How Does Sleep Affect Mental Health?

Sleep is important in our daily lives. Imagine getting home from a long day of work/school and you can finally just lay in bed and get well-rested. It feels amazing to get enough sleep so you can wake up energized and ready for the day. On the other hand, going home just to stay up late without noticing, then when you check the time, it's already 1 am. You then go to bed but you wake up tired and sleepy. It’s even worse when you consistently sleep late and not get enough sleep for the day.

What poor sleep can do to you? Well studies show that poor sleep increases the risk of mental health issues like depression and anxiety and even increased stress levels. By consistently sleeping late, we are tiring ourselves and even ruining our own mental well-being. For students, poor sleep can affect how we act in class. Students tend to participate less and work less efficiently when tired and they might even fall asleep in class.

We can fix poor sleep qualities by constantly sleeping at an early time so you can get around the 8 hours of sleep that your body needs. We can also take 10-15 minute naps if we are really tired and want to rest up a little. But if you nap, make sure you set an alarm so you don’t sleep for too long and ruin your sleep that night. Make sure that you haven’t drank, eaten, or used a device for 30 minutes before you sleep. That ensures even better sleep quality as your body and eyes aren’t processing anything right before you fall asleep.