Sleep well feel well

When the sun sets, we must rest, but lucky are the people who get a ‘goodnight’ sleep as it is a sign of wellness. Sleep is an important part of our life, and it can be an indicator of a person’s mental health.

Sometimes it can be a reflection of something, said Dr Hamed al Sinawi, Senior Psychiatrist. “Sleep disturbances can be a sign of mental health problems. For example, people with depression find it difficult to fall asleep or have interrupted sleep or stay awake the whole night feeling miserable. And people who are anxious, it takes them longer to sleep because the moment they put their head on the pillow, all the worrying thoughts come racing in their heads’’, explained Dr Hamed.

Then there are people who wake up too early in the morning. According to Dr Hamed, the experience is the same with depressed people or people going through hypomanic episodes.

“They don’t feel the need to sleep; they become hyperactive. So this is a sleep disturbance in the context of mental health problems. But also, if a person goes through days without sleeping, they find it difficult to concentrate, and they make rash and unwise decisions. They can even cause accidents when they are driving because they’re unable to focus and concentrate on what they are doing.”

So What is actually happening when we don’t sleep enough? To know that, we need to understand what happens when we are sleeping.

“When one is sleeping, it is like switching off the machine, but it’s also time for our brain to restructure or for our body to build up the metabolic process. Scientists believe that memories are stored, so think about your brain like a computer when you are sleeping. That is when your brain is processing the information you learned and getting it stored in the hard drive as locked-in-memory. This is why students, for example, are advised to have a good night’s sleep’’, explained Dr Hamed.

What counts is the sleep during the night-time because of the circadian rhythm — your body’s ability to have its internal biological clock.

An adequate amount of sleep for an adult would be a minimum of seven hours. While people over the age of 65 could do it within five hours.

“This is what we know. Just the more we grow older, the less sleep we need. This is why babies sleep for almost 22 hours per day. Then as they grow up, they need fewer hours. It is essential for your brain to do all this clearing, all those building processes. So if one is not sleeping, they are depriving the brain of that chance of resetting; it is a different function.

All this proves that late-night video games and television are not healthy habits, and those addicted to them probably need to reschedule the activities, according to the psychiatrist.

“What happens is that when you are playing video or watching action movies, they impact what we call sleep hygiene. We advise people who have difficulty sleeping to avoid doing this because sometimes you feel more reactive to what is happening. When you watch an action movie, you feel as if you are part of that. In return, this can make it difficult for your body to rest and sleep. The same thing with video games when you are worried or anxious about scoring, you want to play more and more’’, pointed out Dr Hamed.

This affects the sleep pattern and sleep cycle as well. Some people find it difficult to get to what we call a deep sleep as individuals might have more dreams.

To maintain a healthy sleep hygiene especially for people who find it difficult to fall asleep, individuals should avoid coffee, caffeine containing drinks or just coffee, tea and soft drinks.

“Go to bed at the same time as much as possible, avoid staying up late and going to bed with a full stomach, because the blood goes to your stomach to absorb food so it does not get the time to focus on the brain and get your body relaxed. That’s why some people get into having bad dreams or nightmares. It is also not healthy because experts say we need to have at least a three-hour gap between meal and the bedtime’’, he advised.

For getting good sleep, exercise is significant because it always helps one feel tired. The body feels naturally tired and makes one fall asleep quickly. Having a warm bath also helps the process of falling asleep.

“Make sure not to have heavy meals and have it earlier. Also, try to avoid consuming too much fluid because every time you want to use the toilet, you would wake up in the middle of the night.

Avoid using WhatsApp in bed or follow up with work because this can keep your mind active and does not help it go to sleep’’, said Dr Hamed al Sinawi.

@lakshmioman