Sleep and your mental health: breaking the vicious circle
As a psychologist I ask almost everyone who comes to me: how do you sleep? Not out of politeness, but because sleep and mental health are inextricably interwoven. Sleeping poorly makes you more vulnerable to low mood and anxiety, and low mood and anxiety keep you awake at night. In this article I show how that circle works, and above all: how to break it.
Sleep is not a luxury, but maintenance
We often treat sleep as the closing item of the day, the first thing to fall away when we are busy. But sleep is not lost time; it is active maintenance. While you sleep, your brain clears out waste, processes the impressions and emotions of the day, and body and mind recover.
If you structurally miss sleep, those processes falter. Your emotional 'brake' weakens, small setbacks feel like big ones, and your resilience shrinks. It is not for nothing that the world looks more low and threatening after a few bad nights, that is not imagination, that is your brain at half power.
Long-term poor sleep moreover increases the risk of psychological complaints. Taking sleep seriously is therefore not airy-fairy self-care, but one of the most underestimated pillars of your mental health.
A two-way street
The connection between sleep and the psyche goes both ways, and that is what makes it so persistent. Psychological complaints disturb your sleep: depression gives early waking or, conversely, sleeping too much, anxiety and stress keep your head talking at night, trauma can give nightmares.
The other way round, poor sleep makes you more psychologically vulnerable. A sleepless night lowers your mood, shortens your fuse and increases your sensitivity to anxiety and worrying the next day. That is how a circle arises: poor sleep feeds the complaints, and the complaints feed the poor sleep.
The beautiful thing about that interplay is also hopeful: if you improve one, the other often benefits too. Sleeping better can improve your mood, and improving your mood can benefit your sleep. The circle that holds you captive, you can also make turn the other way.
What is insomnia, really?
Everyone sleeps badly sometimes; that is not a disorder. We speak of insomnia (chronic sleeplessness) when, over a longer period, usually at least several months and multiple nights a week, you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, or wake too early, and suffer from it during the day.
That last point is important: it is not only about the hours in bed, but about the impact during the day, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability. Two people who sleep the same amount can function very differently on it.
Insomnia is often kept going by what we start doing around it: crawling into bed earlier, lying in longer, napping during the day, or living tensely towards sleep. Well-meant, but it often actually reinforces the problem.
The worry circle of three in the morning
You may know it: during the day it is bearable, but the moment your head hits the pillow the mill starts turning. Worries, to-do lists, conversations you replay. And the harder you try to sleep, the more wide awake you become.
That is no coincidence. At night the distraction of the day falls away, while your brain is still full of unprocessed impressions. Moreover, everything feels more low and unsolvable at three in the morning than it does during the day, your brain is then simply less good at putting things in perspective.
A useful insight: the bed is not the place to solve problems. If sleep does not come and the worrying keeps spinning, get up for a while after a time, do something calm with dimmed light, and return when sleep announces itself. That way your bed stays connected with sleeping, not with worrying.
Sleep hygiene: getting the basics in order
Before we think of heavier means, there is much to gain with sleep hygiene: the habits around your sleep. The most important, and most boring, rule: get up at around the same time every day, also at the weekend and also after a bad night. A fixed waking rhythm is the most powerful anchor for your biological clock.
Furthermore: avoid naps during the day, wind your day down with a calm routine, ensure a dark, cool and low-stimulus bedroom, and be sparing with caffeine, alcohol and heavy meals in the evening. Movement during the day and daylight in the morning help get your rhythm going.
This sounds simple, and it is, but the effect is large in the long term. It is not a quick fix; it is patiently resetting your system. Which of these habits could you adjust first?
The proven treatment: CBT-I, not the pill
With persistent sleeplessness many people (and sometimes doctors) reach for sleep medication. It can give short-term relief, but does not solve the cause and with longer use can actually backfire and cause dependence. It is a plaster, not a solution.
The recommended treatment for chronic insomnia is cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). In it you tackle the thoughts and habits that keep your sleep problem going, with techniques that restore your biological clock and your confidence in sleeping. In many cases sleep medication is no longer needed afterwards.
CBT-I asks for some perseverance, some steps feel contradictory at first, but it is one of the best-substantiated treatments we have. The beautiful thing: you learn skills you benefit from for the rest of your life.
Screens, the phone, and when to seek help
A word about the phone, because it often plays a leading role. Not only the light, but above all the stimuli (news, social media, messages) keep your brain in waking mode. The bedroom is not an office and not a cinema; putting the phone out of reach makes more difference for many people than they think.
If, despite attention to your habits, it does not work, or you have been sleeping poorly for months and your life is suffering from it, then sound the alarm with your GP. Certainly if the poor sleep goes together with low mood, anxiety or distressing memories, more may be going on that targeted treatment can help with.
Sleep problems sometimes feel like an innocent inconvenience you take 'on the side'. But sleeping well is fundamental to how you feel and function. It is worth seeking help for, you do not have to sit out the nights endlessly alone.
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This article is informative and does not replace personal advice from a care provider. In doubt, or do you have questions about your own situation? Feel free to contact us.
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