SLEEP
How does your Mental Health Get Affected When You are Sleep Deprived?
At first, I thought it was a very casual situation. Little did I know that it would become troubling to this extent. People, especially teens, should never take a lack of sleep lightly.
Do you often wake up on the wrong side of the bed?
Sleep deprivation affects our psychological, physical, and mental health gravely. It has a range of effects on our bodies. If you are already suffering from mental health issues, it will become troublesome if not taken care of or treated correctly.
I know this because I have been there. Not because I was wasting away my time watching TikToks or TV but because I was overwhelmed with all my AP and honors classes, homework, swimming, club activities, and hanging out with friends, and sleep just took a backseat. My commitments kept increasing, and there were days when I would operate with just 2-3 hours of rushed sleep.
In the beginning, it was fine.
The hustle made me feel like I was productive. I enjoyed that high, honestly. But for a person like me who loved sleep and was very particular about getting 7-8 hours each night, the lack of sleep slowly caught me.
Consequences of Sleep Deprivation
I started losing weight slowly, and my food interest was declining. Dark circles became part of my identity. I was dull.
I came across a study that discussed how sleep and mental health are so closely connected. This was not surprising. The daily processing of events by brain and body functions and regulating emotions and behavior suffers. In an individual’s life, sleep helps maintain cognitive skills, and lack of which will make it challenging to cope with relatively minor stressors, leading to alterations in the way we perceive the world.
Numbers don’t lie
Research has found that over 73 percent of high school students cannot get regular sleep. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommendation for pre-teens is 9 to 12 hours, with teens getting 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night.
I feel that the casual reference to being a ‘Night Owl’ is not to be taken lightly. I have seen the setbacks too closely to not care about them. When I finally decided to put my health as my number one priority, I was to sleep more and even tried to take naps when I returned from school.
According to Johns Hopkins pediatrician Michael Crocetti, M.D., M.P.H., teens need 9 to 9½ hours of sleep per night as teenagers go through a second developmental stage of cognitive maturation. These hours of sleep will support their developing brain and physical growth spurts.
How to get back to a proper sleep routine?
Now that I knew I had a problem along with the solution, I decided to take up complete responsibility for moving forward with it. This was also because I did not just want to fix my sleep and work on my sleeping pattern. I am sharing some of the actions that worked wonders for me, which you may benefit from as well -
Seek professional treatment: You will be invested more in your betterment.
I started having breakfast in the sun without my phone.
I started moving a lot - dancing with music, yoga, and meditating helped me too.
Towards nighttime, I dimmed the yellow light and eradicated the blue light. Playing soft music to calm my nerves and taking a hot shower has been very helpful.
I avoided consuming stimulants such as coffee, tea, soft drinks, and energy drinks in the evening.
I hope these tips help you too. Remember that it is upon us to take charge of our health. Sleep is that ignored superpower that few will be able to befriend.