Mental Health Can Improve With Sleep

"In a recent post, I addressed how we could improve adolescent mental health by implementing changes in access to mental healthcare services in this country. In this post, I propose how we might decrease the prevalence of mental health issues by coaching teenagers to allot more time for sleep.

Prevention of Mental Health Issues

Between 2007 and 2019, the proportion of adolescents who reported sleeping at least eight hours per night fell from 31 percent to 22 percent, according to the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System surveys. Further, more than a third of adolescents reported that they routinely sleep less than seven hours per night (Twenge et al.,2017), as opposed to the recommended eight to 10 hours of sleep. The decrease in sleep time was associated with increased use of electronic devices, social media, and reading news online but was unrelated to increased time allotted for homework, working for pay, or watching television.

Further, lack of sufficient sleep in adolescents is known to be associated with increased rates of anxiety, depression, suicidality, difficulty in dealing with stressors such as bullying, and higher risk of being involved with substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, and dangerous driving (Agostini & Centofanti, 2021).

Promoting Sleep

Is it possible that the mental health crisis in adolescents could be addressed simply by helping to restructure their lives to allow them to sleep more? Would such increased sleep prevent the development of mental health diseases in many people?

Students who find it difficult to fall asleep quickly on school nights should be offered sleep hygiene counseling, including:

• Avoid drinking caffeinated beverages or eating large meals late in the day.
• Avoid activities that stimulate their thinking at bedtime, such as watching horror movies or participating in exciting social activities.
• Avoid exercising close to bedtime.
• Learn to use their beds only for sleeping rather than for studying or gaming in order that their bodies learn to associate bed with sleep.
• Reduce sources of light and noise in the room, e.g., by turning off lights or music in the bedroom, drawing the window shades, and closing the bedroom door.
• Keep the same sleep schedule during weekdays and weekends so that their bodies get used to a set schedule.
• Under the supervision of a health care provider, students may be taught meditation, self-hypnosis, or prescribed melatonin or other sleep aid.

Call to Action

There is no doubt that adolescents in the U.S. do not sleep sufficiently and that this has contributed to the increased burden of mental health problems in this country. What remains to be seen is whether we can make effective changes in our culture to permit and encourage our teenagers to sleep more. Then, over the subsequent decade, we could begin evaluating the effectiveness of such an intervention on the mental health of our young people."

*Sleep is more important for mental health than any of us realize! I know we always feel like there are never enough hours in a day and we tend to stay awake to do things we need to get done or do hobbies that we enjoy. While we think we are being productive, it may actually be less productive because you are losing sleep for the next day and this creates a vicious cycle. This results in people tending to nap more, then staying up later to complete tasks that could've been done during the nap. I am so guilty of this cycle myself and it's not good for productivity and the natural flow of the day. I encourage you to try your best to get as much sleep as you can and set yourself on a good schedule! You will thank yourself for it later. Do you believe that you sleep enough that it's beneficial for your mental health?*

#Sleep #Productivity #MentalWellness

Please find the full article at Psychology Today.

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