Prioritizing Sleep: A Core Foundation for Long-Term Mental Health and Wellness

I am guilty of loving sleep perhaps more than the average person. I get excited at 9:00 p.m. (a bedtime that is earlier than most) to curl into bed and drift off into the restful ZZZs that I need. Before my daughter was born, I felt my best after a solid ten-hour sleep. After she was born, I experienced the typical sleepless nights of all new parents, but it lasted much longer because she did not outgrow the sleepless night phase until she was four. This sparked a lot of interest (and exhausted pleading to end the sleep deprivation) in the developmental progression and norms of sleep. 

There are a lot of sleep misconceptions around why we need sleep, how much is enough, the benefits and risks of sleep, and how to achieve the “ideal” sleep. The good news is that there are simple behavioural changes that you can implement for yourself and family members to experience more restful sleep for all. And the even better news is that making these small behavioural changes can have long lasting positive changes for your physical, emotional, behavioural and cognitive health. 

What happens when we sleep?

All humans are hard-wired to sleep and have been since the beginning of our evolution. Your body's 24-hour clock is largely controlled by your pre-programmed circadian rhythm, which establishes states of alertness and sleep in our bodies based on light from the environment. The circadian rhythm is influenced by your genetics but takes cues from the environment, like light and darkness, to function properly. When functioning properly, the circadian rhythm is responsible for the release of sleepy hormones (melatonin) and decreases our overall body temperature to induce sleepiness. This process of the sleep/wake cycle is necessary for all humans to ensure healthy functioning.  

There are 2 stages of sleep: Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) and Rapid Eye Movement (REM). Both stages of sleep are essential to a human’s overall physical and mental wellbeing. NREM sleep occurs at the beginning part of a night’s sleep and is characterized by “light” sleep. Our brain needs NREM sleep in order to process and store information, and transfer information to long-term memory storage.  REM sleep occurs in the later half of our night’s sleep and is characterized by “dream” or “deep” sleep. REM sleep helps to recalibrate and fine tune our emotional circuits, supports integration of sociocultural signals (i.e. facial expressions and body gestures), helps to process and regulate emotional experiences and supports creativity and problem solving. 

As NREM and REM sleep serve different functions and occur at different parts of the night, it is important that we are getting sufficient sleep in both stages. This means that it is important that we don’t go to bed too late or wake up too early, otherwise we are short changing our vital brain functions in one area or another. 

The risks of sleep deprivation

You can likely imagine a day after you didn’t get a decent night’s sleep. You probably woke up groggy, reached for an extra cup of coffee (or two), found yourself having a difficult time concentrating, and perhaps were more irritable. You might notice similar patterns with your child when they went to bed late, got up in the night, or woke up at the crack of dawn. 

When sleep challenges begin to happen more frequently or sleep has become a perpetual issue, increased risks can begin to develop. Chronic lack of sleep and sleep disturbances can have negative effects for the whole body, increasing the risks of both physical and mental health problems. Some risks include a weakened immune system, cardiovascular disease, obesity, depression, anxiety, and suicidality. 

Additionally, most mental health challenges for adults and children are associated with sleep difficulties. These sleep challenges include difficulties falling and staying asleep, waking up too early, prolonged sleep, having decreased need for sleep, frequent nightmares, fears of the dark, increased worries or ruminating thoughts at night. When these sleep challenges occur alongside mental health issues, it can further increase mental health difficulties and therefore the sleep challenges.  

A lack of sleep increases activity in the brain region responsible for emotion processing and expression, the amygdala, and shuts down processing in the brain region, the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for rational and logical thinking. When the amygdala takes the driver seat without assistance from the prefrontal cortex, there is an increased likelihood of mental health challenges developing, such as depression, anxiety, attention deficits, bullying, conduct difficulties, and suicidal thoughts and attempts. 

Therefore, working towards healthier sleep can support both improved sleep and decreasing mental health challenges. 

The many wonderful benefits of sleep

If the risks associated with cutting your sleep short were not convincing enough, let’s talk about the wonderful things that sleep can do for our brains and bodies. 

In childhood and adolescence, NREM sleep helps to create a blueprint for their life experiences, refining and supporting the development of cognitive skills, reasoning, and critical thinking essential for adulthood. In contrast, REM sleep has an amazing ability to improve emotional regulation and rational control over our primitive emotions driven by the amygdala. When children and adolescents receive adequate sleep their brain functions better like a healthy adult brain over time. 

NREM sleep is the learning and memory powerhouse portion of your sleep. When getting adequate sleep (more than six hours, but ideally more), our capacity to learn and remember is improved, as is our ability to consolidate and remember the learning of new information. Sleep helps our brain transfer information from the day from short-term to long-term storage. 

REM sleep helps to fine tune our emotional circuits, helping us to develop more complex emotional processing skills, better regulate our emotions, helps to alleviate emotional pain, process distressing emotional or traumatic events that may occur during the day, and offer emotional resolution and creative problem solving upon waking.

Sleep across development

How much sleep is enough? Well, that answer shifts and changes through the course of our lifespan. 

In babies and young children, the circadian rhythm is not fully developed and in command until the age of four. Therefore, babies and young children will often require more support to fall asleep, wake more frequently at night, and may have inconsistent wake up times. Entering into middle and late childhood, most children will need between ten and eleven hours of sleep each night. For adolescents, around nine to ten hours of sleep is required each night, but interestingly their circadian rhythm will shift towards later bedtimes and later wake times. I know what you’re thinking - cue to the sleepy and perhaps grouchy morning teenager refusing to get out of bed to go to school. Don’t be too critical, it’s developmentally normal and not teenage refusal or laziness!  As for adults, eight hours is typically the sweet spot for sleep. Many of you might be thinking that eight hours is far-fetched or unnecessary, but the research does suggest that anything less than eight hours does have an impact on short-term and long-term health outcomes. 

Tips and tricks for improved sleep 

1. Be consistent with your bedtime and wake up time: Yes, this includes weekends and holidays best you can! This will help you establish a strong and consistent 24-hour clock, ensuring you get all the sleep your brain and body needs to thrive. 

2. Just for sleep: When possible, the bedroom should be primarily used for sleeping or relaxing, as other activities (TV, toys, videogames, homework) lead the brain to associate the room with fun, stimulating activities which makes it difficult to sleep. 

3. Ditch the electronics: Keep electronics (TV, videogames, phones, iPad, computers) out of the bedroom and try not to use screens for one to two hours before bedtime. Blue light emissions from electronics decrease melatonin production (sleepy hormones), as the light is associated with wakefulness, making it difficult to fall asleep. 

4. Keep the bedroom dark: As mentioned before, our body takes cues from its environment to signal our brain to get ready for sleep. By using darkening blinds, shades or drapes, and one hour before bedtime dim the lights, this helps our brain to cue for bedtime releasing melatonin. Additionally, by maintaining a dark bedroom environment, this helps to decrease nighttime awakenings and promotes a calm environment free of visual stimuli, helping the brain to relax. 

5. Keep the bedroom quiet: A quiet room allows for fewer distractions, easier to fall and stay asleep. If you or your child has trouble falling asleep in a quiet room, use a fan, air purifier, air conditioner, or other white noise machine A white noise machine can also help mask environments that have too much noise, enabling you to stay asleep without interruption.

6. Keep the bedroom cool: The ideal room temperature is around 18 degrees and mimics your body’s natural process of cooling itself to initiate sleepiness. Use air conditioning, a fan, or a heater (depending on the time of year), to keep your room at the optimal sleep temperature.

7. Skip the nap: Daytime naps, specifically after 3:00 p.m., will interfere with your circadian rhythm’s ability to signal when you need to sleep, in addition to reducing your sleep drive which is your body’s need for sleep that builds up the longer you’re awake. Therefore,  No naps after 3:00 p.m., and if you’re sleepy after lounging on the couch get up and hit the hay in your bed.

8. Exercise regularly: 30-60 minutes of exercise each day helps to promote better quality and quantity of sleep (and decreases symptoms of mental health challenges, bonus). Just try not to exercise two hours before bedtime because it will wake you up. 

9. Diet: Diet and meal timing have a significant impact on your sleep quality, impacting your digestion, blood sugar and chemical signals in your brain that cue sleepiness. Foods to avoid two to three hours before bedtime include refined sugars, processed foods, high-fat foods. Additionally, it is recommended to avoid caffeine six to eight hours before bedtime, as caffeine significantly impacts your ability to fall asleep and the quality of that sleep. Avoid going to bed too full or too hungry, if you are hungry before bed a light, healthy, snack should be okay.

10. Create a bedtime routine: Humans are creatures of habit; with a consistent and predictable bedtime routine your brain will learn to understand the cues from our bedtime routine and release melatonin helping us drift off to sleep. Routines can be as simple as doing the same nighttime actions of taking a shower, getting on your pajamas, brushing your teeth, meditating, and getting into bed.  If you find yourself struggling with anxious thoughts before bed, using coping strategies such as meditation or mindful breathing can be a powerful way to quiet a busy brain.  

In Conclusion

Will I personally ever get my ten-hour night ZZZ’s back? Probably not. However, I will continue aiming to get a solid eight hours of sleep, allowing me to reach less for the coffee pot and be more present and engaged at home, at work, and with my hobbies. 

At Strong River Counselling we are happy to support you and your family on the journey towards healthier sleep. Sleep is an essential biological function that we all need, but more than that sleep is a pathway to improve mental, physical and cognitive functioning for years to come. Please feel free to contact us to book an initial consultation.