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Consultant Health Psychologist Dr. Sue Peacock from The Saxon Clinic explains how sleep, or lack of sleep, can affect our mental health and wellbeing

Do you often forget things that you’re sure you know? Do you find it hard to concentrate on complex assignments? Do you struggle with your moods?

If the answer to any of these is yes, you should ask yourself another question: Do you get less than six hours of sleep a night? Many people don’t realise, but getting too little sleep can be to blame for all of these issues. Of course, there are many reasons why you might be grappling with poor concentration levels throughout the day. Sometimes diet can cause brain fog and impact your ability to focus, as can some physical health conditions, such as fibromyalgia. If other factors have been ruled out, sleep could be the leading cause of your tiredness and lack of focus during the day.

That’s right: lack of sleep can hinder you from thinking clearly and keeping your emotions at an even keel, helping you concentrate at work, have balanced, purposeful conversations, and even maintain relationships. In fact, sleep can have a huge impact on how we function in everyday life. From completing regular tasks such as household chores, to thinking logically and making long-term memories, sleep is essential in helping keep your brain and body in good health. (…)

Excessive sleepiness impairs memory

Research suggests that the nerve connections that make our memories are strengthened during sleep because sleep embeds the things that we have learned and experienced over the course of the day into our short-term memory.

It is believed that different phases of sleep play different roles in consolidating new information into memories. If your sleep is cut short or disrupted, it interferes with these cycles.

When you’re sleepy, you may forget and misplace things often. And the inability to focus and concentrate caused by sleepiness further weakens memory.

If you’re not able to concentrate on what’s at hand, it’s not going to make it into your short-term memory and then long-term memory.

Poor sleep makes learning difficult

Sleep deprivation affects your ability to learn in two ways. Firstly, because you can’t focus as well, it’s more difficult to pick up information, so you can’t learn efficiently. Secondly, it affects memory, which is essential to learning.

Sleep is crucial to children as well as adults. In younger children, sleepiness can lead to hyperactivity, which can hinder learning. Sleep deprived teenagers may lose the focus, diligence, and memory capacity to perform well in school.(…)

The impact of sleepiness on mood and mental health

Lack of sleep can alter your mood significantly. It causes irritability and anger and may lessen your ability to cope with stress.

The “walking tired” are more likely to sit and seethe in traffic jams and quarrel with other people.

Studies show that sleep-deprived people are also less likely than those who sleep well to exercise, eat healthily, have sex and engage in leisure activities.(…)

Sleep and mental health problems

Mental illness and sleep problems are closely linked. If you have sleep issues, you are more likely to have mental health problems, and vice versa.

Sleep and mood affect each other, so it’s common for people who don’t get enough sleep to be depressed or for people who are depressed to not sleep well enough.

Chronic sleepiness puts you at greater risk for anxiety and depression. They are so closely linked that sleep specialists aren’t always sure which came first in their patients.

Often, people who suffer with sleep issues or disorders will have some form of anxiety about sleep. They don’t sleep, so they get anxious about going to sleep and that anxiety stops them sleeping. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy and a vicious circle.

How to establish a regular sleeping pattern

As you can see, lack of sleep affects our mental health in terms of feelings and emotions as well as our ability to perform cognitive tasks.

It is absolutely worth taking the time to improve your sleep and establish a healthy sleeping pattern.(…)

Adaptado de: https://www.circlehealthgroup.co.uk/health-matters/healthy-living/sleep-and-mental-health-how-does-tiredness-affect-the-brain#:~:text=When%20you’re%20sleepy% 2C%20you,and%20then%20long%2Dterm%20memory. Acesso em 27 de jun. 2024.