On average, a 40 year old adult sleeps about 6.5 to 7 hours a day. That is average. A large percentage of the population sleeps even less than that.
You need 7 to 9 hours of sleep per day for optimum health – not just physical health, but mental health too – and yet we’re getting so much less than that. Most of the time, even though we don’t always feel this way, this is a problem of our own making.
- Why do we get so little sleep?
- What does our mental health have to do with it?
- Why do we need to make sure we get more and what can we do to get there?
Let’s talk about it.
Why Do We Get So Little Sleep?
It often feels like we’re so busy, we don’t have time to sleep. There’s a little bit of truth to that, but most of us absolutely have the ability to go to bed earlier and try to get more rest. The problem is often not that we can’t get enough sleep, but rather we simply don’t. We stay awake as long as possible, and then wake up early the next day before 7 to 9 hours has passed.
We do this for a variety of reasons, many of which are mental health related:
- Revenge Bedtime Procrastination – We experience so much activity during the day, often in ways that don’t feel like “ours” that we take reclaim our time by staying awake as long as possible. Ironically, we often spend this time doing activities that do not satisfy this procrastination (like scrolling our phones instead of doing productive hobbies). In any event, we fight the urge to go to sleep in favor of trying to stay up as late as we can so we feel like we had more time in the day.
- Excessive Stimulation – Though not directly a mental health issue, far more of us are spending time on our phones and on screens, and this can be a serious problem. Scrolling phones causes issues like digital overload, which make us feel like we’re resting but in reality are overprocessing our brains. Why we spend so much time on our phones can be examined from a mental health perspective, from doomscrolling habits to phone addiction.
- Stress/Anxiety – Stress and anxiety both release hormones and neurotransmitters that both make it harder to fall asleep and make it harder to get a deep sleep. These issues can also be cyclical, as a lack of sleep is known to cause more stress and anxiety. Some anxiety disorders, like panic attacks, can make it especially hard to fall asleep.
- Depression – Depression itself causes significant sleep disruption as one of its symptoms. When a person has depression, their neurotransmitters are out of balance, leading to challenging sleep/wake cycles and even worse sleep quality.
We often assume that missing sleep will make us more tired later, but that is often not the case. When we don’t sleep, we tend to experience more stress and anxiety (keeping us awake). We also have more irritability, which lowers tolerance for stress, and we often self medicate with caffeine which can keep us awake even more.
In all of these situations, we do have the ability to go to sleep, but we are either choosing not to for mental health reasons, or our mental health is making it too difficult for us to fall asleep when we need to.
You Need More Sleep
Entire books have been written about why we need more than 7 hours of sleep a night, and this does not need to be completely rehashed here, but sleep is required to improve our physical health (prevent diabetes, improve immune system function, and even reduce obesity), as well as our cognitive function and long term brain health (sleep clears waste products from the brain, reducing risk of dementia, and improves attention and memory consolidation).
But you also need sleep for your mental health. You need sleep to problem solve, reduce stress, and even prevent the development of worsening anxiety and depression. As much as it may feel like staying up is preferable, human beings desperately require sleep in ways that are absolutely necessary for short and long term mental health and wellness.
Since poor sleep can also lead to issues that lead to further poor sleep, breaking this cycle intentionally is especially important.
What Can Be Done?
One way that you can address a lack of sleep is, of course, by going to sleep. Having a consistent schedule where you go to bed at roughly the same time, even on weekends, no matter how much time you had to yourself during the day can help to create a rhythm where you become tired at the same time and fall asleep more easily.
You can also limit caffeine and, perhaps crucially, limit screen time considerably – especially after dark.
But in the absence of those things (or if you struggle to do those things on your own), consider seeing a therapist. You’ll find that many of the issues that stand in your way are mental health related, and benefit from talking to someone that can help guide you towards a more rested, happier future.
If you’re struggling with sleep, reach out to Flourish Psychology today.