Contents
This article will focus on why we need sleep. Sleeping is something we all love to do. In today’s society due to many lifestyle changes due to technological advancements, normalized shift working patterns, or distractions, we are unable to get the proper sleep we need in order to function as efficiently as possible. Without appropriate sleeping habits, everything we do during our day will be a reflection of that poor sleep. Therefore sleeping properly is one of the most important habits that every person can benefit from.
Defining Proper Sleep
Let’s define proper sleep before moving on. First, it means getting seven or more hours of sleep. There are many benefits of getting seven or more hours of sleep, such as decreased chances of getting obese, diabetes, heart disease immune issues, and other adverse health afflictions (Watson et al., 2015). Second, proper sleep also means consistently getting this amount of sleep at the same time everyday. One of the main reasons for this is because if we don’t, it will disrupt our sleep circadian rhythm which relies on an internal clock that’s set by many factors such as sleep/wake time, light, or diet. If that becomes disrupted it will cause each cell in our body which contains a clock to malfunction (Panda, 2018).
“Our modern lifestyle, in which we spend most of our time indoors looking at bright screens and turn on bright lights at night, activates melanopsin at the wrong times of day and night, which then disrupts our circadian rhythms and reduces the production of the sleep hormone melatonin; as a result, we cannot get restorative sleep.”
Satchin Panda, The Circadian Code: Lose weight, supercharge your energy, and transform your health from morning to midnight.
1. Good Sleep Is Needed For Attention
To begin with, sufficient sleep is crucial because it allows us to focus or concentrate on the things we need to do during the day. For this reason, proper sleep is needed for attention.
An integral part of our brains is the frontal lobe. It is responsible for a plethora of things such as memory, language, motivation, future planning, attention, and other important things. Many of these functions listed are also tied with other parts of the brain, but the frontal lobe plays key parts in their functions such as memory consolidation. When we are in a state of sleep deprivation, one of the many parts of our brain that suffers is our frontal lobe and along with that our attention and memory will be affected (Alhola & Polo-Kantola, 2007).
The inability to use attention for tasks throughout our day will greatly hinder us in achieving our goals for the day. In fact, it would negatively impact days or even weeks after you’ve fixed your sleeping schedule since it takes time for our circadian rhythms to shift to our newly fixed sleeping schedule. If we can’t pay attention to something and on top of this have issues keeping things in our memory for things we encountered throughout this time, we are living below our potential. This is detrimental not only to ourselves but the whole world because this potential can be used to bring some amazing ideas or products into the world.
Attention allows us to concentrate and focalize on things, furthermore it allows us to understand concepts, ideas, abstract thought, and anything we choose to pay our attention to.
2. Bad Sleep Is Connected To Depression
Next, improper sleeping patterns have a strong association with depression (Hayley et al., 2015). The link between bad sleep and depression isn’t yet fully understood, but there are many theories as to why.
One could be that there are many cognitive imbalances that occur with little or inconsistent sleep. A flux of hormones can be produced at times during the day which should naturally happen at other hours and this can cause many symptoms which can either be depression or lead to it.
A common link of improper sleep and depressive symptoms I see is when someone is stuck in a vicious cycle of little sleep in addition to irregular times going to sleep and waking up. If someone is constantly in this state, then they are going through each day feeling mental fog, a lack of attention, an absence of motivation, addicted to stimulants (caffeine, internet, etc), irregular moods, inconsistent emotions, lowered social interactions and many more detrimental health effects.
If someone is living a life in which they are stuck in a loop of bad sleep, whether it be out of a lack of control, work, or lifestyle over a long period of time such as a week, couple of months, to year(s), then the compounding of all those negative health effects listed day after day, will absolutely lead to depression, misery, sadness, and the alike. This is the equivalent of jet-lag being the norm.
3. Proper Sleep Leads To Boosted Energy
Furthermore, an empirical experience observed when someone achieves seven or more hours of sleep along with regular sleep and wake times, is it will give them energy. This energy can be used to primarily work on one’s goals since this energy will manifest productivity and motivation.
Whether consciously or unconsciously, people are working towards things in their life, and we can define working to achieve things with goals. These goals can be something such as flossing every night to building a cabin in the woods. The thing consistent with goals is they require some kind of system to achieve them.
The issue happens when a person has terrible sleeping patterns. They will be working towards things at a much lower capacity than if they didn’t or they simply will push it off to another day. One of the factors of decreased performance is a lack of energy and the symptoms rooted from that.
Conclusion
In conclusion, proper sleep is needed to live life at full capacity. It is just as vital as eating a healthy diet and getting sufficient exercise. The negative impacts from improper sleep can create an adverse domino effect in our lives. If your sleep schedule is disorganized, fixing this sleep schedule is a good start. Being mindful of these 3 reasons why we need sleep can keep us motivated to stay on the right track. First, it can negatively impact our attention. Second, bad sleep will lead to depression. Finally, getting good sleep will increase energy which will allow for working towards things and goals efficiently.
References
Alhola, P., & Polo-Kantola, P. (2007). Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance. Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 3(5), 553–567.
Harvard Health Publishing. (2020, July 21). How Sleep Boosts Your Energy. https://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/how-sleep-boosts-your-energy.
Hayley, A. C., Williams, L. J., Venugopal, K., Kennedy, G. A., Berk, M., & Pasco, J. A. (2015). The relationships between insomnia, sleep apnoea and depression: findings from the American National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2008. The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry, 49(2), 156–170. https://doi.org/10.1177/0004867414546700
Panda, S. (2018). The Circadian Code: lose weight, supercharge your energy, and transform your health from morning to midnight. New York : Rodale, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group.
Watson, N. F., Badr, M. S., Belenky, G., Bliwise, D. L., Buxton, O. M., Buysse, D., Dinges, D. F., Gangwisch, J., Grandner, M. A., Kushida, C., Malhotra, R. K., Martin, J. L., Patel, S. R., Quan, S. F., & Tasali, E. (2015). Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: A Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. Sleep, 38(6), 843–844. https://doi.org/10.5665/sleep.4716