Devin Burke, the founder of Sleep Science Academy and bestselling author of The Sleep Advantage and your guide to a peaceful night’s rest, explains the impact of how improving your sleep improves our mental health. Here, Devin shares some of the science regarding how sleep can improve your mental well-being and life, cause a massive shift in your mental stability and wellness and overall ability to enjoy life.
Mental Health and Sleep
Those of you with sleep issues understand the toll that a consistent lack of sleep takes on your mental well-being.
You know that you:
- Are more irritable
- Make poor decisions
- Are unable to be fully present
- Have a hard time focusing
- Experience brain fog and headaches
- Have trouble concentrating
This is the mental price we pay when we don’t get enough sleep, resulting in sadness and even depression.
Depression and Sleep
There are many studies linking depression to the lack of sleep, insomnia, and vice versa. Are you depressed because you’re not sleeping, or are you not sleeping because you are depressed?
It’s like the chicken and the egg, or as I like to say, if you solve one, you actually can solve both.
But when you can consistently get those solid 7 to 8 hours of amazing sleep, you awaken with a sense of clarity and ease. You make better decisions because the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for decision-making and executive function, can now fully function.
Taking out the Trash
When we get higher quality, sufficient sleep, the glymphatic system ( the part of our brain operating like a dishwasher) eliminates all the toxins that build up in our brain. Toxins like beta-amyloid and all the plaque that builds up can cause Alzheimer’s and dementia get flushed out.
As a result, we have this sense of clarity and peace that comes from a peaceful night of rest.
I like to say that sleep is the foundation of health.
When you’re healthy, what’s good for your physical health is generally good for your mental health, and vice versa; what is good for your mental health benefits your physical health.
We cannot separate the mind from the body
Quality Sleep
Sleep really is that soothing aid, that reprieve when our bodies repair themselves.
When we are peacefully asleep, our bodies are wide awake.
That’s a powerful statement, and it’s true because, during the night, our bodies repair and recover. We work out the emotional traumas of our day during REM sleep or rapid eye movement sleep.
Dreams occur; one of the theories on dreams is that when we’re dreaming, we’re actually working out all the traumas and processing memories.
We’re shifting short-term memory into long-term storage.
Our bodies are repairing and giving us the energy to deal with the next day’s challenges.
Still, these are only a sample of the benefits of a powerful, peaceful night’s rest. Often we take this critical process for granted. I know I did for a very long time, but I didn’t understand how important sleep was. I saw it as something I did every night, not realizing my body was wide awake repairing itself and preparing for the next day.
Some of the smartest people in the entire world understand this reality. These notable luminaries in business and sports prioritize quality sleep to protect their health because they know it’s a key to mental well-being.
- LeBron James
- Roger Federer
- Christiano Ronaldo
- Arianna Huffington
- Jeff Bezos
- Bill Gates
- Tim Ferriss
These icons understand that sleep is vital to making good decisions and essential for their ability to process the intake of information, whether physically or mentally.
Final Thoughts
I hope this video inspires you to really understand and take action toward protecting your sleep, prioritizing your sleep, and doing what’s necessary to solve your sleep challenges if you have them.
Are you ready to tackle your sleep challenges and improve your physical and mental health with more restful and restorative sleep?
Schedule a free consultation to learn more about how Sleep Science Academy’s unique program and professionally trained sleep coaches can help make this your reality.