We need a radical change in our attitude to sleep and rest. Mental health and productivity depend on quality rest, but the extent to which our sleep affects our well-being is largely underestimated, writes Tony de Gouveia, clinical psychologist at Netcare Akeso.
The domino effect of poor sleep, anxiety and depression
The role of poor sleep in anxiety and depression is well documented. It’s not just our physical energy that is replenished when we sleep – sleep is also important for our cognitive functioning and emotional regulation.
However, we often fail to make getting enough quality sleep a constant priority.
Studies vary, but it’s been suggested that between a third of us and nearly half of us get less than the recommended seven to eight hours of sleep each night – an impressive figure.
Time to rethink bad habits
Burning the midnight oil is the enemy of productivity and creativity, but when we’re stressed, rest is usually the first thing we sacrifice. We need to rethink how we value our sleep: rest is fundamental to productivity, not the other way around.
Many factors can reduce the quality of our sleep, including 80 recognized sleep disorders. The most common is chronic insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea, which I have experienced. When they go undiagnosed, the risk of other health issues also increases.
Effects of social media on sleep
Doomsday on social networks until the end of the night, along with blue light from screens, becomes the main obstacle to a normal night’s sleep. As high school students become increasingly inseparable from their phones, this can have real consequences for the full participation of young people in learning.
Stress—especially in the hours before bed, or feeling anxious while awake—disrupts the restorative sleep cycle. It has been observed that each stressful thought takes about 20 minutes for the average person to start falling asleep, and in the small hours, fear can take over a life of its own.
Women have different sleep patterns than men
Our experience and research show that women struggle with sleep more than men, for reasons that traditionally have more responsibility for childcare than for physiological reasons.
Women also require more sleep than men (about 20 to 30 minutes more) and report poorer overall sleep quality.
These differences have been shown in studies that show physiological and psychological variations in how each gender relaxes, driven by biology, circadian rhythms and memory.
The main published differences include:
- Circadian rhythms: Women naturally secrete melatonin earlier in the evening than men and tend to have shorter circadian cycles, which makes them sleep and wake earlier. In contrast, men show more evening chronotypes.
- Perception of wakefulness: Studies have shown that women are more aware of nighttime awakenings, allowing them to more accurately estimate how many times they wake up.
- Hormonal disorders and life stage: Women’s sleep quality changes significantly due to hormonal changes during menstruation, pregnancy, perimenopause and menopause.
- Mental health links: Waking up late at night or in the wee hours of the morning with insomnia further ruins sleep, and stressing about not getting enough sleep because the hours are getting longer only compounds the vicious cycle. Higher reports of poor sleep quality in women are closely related to higher rates of anxiety and depressive disorders.
- Aging factors: While women over 65 maintain deeper sleep than men (stage three sleep), men’s objective sleep indicators, such as the amount of deep restorative sleep, decline more rapidly with age.
Self-medication is not the answer
It’s understandable that many of us are tempted to self-medicate when we suffer from poor sleep. However, use alcohol or cannabis to induce sleep can disrupt healthy sleep cycles and lead to addiction and substance use disorders.
Getting enough quality sleep can seem like an elusive goal—a luxury we can’t afford in our busy lives.
But there are so many intrinsic benefits that make it really worthwhile to appreciate the importance of sleep for every aspect of our daily lives, not least our mental health.
The only way to build this log is to connect good sleep and relaxation with our daily routine.
Restoring Rest: 7 Tips for Better Sleep
- Go to bed at the same time every night. Make this your boundary.
- Put down devices and turn off lights at least 20 minutes before bed.
- Limit fluids a few hours before bed and avoid caffeine after lunch.
- Adjust the temperature for a comfortable night’s sleep.
- Keep your sleeping environment quiet (white noise can also help) to improve sleep quality.
- Do not sleep or eat too much during the day.
- View good rest as a goal, not a means to being productive.
What if the sleep reset doesn’t work?‘t work?
If your sleep doesn’t improve or you still don’t feel rested, see your doctor to check if there’s an underlying physical cause. You can also book an appointment with a mental health professional if stress, anxiety, or racing thoughts are keeping you awake.
Quotes
South Hampton University: Gender differences in sleep and circadian rhythms
About the Author
Tony de Gouveia is a clinical psychologist practicing at Netcare Akeso Alberton with over 40 years experience in psychological support, executive coaching and resilience training.
He previously lectured in psychology at Vista University (UJ Soweto campus), as well as at Wits and Milpark Business Schools. In his personal practice, de Gouveia aims to provide tailored strategies to help his clients achieve their personal and mastery goals.
De Gouveia runs the Positive Psychology Group (PPG) Johannesburg, a personal development group she founded in 2013 that focuses on resilience and related topics.
About Netcare Akeso
Netcare Akeso operates a network of private inpatient medical facilities and is part of the Netcare Group. Netcare Akeso provides individual, integrated and family treatment in specialist inpatient facilities as well as certain outpatient services for a range of psychiatric, psychological and substance use conditions. visit www.akeso.co.za or
