you sink into the deep, restful sleep your body requires:
- Consistency: If your schedule allows, going to bed and waking up at the same time each day will regulate your circadian rhythm. Once back on a regularly scheduled program, it will become easier to fall asleep, sleep well, and wake up refreshed.
- Routine: Experiment to find the ideal bedtime routine for you. Relaxing activities such as reading, meditating, stretching, or a warm bath are great ways to signal to your body that it’s time to relax and wind down for the night.
- Limits: Screens are ingrained into the fabric of our lives at this point, but putting them away before bedtime is a wildly important aspect of quality sleep. The light emitted by our emotional support screens interferes with our body’s production of melatonin, a hormone that helps you sleep. It’s best to turn off the TV and set your cell phone aside for at least 30 minutes before bed.
- Environment: A dark, quiet room with a cool, comfortable temperature is the body’s ideal sleep zone. Ensure you have a comfortable mattress, a supportive pillow, and a cozy blanket to encourage a restful night.
- Chemicals: Be mindful of your consumption in the afternoon and evening hours, being careful to reduce or avoid caffeine, nicotine, or high-sugar products.
Implementing these simple ideas can change your sleep patterns, and eventually your life.
Contact Sillon Wellness in San Antonio For Mental Health Support
Reconfiguring your habits to be more conducive to quality sleep is a great start toward a healthier life, but sometimes it takes a little more than a new routine. The experts at Sillon Wellness are here to help you through mental struggles that interfere with or are caused by sleep struggles. Through various evidence-based techniques – such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) – we can help you work through current anxieties, change destructive thought patterns, and give you the tools needed to cope more efficiently. Check out the financial options for your mental health treatment.
Contact Sillon Wellness today to find out how our services can lead to a life well-rested. With a commitment to consistency backed up by professional assistance, you can find your way back to quality sleep and optimal overall wellness.