The Importance of Sleep - Video Transcript

Hey, everyone, I'm Kristen, the anxiety therapist. And today I wanted to talk about the importance of sleep. I thought this was a good topic because we just had daylight savings. And I was also reading the news this morning and came across a study called the apple heart and movement study. And basically, they logged the amount of sleep people were getting using their Apple watches. And so they monitored 42,000 people and found that only 31% were getting the recommended seven hours of sleep per night and seven is minimum, really, we should be getting between seven and nine hours. 

And I think everybody kind of has their sweet spot between you know, within that range minus typically about like seven and a half hours. That's when I tend to feel my best. But we want to make sure we're getting at least seven hours of sleep. And sleep is essential not only for our overall physical and mental health, but it also plays a really critical role in managing anxiety if that's something that you struggle with. 

So when we sleep, our brains are able to process and consolidate information from the day. And what that does is it actually helps us manage our emotions better and cope with stress. And when we have a lack of sleep or our sleep is not great quality, it can actually worsen anxiety symptoms and lead to increased stress, irritability, mood swings, etc. 

Sleep deprivation also affects our ability to think clearly and make rational decisions. So with anxiety, a lot of what's going on is these irrational thought processes. So if you combine that with sleep deprivation and this difficulty in sort of thinking rationally or making rational decisions, that's going to exacerbate anxiety and any other mental health issues that you're struggling with. It's also helpful to reduce symptoms of anxiety and just improve our overall emotional well being which just in general allows us to better handle the challenges of our daily lives. 

So when we're thinking about sleep, again, we want to get between those seven and nine hours. We also want to practice good sleep hygiene, which refers to the habits and practices that promote good quality sleep. And the first one is to try to maintain a consistent sleep schedule. We want to try to go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, even on the weekends. I know that's really, really challenging to do sometimes. But you know, as close as we can come to going into bed and getting up at the same time, the better. 

We also want to create a relaxing bedtime routine. So something that helps you wind down and relax before bed. This could include, you know, taking a bath or a shower, reading, practicing meditation or yoga or deep breathing, something that's going to kind of relax your body. 

We also want to limit exposure to electronics before bed. I know this is probably one that most of us struggle with. But the blue light emitted by our phones or laptops or tablets, you know, that is really going to mess with your circadian rhythms and the production of melatonin that causes you to get sleepy. 

You also want to make your bedroom a comfortable sleep environment. So you want to keep it cool, dark quiet, get some nice bedding and pillows and make sure you're not really doing anything in bed besides sleeping. So you know you don't want to be doing work or doing if you're in school doing homework or you know working on your computer or doing other things in bed besides sleeping. 

And then finally you want to avoid caffeine and alcohol. It's pretty obvious caffeine can interfere with sleep. So we want to kind of stay away from it in the afternoon and evening. And then I think alcohol is a tricky one because it makes us feel sleepy initially but it really interferes with the sleep quality later in the night. And a lot of times that's something that we're not necessarily aware of until you know, a day or two later when we're really feeling the effects of that. 

So I hope this video was helpful just in terms of giving you some information about how important sleep is and feel free to let me know if you're struggling with your sleep or if you have any additional tips or you know things that you do for sleep hygiene. I would love to know. Be sure to follow me on social media at cathartic space calm counseling you can subscribe to my YouTube channel the anxiety therapist or learn more about me and my practice at cathartic space counseling.com So I hope you all have a great rest of your week I'll talk to you soon!