How Sleep Relieves Mental Stress and Helps Bring More Success

People today are constantly faced with different stressors on a daily basis, including bills, relationships, and work. Stress is a big contributing factor to poor performance at work.

So, how does one minimize the effects of stress and ensure their performance is not hampered for more success?

A report from Harvard Medical School attests that sleep and mental health are closely connected. In fact, sleep deprivation directly impacts people's psychological state and mental health leading to poor perfomace.

To relieve stress and alleviate symptoms of other mental health problems, getting better sleep is vital.

Role of Sleep in Alleviating Stress and Bringing More Success

Some of the ways getting enough quality sleep works to minimize stress and relieve other mental health issues, while also improving your performance and giving you better success include:  

I. Sleep sharpens your attention.

The more tired one is, the more difficult it is for the person to concentrate on things they are doing. For instance, a long-distance driver loses road concentration after hours of hitting the road. The same happens to a writer, marketer, accountant and other professionals.

We all need to catch some good sleep and relax in order to concentrate the next day. If you are losing concentration at work, you will not achieve the things you are targeting that particular day. Thus, getting good sleep is key to ensuring you feel relaxed and ready for work.

II. Sleep reduces irritability.

If you don’t catch enough sleep at night, small things tend to disturb you more than they should the following day. Research has found that not catching enough sleep leaves the person feeling irritable and so we react negatively to even minor annoyances.

Adults who sleep less than seven hours are likely to report these symptoms of stress compared to those who get enough hours of sleep, affecting their productivity and that of those people around them.

III. Sleep improves reasoning ability.

You need to be able to reason things out well before reaching any decision to succeed and be more effective in everything you do. And for this to happen you need to catch enough sleep.

A well-rested mind is able to function better and reason more effectively. If your mind is stressed and not well rested, it can lead to poor brain function and reasoning.

Poor reasoning affects your productivity at work because the decisions you reach are not well thought out. Therefore, make sure you are getting enough sleep to reason well and improve your productivity at work.

Now that you know some of the top reasons why getting enough sleep is important for better mental health and success, it’s important to know how you can ensure you are getting enough sleep every night. You need about seven hours of sleep to be productive.

Top Tips for Getting Better Sleep Each Night

There are many factors that impact your sleep quality, ranging from your sleep positions, mattress you are using, and your bedroom habits. All these factors contribute to a relaxing sleep each night. With that in mind, here are top tips to ensure you get quality sleep every night:

1. Use a comfortable bed and mattress.

How comfortable is your bed? Many sleep experts recommend a king size bed and mattress for the best undisturbed sleep.

The mattress you are sleeping on affects the comfort level you experience while you are asleep. Ensure your mattress supports your weight well and that it is comfortable.

Organic mattresses are best for comfort and can ensure you are getting the best sleep every night. While purchasing a mattress for your bed, consider a mattress that fits into your bed well.

Ask for a mattress that is comfortable, durable, lightweight, and user-friendly.

2. Eat a balanced/nutritious diet before bed.

What you feed on affects your body’s ability to sleep well. To make sure you are sleeping well every night, take a light meal and allow the body to digest this food before retiring for bed.

Make sure whatever you feed on is a healthy diet and not junk food filled with refined sugars or low in nutrition value. A poor diet will leave you feeling tired, reducing your ability to fall asleep.

Eat a healthy meal that is low on caffeine and avoid taking alcohol at night. This promotes your health helping in reducing the stress levels hence better sleep at night and productivity at work.  

3. Make your bedroom clean and comfy.

How comfortable is your bedroom? A spacious, airy and well-arranged bedroom makes you want to spend more time in there catching some undisturbed sleep. Barely anyone will want to sleep in a bedroom that looks shaggy, stuffy and dirty.

So, make sure your bedroom is clean, well aired, properly arranged, and comfortable with the right bedding. This will help to improve quality of sleep, ensuring you wake up feeling energetic and ready for the day’s work. Thus, improving your productivity and success at work.

4. Add the right lighting and color in the bedroom.

Your bedroom lighting and paint color can impact your mood when you need to sleep, and determine if you’ll sleep well each night and get your day off to a good start when you wake.

Cool paint colors like cool white, soft green and pale blue can bring out the vibrancy of the room and make for a seriously soothing bedroom to catch some sleep.

If you have to sleep with a night light on, a study involving hamsters suggests that red light has the best effects on mood and sleep quality. Contrary to what you might expect, one light bulb that gives off red light is best in the bedroom compared to blue or white light.

The hamsters exposed to red light at night (as opposed to blue and white light) had significantly less evidence of depressive-like symptoms and changes in the brain linked to depression, per the study. However, total darkness in the bedroom at night is still better for sleep.

5. Maintain a regular sleep cycle.

A regular sleeping cycle is important so your body can find its natural rhythm and better regulate your sleep-wake cycle pattern. You’ll also be able to fall asleep faster as soon as you hit the bed and have enough time for sleep and rest each night when you have a regular sleep cycle in place.

On the other hand, if you have an irregular sleeping cycle, your sleeping hours will be all over the place and you’ll be less likely to wake up feeling rested.

Bottom line, be deliberate about your sleep habits always and you will reduce stress and improve your overall productivity and success in life.