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Summary: The quality and consistency of your sleep has a significant impact on your mental health. Poor sleep is a risk factor for mental health problems, while good sleep is a protective factor for mental health problems.

Key Points:

  • Adults need 7-8 hours of sleep per night for optimal physical and mental health
  • Physical consequences of sleep deprivation include blood pressure, increased inflammation, hypertension, obesity, and immune function
  • Psychological consequences of sleep deprivation include increased prevalence of mood disorders, impaired cognition/memory/decision-making, increased anxiety, and elevated levels of stress.

The Day After a Night of Tossing and Turning

Compared to days when we get solid sleep the night before, the day after a sleepless night we find it more difficult to concentrate, make decisions, tolerate frustration, start/complete tasks, and communicate effectively, among other things.

And that’s not mentioning feeling tired, cranky, and generally in a bad mood.

When nights of bad sleep accumulate, the negative effect on our overall wellbeing increases. In some cases, it becomes insomnia, which we’ll define below. We’ll also discuss the impact of insomnia on mental health and offer insight about how people with insomnia or poor sleep overall can take steps to improve their sleep, and by extension, their overall mental health.

First Things First: How to Manage Your Sleep

Creating a relaxing bedtime routine that works for you, in your life, is the most important aspect of getting good sleep.

Many people start their bedtime routine after dinner, while cleaning up the dishes. Some like listening to podcasts, some people enjoy having local news on the TV in the background, some like their favorite music, while others opt for peace and quiet. The idea is to create a routine that marks the transition from the busy-busy workaday world to the relaxed, no-pressure environment of home.

What matters is not what you do, but the effect it has on how you feel.

If you do the same thing around the same time every evening, your body gets the message it’s time to wind down and get ready for sleep. In the hours before bed, it’s important to avoid caffeine, alcohol, and tobacco. Once you’re ready to settle down for the evening, it’s also crucial to turn off your screens. That means turning off the TV, putting down your phone, and setting aside all electronic devices, from tablets to smartwatches and everything in between.

Other tips for good sleep hygiene include:

  • Use your bedroom only for sleep, rather than for hanging out, spending time on your phone, or bingeing TV shows/movies
  • Make your bedroom as dark as possible
  • Keep your bedroom cool (temperature-wise) but comfortable – heat and overheating can disturb sleep
  • Keep your bedroom as quiet as possible

A good sleep routine can protect you from the cumulative effects of sleep deprivation. Keep in mind, sleep deprivation refers to consistent sleep loss over time, rather than one night of tossing and turning. In most cases, one or two nights of poor sleep simply means one or two days when you’re cranky and not quite at your best.

Long-term sleep deprivation, however, can lead to serious and significant problems.

Insomnia and Mental Health, Mental Health and Insomnia

Mental health and long-term sleep loss/deprivation – called insomnia – have a bidirectional relationship, with deficits in one frequently leading to deficits in the other, and vice-versa. When insomnia is present, mental health often deteriorates, and people with mental health disorders often report sleep disturbance and insomnia.

Let’s look at an official definition of insomnia from the American Psychological Association (APA):

“Difficulty in initiating or maintaining a restorative sleep, which results in fatigue, the severity or persistence of which causes clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning. Such sleeplessness may be caused by a transient or chronic physical condition or psychological disturbance.”

As we mention, a night or two of bad sleep isn’t a real problem, aside from temporary discomfort. What causes problems is severe and persistent sleep loss – that’s insomnia. The publication “The Influence of Sleep on Cognitive Function and Mental Health” clearly elucidates the bidirectional relationship of insomnia and mental health disorders:

“Sleep disturbances are prevalent among individuals with psychiatric disorders and contribute to the onset, severity, and maintenance of mental health symptoms. Conversely, addressing sleep problems can improve psychiatric outcomes and overall well-being.”

The consequences of poor sleep and/or insomnia can be severe, disruptive, and have a negative impact on physical, mental, and emotional health. But how does the opposite – getting good sleep, consistently, almost every night – help our overall health and wellness?

The Benefits of Good Sleep

A good night’s sleep – which means at least 7 hours per night for adults – offers several mental and psychological benefits, including but not limited to:

  • Increased cogitative capacity
  • Improved memory
  • Improved executive function
  • Enhanced ability to focus and concentrate
  • Enhanced ability to solve complex problems
  • Improved mood
  • Improved overall wellbeing
  • Decreased risk of depressive disorders

A good night’s sleep also promotes the following components of physical health. Consistent good sleep can:

  • Regulate blood sugar
  • Enhance/improve immune function
  • Help control weight gain and/or loss
  • Improve heart health
  • Enhanced overnight tissue repair/restoration
  • Decreased inflammation
  • Improved balance
  • Increase daily energy
  • Improved alertness

When you establish a good, healthy sleep routine – called managing your sleep hygiene – the benefits we list above accrue gradually, over time. However, you’ll notice some benefits quickly, such as increased energy, alertness, and improved concentration and overall mood. In addition to the benefits listed above, consistent good sleep can improve physical performance in work/athletics/exercise, help balance your hormones, and decrease injuries due to accidents.

Long-Term Impact of Poor Sleep on Mental Health

Poor sleep over the long term – a.k.a. chronic sleep deprivation or insomnia – can have detrimental effects on mental health. Evidence shows people with insomnia are at an increased risk of the following mental health disorders:

The symptoms of these disorders can lead to disruption in life – beyond that caused by sleep loss/insomnia, including:

  • Increased conflict
  • Strained family, romantic, and peer relationships
  • Impaired work performance

Overall, chronic sleep deprivation/insomnia creates a negative, self-reinforcing cycle that degrades the quality of mental health for any individual. Consider this fact: sleep deprivation is used as physical and psychological torture by intelligence agencies around the world.

We want to avoid torturing ourselves by neglecting our sleep habits – right?

Help for People with Insomnia and Mental Health Disorders

If you have symptoms of a mental health disorder such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia, and you also have insomnia or experience chronic sleep deprivation, you have various effective, evidence-based treatment options.

The first step in accessing the full range of support and treatment is arranging a comprehensive psychiatric assessment administered by a licensed, experienced mental health professional. They can determine if your problems are related to an underlying mental health disorder, if your mental health symptoms are the result of insomnia, or if what you’re experiencing is some combination of the two.

Treatment for insomnia includes a combination of psychotherapy, medication, and lifestyle changes, which is similar to treatment for most mental health disorders:

  • The standard psychotherapeutic approach to insomnia treatment is cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), a type of cognitive behavioral therapy designed for insomnia, which includes:
    • Sleep restriction
    • Stimulus control
    • Relaxation training
    • Cognitive restructuring
  • Common medications for insomnia include:
    • Sedative hypnotics, such as Ambien, Lunesta, and Sonata
    • Benzodiazepines, such as Restoril, Halcion, Lorazepam
    • Melatonin receptor agonists, such as Rozerem
    • Orexin receptor agonists, such as Belsomra
  • Lifestyle changes that improve insomnia include:
    • Maintaining proper sleep hygiene
    • Eating a healthy diet
    • Reducing alcohol and caffeine near bedtime
    • Avoiding any stimulant use
    • Avoiding naps
    • Getting plenty of exercise/activity every day
    • Learning mindfulness/meditation/relaxation techniques

The most important piece – if lack of and mental health symptoms cause distress and disruption in your life – is seeking professional support and getting a diagnosis, if any clinical disorder is present. Once you get an accurate diagnosis from a professional mental health provider, you can collaborate with them to create a treatment plan that meets your specific needs.

Therapy, Medication, Lifestyle Changes: What Else Can Improve Sleep and Mental Health?

We covered the basics, above. Understanding the cause – meaning get a professional evaluation – is the foundation of progress, if you’ve been having trouble making progress on your own. In addition to the things we list above, there are products you can buytIndividuals with insomnia looking to improve their mental health can invest in products that promote relaxation and better sleep. These options include products that improve the sleep environment, including:

  • Blackout curtains, if light from outdoors/ambient light prevents you from falling asleep
  • Noise-canceling headphones, or a white noise generator, if you have roommates, family members with different schedules, or you live on a busy street and can hear cars/people ambient noise from outside.
  • Ear plugs, the original noise-cancelling headphone

Those three products can help people that live near busy streets, have loud neighbors, roommates, or family members, or work night shift and sleep during the day when most people are busy, active, and making noise.

Other products that can help include:

  • Weighted blankets give some people a sense of security, which improves sleep
  • Sleep tracking devices can help monitor your type and quality of sleep, and enable you to make adjustments accordingly
  • Sleep apps with guided relaxation/meditations can help people settle down, calm their minds, and fall asleep more easily.

Sleep and mental health are connected. We all know this experientially: all we have to do is compare how we feel the morning after a good night’s rest and the morning after a night of tossing and turning. The difference is literally night and day. If you have problems sleeping, it can affect your mental health, and if you have mental health problems, it can affect your sleep.

To get to the bottom of the matter, read this article, follow our suggestions, and if your sleep and mental health don’t improve, we encourage you to seek professional support.

Finding Help: Resources

If you or someone you know needs professional treatment and support for insomnia or a mental health disorder, please contact us here at Crownview Psychiatric Institute: we can help. In addition, you can find support through the following online resources:

About Angus Whyte

Angus Whyte has an extensive background in neuroscience, behavioral health, adolescent development, and mindfulness, including lab work in behavioral neurobiology and a decade of writing articles on mental health and mental health treatment. In addition, Angus brings twenty years of experience as a yoga teacher and experiential educator to his work for Crownview. He’s an expert at synthesizing complex concepts into accessible content that helps patients, providers, and families understand the nuances of mental health treatment, with the ultimate goal of improving outcomes and quality of life for all stakeholders.