Your Mental Health Needs You To Sleep Better. Here’s Why

I believe that to have a good start to the day, proper sleep is crucial. Sleep is essential for us to get that boost of energy to carry out with our daily life. That’s why I am dedicating this week’s newsletter to sleep—and its impact on your health, particularly when it comes to emotional and mental well-being.

Our sleep cycle is divided into two parts: NREM and REM. Both of these have different roles to play and are vital to our health and wellbeing. Our sleep cycle starts with NREM sleep—as we traverse through its three stages—and then shifts to REM sleep, before going back to the NREM stages again. This is one cycle of sleep. When we sleep for 8 hours, we go through five sleep cycles—which is considered to be the ideal amount of sleep. While the NREM or non-REM sleep cycle is the more restful phase of sleep, which allows us to reach deep sleep and our body to heal—it’s during the REM phase that cognitive changes and healthy brain development takes place.

What Happens During REM Sleep?

REM is the sleep stage associated with dreaming. It is known as the rapid eye movement stage as this is when our eyes are visibly oscillating. During this stage, our heart rate increases, along with a rise in irregular breathing and brain activity. During REM sleep, our body functions the way it does in periods of wakefulness except there is a loss of muscle tone to prevent us from enacting our dream and injuring ourselves.

REM sleep is important for:

• Emotional processing: REM sleep activates the amygdala—the part of the brain known for emotional processing, social behavior, and learning. Research shows that when we are in REM sleep, there is a drop in the production of norepinephrine, which is a stress hormone. When we dream, we reprocess our emotional experiences in a safe environment. This is why when we have a good night's sleep after a stressful day, we feel more positive and ready to face the situation.
• Cognitive processing: REM sleep also aids in memory retention and learning. It helps the brain in processing new things, including motor skills from the previous day. Some are stored as a memory, and some are deleted. It also improves our concentration which helps in optimizing our performance at work, while playing sports/working out and essentially in every aspect of our life. In this stage, the brain also replenishes neurotransmitters that aid the various neural networks in remembering, learning, performing, and problem solving.

REM Sleep And Mental Health

When it comes to sleep, both the number of hours you get and how sound or deep your sleep is are important. Without the proper quantity and quantity of sleep, daily functioning suffers as does our mental health. Here’s how:

1. Studies have shown that people who don’t get proper REM sleep are more irritable, moody, and emotionally reactive.
2. Poor REM sleep may also result in impaired cognitive functioning, which hampers long-term memory, decision making, and concentration.??
3. According to a study conducted by researchers at Boston University, poor REM sleep makes you more susceptible to dementia by nine per cent.?
4. Lack of REM sleep can also make you more prone to mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression due to the inability to overcome emotional distress. In extreme cases, it may also cause psychotic symptoms.??
5. It can also decrease your ability to cope with stressful situations

Here’s How You Can Improve Your REM Sleep

To get proper REM sleep, you need to optimize all other aspects of your health and well-being such as:

1. Creating A Sleep Schedule: Ensure that you have a sleep schedule so that your body knows it's time to power down. You should stick to one time every day for going to bed and waking up. Ensure that your bedroom is comfortable and there are no disturbances in terms of light and noise which can interfere with sleep.
2. Optimize Your Bedroom Environment: Make sure your bedroom is a stress-free zone. To optimize it for better sleep, ban any and all gadgets so that vibrations from notifications don’t bother you as you sleep. Use blackout curtains to keep all the light out to boost the production of melatonin—the sleep hormone.
3. Be Physically Active Through The Day: Working out and moving around during the day tires the body, thus ensuring you fall asleep quicker at night. Exercise also boosts levels of adenosine, a brain chemical that enhances your need for sleep. Exercising in the morning can also influence your circadian rhythm and help it program you to tire down by evening naturally.
4. Eat The Right Way For Better Sleep: Eat a light dinner at least three hours before you go to sleep. Avoid drinking caffeine and alcohol in the evening as these hamper REM sleep. Foods like bananas, oats, and almonds can improve the quality of REM sleep, so include them in your evening snack or dinner.
5. Meditate Before Bed Every Night: Research suggests people who meditate at night are more likely to fall asleep quicker. Meditation can also enhance REM sleep and deep sleep phases.?

All of these habits can not only help you sleep better, but also boost your mental and physical health. By adopting these practices, you can work towards elongating your healthspan, thus starting your longevity journey.?

If you’re wondering what else you can do to boost your healthspan, understand it better, and lead a healthy life, visit humanedge.co .?

This newsletter is part of our ongoing series.