Everything feels more trying when we’re tired. As May is Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s the right time for us to consider the ways in which sleep, or lack thereof, can affect our mental health.

Make sleep a priority to improve your mental health

“Mental health includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It is more than the absence of a mental illness—it’s essential to your overall health and quality of life,” according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Making sleep a priority is one of the recommended ways to exercise self-care to protect your mental health. Even small adjustments to your bedtime routine can optimize your sleep to reduce stress and improve your mental and physical health.

1.  Insufficient Sleep Makes It Difficult to Control Emotions

Studies show that insufficient sleep can cause you to have difficulty “controlling your emotions and behavior, and coping with change.” It may make you more impatient or moody. One of the recommended steps to manage stress is to allow yourself time to sleep. That becomes easier when you embrace your bedtime routine and allow yourself the necessary time to wind down in preparation for sleep.

2.    Poor Sleep Negatively Affects Memory

While you’re sleeping, your brain is preparing for the next day. “It’s forming new pathways to help you learn and remember information.” Insufficient sleep can result in trouble making decisions and solving problems. It can also “negatively impact both short- and long-term memory.”

3.  Lack of Sleep Disrupts the Sleep-Wake Cycle

The 24-hour internal clock in our brain regulates our sleep-wake cycle so we are alert in the morning and ready to sleep at night. This rhythm can be disrupted by sleep deprivation. Chronic conditions “linked to irregular rhythms include diabetes, obesity, depression, bipolar, disorder, seasonal affective disorder, and other sleep disorders.” Failure to get a good night’s sleep can be detrimental to you and others if you get behind the wheel. Drowsy driving is as likely to cause an accident as drunk driving.

4.  Sleep Deprivation Can Increase the Risk of Depression

Studies show that “sleep deficiency has also been linked to depression, suicide, and risk-taking behavior.” Approximately half of the cases of insomnia, “the inability to get the amount of sleep needed to function efficiently during the daytime,” are related to depression, anxiety, or psychological stress, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Short-term insomnia can be caused by life events and can “generally be relieved by simple sleep hygiene interventions such as exercise, a hot bath, warm milk or changing your bedroom environment.” However, long-term insomnia of more than three weeks calls for investigation by a medical professional.

5.  Inadequate Sleep Can Interferes with Mental Health Treatment

Sufficient quality sleep does everything from balancing the hormones that make you feel hungry, leaving you hungrier when you’re tired, to supporting the body’s natural defenses, so you’re able to fight germs and sickness. Bad sleep can worsen symptoms of many mental health issues and decrease the effectiveness of certain treatments. The data shows the connection between good sleep and recovery, as well as prevention of medical and mental illnesses.

Mental health issues and sleep are often related. For example, people who suffer from insomnia have a higher risk of developing depression and a large percentage of those suffering from depression have trouble falling or staying asleep, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is celebrating mental health awareness month with a campaign themed, “In Every Story, There’s Strength.” The goal is to eliminate the stigma of mental health issues. “By embracing and sharing your experiences, you empower others to do the same.” You don’t need to suffer alone. Begin by seeing your medical professional to determine the cause of your sleep problems and how they might be affecting or affected by your mental health.

Sleep for your mental health!

-The Team at down etc

Read more:

5 Ways to Optimize Sleep to Reduce Stress

5 Ways Light Can Affect Your Sleep

Bedtime Rituals for Better Sleep

5 Ways Light Can Affect Your Sleep

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About down etc

For over twenty years, down etc has worked with hoteliers and professional housekeepers in hotels around the world to manufacture and provide the pillows and the bedding that will offer hotel guests memorably great sleep. Through our retail website, we seek to provide products that will result in the same quality sleep for our customers at home. We believe in the restorative power of a great night’s sleep, whether at home or away. That’s the reason down etc wrote the book on it, Roll Into a Perfectly Made Bed: All You Need to Know About the Art of Bedmaking.

Originally published: April 30, 2024  Updated for information and links: May 9, 2025