Sleep Depravation Is Our Happiness's Biggest Nightmare. Here's Why.
What’s the secret to happiness? We often think it’s stuff like a big house, good job, or comfort food. Could it be that happiness is more about getting a full night’s sleep?
It’s often been said that “happiness is sleeping.” On the reverse side, this always means that sleep deprivation might mean you’re less happy. Anyone who hasn’t had a full night sleep knows it can cause you to be groggy, moody, and even depressed.
Sleep and Happiness
Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash
We all know from personal experience that sleep quality can affect happiness levels. Meanwhile, the more sleep deprived you are, the more likely you’ll feel sad or depressed.
Sleep Deprivation’s Effects
Lack of sleep can affect not only our happiness but other factors. They include blood pressure levels, brain function, and immune system. These are all important factors that affect a person’s physical and mental health.
The irony is many people don’t observe their sleep habits. This can cause them to miss the warning signs that their happiness levels are dropping. We know intuitively that we need 7 or 8 hours of sleep nightly, but it might be unclear why that’s the case.
Benefits of Sleep
It turns out sleep can provide several benefits for a person’s physical, mental, and emotional state. For example, when you get enough sleep, it can help to process emotions. This triggers a more positive mood, which can make you happy.
You can also get physical benefits like weight control, lower blood sugar, and better heart health. When you feel physically stronger, this is another way it can make you happier.
Other Effects of Sleep Deprivation
While stress, sadness, and anger are some of the most common effects of lack of sleep in terms of being unhappy, studies show it can also affect other mental factors like memory.
Sleep Deprivation and Memory
A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania (USA) and the University of Groningen (Netherlands) showed that memory could be negatively affected by lack of sleep.
The study is the first one that showed 5 hours of sleep deprivation affects neurons (nerve cells) in the brain region that’s connected to memory and learning.
This research was game-changing because it was less clear how sleep deprivation affects the brain function of the hippocampus region. The researchers’ theory is when the neurons can’t send signals to other neurons, this negatively affects memory.
The Power of Power Naps
In the second part of the experiment, the mice experienced sleep deprivation then were allowed 3-hour “power naps.” This seemed to restore memory problems caused by sleep deprivation.
In fact, the results of the power naps were similar to mice that got a full night’s sleep. Catching up on sleep can have a similar effect as a mood booster.
Sleep Studies and Happiness
A recent 2017 study of 8,000+ Britons showed that sleep improved well being more than a 50% pay raise, according to Red Online. The survey was conducted by researchers at the National Centre for Social Research and Oxford Economics.
The Study’s Results
The study discovered that sleep was one of several factors linked to happiness, including:
*Job security
*Sex life
*Close relatives’ health
*Strong community connections
However, it’s worth noting that sleep turned out to be the biggest factor related to happiness. The study included questions from nearly 20 topics related to issues like health, lifestyle, relationships, and environment.
Participants received a “living well” score with a maximum of 100 points. This measured happiness/wellbeing levels. The average score among Britons was 62 out of 100 points.
Happiness Factors
Some issues like finances had a low link to wellbeing. A 50% increase in income only resulted in a 0.5 point rise in the living well score.
Meanwhile, a recent University of Pennsylvania study showed that subjects who got 4.5 hours of daily sleep in one week felt sad/angry, stressed out, and mentally drained, according to Harvard University.
Sleep and Kids’ Happiness
Photo by Kelli McClintock on Unsplash
It turns out that lack of sleep isn’t just affecting adults but also children.
Sleep Deprivation and Kids
Studies show that today’s kids are getting less average sleep versus past generations. Lack of sleep can affect children in several ways, including:
Attention
When kids don’t get enough sleep, it affects their focus. This includes different areas like teachers and parents. Younger children, in particular, get distracted more due to lack of sleep.
Intelligence
One study increased some children’s sleep for 40 minutes for 3 days. The group with less sleep performed worse in areas like memory, learning, and reaction times.
Moody
This is directly related to happiness and behavior. When kids and adults don’t get enough sleep, this can make them moody and ill-tempered.
Eating
Sleep deprivation can cause several physical and hormonal processes that affect bodies. They include burning calories and storing fat. Kids who are “short sleepers” have a greater chance of becoming overweight and obese.
Top Tips to Sleep Better
Since there’s clearly a link between sleep and happiness, it’s critical to take steps to get more shut-eye:
Boost Daytime Light exposure
The body’s biorhythms (internal clock) tell you when it’s time to be awake and time to sleep. While you should keep your bedroom dark at night, it’s good to expose your body to natural/bright lights during the day. This can actually help you sleep better at night based on your wake/sleep cycle.
Minimize Daytime Naps
There’s some debate about how much you should sleep during a power nap, for example. Various studies show that napping up to 30 minutes in the daytime can improve brain function. However, napping more than that can have the opposite effect and reduce sleep quality.
Avoid Late-day Caffeine
It’s a well-known fact that coffee is a stimulant. It is known to increase brain activity and adrenaline in your body. The sweet spot to getting your caffeine fix is 8+ hours before bedtime. Anytime closer to bedtime, caffeine isn’t a good idea if you want to get a good night’s rest.
Conclusion
We all know that sleep is good for health, but it might be surprising how closely linked it is to happiness. In fact, several studies show it’s actually one of the key factors to happiness. So it’s important to get a full 7 or 8 hours of shut-eye every night.
You can also take steps like reading a guide on picking a mattress. A comfy mattress, quiet room, and caffeine-free evening can all help to make you a happy sleeper.
About the Author:
Erick
Erick is a writer at ID-Mag. An enthusiast and expert when it comes to sleep products, Erick dedicates a lot of his time reading, researching, and reviewing about both traditional and emerging sleep brands that manufacture varied types of sleep products – from eco-mattresses, smart pillows to cooling sleep systems, Erick has probably reviewed them all. Erick also finds sleep especially important since he juggles a small business which he runs from home, makes sure he spends time with his daughter and he also writes during his spare time – you can definitely see that he needs a great forty winks all night, every night so he’ll make sure that you get great sleep, too!
Other Featured Articles
