Centering Thought: I can check in with my body or use other tools to track my sleep cycles and the quality of my sleep. When I give myself adequate time to unwind, rest and awaken refreshed, I improve my entire day.
Sleep is a foundational point of self-care. But sleeping is often a challenge when mental healthcare is an issue.
Lack of adequate sleep——a number that ranges from 6–10 hours or more (or less) per individual person, dependent on the time of year and also dependent on so many other factors——can set off a domino effect of additional mental health challenges. Being overtired can throw us into decision fatigue, binge-eating, compromised impulse control or more serious mood fluctuations and their side effects, like mild to severe hallucinations. At a minimum, a need for sleep can make us irritable and set off arguments with those around us.
As with any other mood issue, we can identify and listen to our body’s cues and heed them, creating more time in our schedule for sleep or changes in our environment to improve our sleep quality. Some examples are replacing a mattress or adding special pillows; using a weighted blanket, sleep mask, white noise sounds, aromatherapy or any other sensory aids; or even reducing certain behaviors like pre-bedtime screen time or caffeine. Diet affects our sleep and so does stress. Making shifts, even small ones, in any of these areas can improve our quality and/or length of sleep.
There are a number of ways we can track and rate our sleep, too. From simply keeping a diary or log of our daily routine and looking for patterns to using virtual platforms or apps, we can get a closer look into our relationship with sleep.
Ideally, our sleep patterns have these hallmarks with some measure of consistency:
A set unwinding period for dimming lights, reducing other stimulation and beginning to intentionally relax
The ability to gradually drift off to sleep over a 10–to–30-minute window (NOT falling asleep from exhaustion moments after our head hits the pillow)
Enough solid hours of uninterrupted* sleep that we awaken feeling refreshed at the end (*it is normal to come out of deep sleep more than once per night, but fully awakening and then struggling to return to sleep is not ideal)
A steady sleep pattern that includes both the deeper and lighter brain wave patterns that correspond to NREM and REM sleep phases, or non-rapid eye movement/rapid eye movement phases
Note that it is unrealistic to expect any perfect version of this checklist. Adjusting our expectations can do wonders to allow us to have healthy sleep patterns.
We can struggle to fall asleep, to stay asleep, to heal and repair during our sleep as our physiology is meant to do, and even to awaken from sleep after we have had our fill. Excessive sleeping is often a hallmark of depression or a physical disorder. Sometimes medications can help us in various portions of this cycle; sometimes medication side effects complicate our sleep.
Whatever our sleep looks like for us, we can use our awareness to check in with our bodies and make the necessary subtle shifts to give our personal body the rest and respite it deserves to improve our moods, our thinking, our physical health and our quality of life.