We’ve all tried to catch up on sleep after working nights or having a party weekend. We don’t usually realize that sleeping during the day won’t help us feel better after a good night’s rest. By doing this, we risk getting less sleep than usual.
It is impossible to sleep for more than an hour or two while making up for lost sleep. When we look at the facts, it takes four nights to make up for one hour of lost sleep.
Like food hygiene and other important parts of living a healthy life, sleep hygiene needs our attention. Because the way we sleep affects our mental health, immune system, and physical health.
Let’s look into the link between good sleep habits and mental health.
What do you mean by sleep hygiene?
In general, sleep hygiene means doing things at night that help you sleep well. Sleep problems only show up when your sleep hygiene is messed up in a big way.
If you keep trying to keep good sleep hygiene but aren’t able to, you need to get help from a professional. Depending on where you live, they may be able to help you with therapy or give you medicine like Modalert 200 or Artvigil 150 .
How People Usually Talk About Sleep Hygiene
A sleep disorder is a medical condition that makes it hard to sleep and is a nightmare for anyone who has it. Sleep debt is the lack of sleep that builds up when you don’t get enough restful sleep for several nights in a row.
Sleep deprivation is when you feel tired but can’t make up for the sleep you missed because of one or more things. This throws off your whole sleep cycle, making it hard to focus, making you sleepy during the day, tired, etc.
Your biological clock is your circadian rhythm. Our circadian rhythm controls when we sleep, how productive we are, and how we do many other things in our daily lives.
What affects how well we sleep?
Several things, such as how we act physically, where we are, what we eat and how well we eat, and so on, all affect how well we sleep. If your sleep schedule is off, you may lose your balance when doing other normal tasks. You may have a loss of confidence, persistent fatigue, difficulties concentrating, etc.
On the other hand, too much sleep can also make you feel tired. The more sleep you get, the more tired you’ll feel again. Also, it makes you less alert and energetic.
In short, you should take care of your sleep. Getting too much or too little sleep could put you in an uncertain and stressful situation.
How Sleep Affects Mental Health
As we’ve already said, not getting enough sleep is linked to poor performance and feeling tired all the time. But they aren’t the only problems you have to deal with.
Sleep problems could change the way the brain works. This leads to serious problems with mental health. Sadness, anxiety, etc. set in, and there was no one to blame. Depression can cause insomnia, sleep apnea, and oversleeping. They may make life hard or even intolerable at times.
Even though prescription medications like Modvigil 200 can help you get your sleep schedule back on track and make you more active, full recovery takes time.
Like depression, anxiety is often caused by not getting enough sleep. You are always worried about things at work and home. When these kinds of thoughts keep going through your head, you either don’t get enough sleep or have a lot of sleepless nights. As a consequence, you have nightmares and daytime drowsiness.
If you are reading this and realize this is happening to you, make an appointment with a psychiatrist right away.
Effective ways to improve your sleep and mental health.
If you have problems sleeping, the only way to fix them is to start sleeping better. Here are some natural ways to get a better night’s sleep.
The change for a normal person to a 9–5 sleep schedule is usually easy.
Still, it may be hard for people who work the night shift. Still, keeping a healthy sleep schedule is not hard. If you want to change the way you sleep, you might talk to a professional. This will keep you from having problems with your mental health that would happen otherwise.
Here are some very effective ways to keep good sleep hygiene and mental health in sync:
- Knowing your circadian rhythm and sticking to your regular sleep schedule is important. A healthy sleep routine involves going to bed and getting up at the same time every day.
- Allow plenty of time between meals and going to bed. If your meal doesn’t have any foods that upset your stomach or cause inflammation, you won’t have trouble sleeping.
- Make it a habit to work out.
- Don’t use your smartphone or other digital devices for at least two hours before bed.
- Take in natural light all day to get people to do things during the day. If you’ve been tired all day, you’ll probably fall asleep quickly.
- Limit your caffeine consumption. It shouldn’t be more than 8–12 ounces a day.
- Don’t take long daytime naps, especially after 3 p.m. Limit naps to 30 minutes.
- Install apps that track sleep and keep a sleep journal. It will help you keep track of how you sleep.
Wrapping it up
In addition to natural treatments and small changes to your lifestyle, you can also ask your psychiatrist about medications like Waklert 150 that can help you stay awake during the day.
Sometimes, we need these medicines to get back on track with our sleep hygiene.