Taking greater and more complete care of your mental health should be a top priority in a busy holiday season and going into the new year. Cultivating sound and steady mental wellness is imperative to the very framework of your life. There are so many different ways to improve your overall mental health landscape, but according to research, one of the most simple is to snooze. That’s right: sleep positively impacts your mental health tremendously. It’s important to get enough sleep, even when you have a million things going on. Prioritizing sleep can help your mind in a myriad of ways.
Improves Memory
One of the most significant issues many people experience is when they have so much on their plate, and they’re so bogged down that their memory starts to diminish. Not only is this annoying but it can also potentially put you in quite the pickle with your kids, friends or colleagues. Sleep helps to strengthen the memory muscle and the capacity to hold onto essential bits of data that you process throughout the day. So as often as you can, find a way to squeeze in an hour or two courtesy of the snooze button.
Sharpens Attention
When your body and brain are lacking sleep, you can quickly start exhibiting specific symptoms that are similar to ADHD. You may have a hard time concentrating or staying focused; you may fret from one thing to the next, not being able to get anything done. This diminishes your productivity, elevates stress levels and compromises your quality of output. Lack of sleep can also cause you to be inattentive, hyperactive and impulsive. These are all things that can significantly impact your day, work, and life. Sleep is essential to how your mind can deal with, and adequately compartmentalize, all of your many responsibilities and tasks. Without it, you’ll likely start to lose focus which can turn you irritable.
Puts You In A Better Mood
When you’re getting sufficient amounts of sleep, your mood and overall disposition is typically much better. Lack of sleep is known to enhance symptoms of depression and agitation. Mood swings can be incredibly taxing to deal with and can become a huge issue if adequate sleep isn’t being had. Your stress management tools will often suffer when you aren’t getting enough sleep. One key to remember is that all rest isn’t created equal; the quality of sleep you’re getting should be high. The way to ensure this is to invest in a quality mattress and mattress protector. Although they can sometimes be pricey, here are the 10 best mattress protectors which will guarantee your investment is long-lasting and well worth it.
Clears Your Mind
When you don’t get good, restful sleep or you toss and turn through the night, waking up can be agonizing. That groggy feeling you have to endure and try to fight off when this happens is your brain having to adjust to not being adequately rested. This is because good, sound physical rest clears your mind. There are toxins, thoughts and pressure that can be alleviated when you sleep. This is precisely why you typically feel so refreshed and alert after a good night’s rest. With a clear mind, you can take on the world and all your many challenges and tasks in a more positive and fruitful way. This allows you to operate from a position of clarity in your thoughts which improves your overall actions, your intuition, your compassion and even your reflexes.
Mitigate Stress
Stress and mental illness have a very complex connection. This is often found when people go through tough times and have some psychological episode or lapse as a result – when they just “snap.” Sleep can help you to better manage specific stressors that can exacerbate poor mental health. Feeling anxious, rageful, helpless or downright overwhelmed can potentially be curbed just by getting more sleep. Your stress relief mechanisms and practices will be better utilized once you’ve gotten a good night sleep. Managing and mitigating stress levels is almost impossible when you’re only running on fumes and are not well rested. Sleep is not something you can compromise because you’ll potentially be compromising the sanctity of your mental health if you do.