To rest or not to rest

After a long conference weekend and crazy work week, I woke up very tired and found myself feeling so groggy all day, all I wanted to do was sleep.  It got me thinking about my clients who often talk about ‘brain fog’, feeling generally unmotivated and sluggish.   I wonder how many people live their day-to-day lives in this state and what affects this has on overall emotional well-being?

There are many things that make it difficult to fall or stay asleep including family, work or personal stress, too much screen time, and a variety of sleep disorders.  It is widely known that lack of sleep can lead to feelings of irritability, inability to focus and even depression.  The NHS warns it can even contribute to conditions such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and can shorten your life expectancy!  As a counsellor I am particularly interested in how lack of sleeps affects the self-regulation of emotions.  To understand a bit more, we need to look at the amygdala, the part of the brain associated with human emotion, to see how it is affected by tiredness.

Research shows that when a group of rested participants were shown a series of neutral and emotional pictures while attached to a fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging machine) the amygdala only lit up when the emotional pictures were shown.  However, when a group of sleep deprived participation were shown the same photos, they emotionally responded to both neutral and emotive pictures.  Basically, when we are overtime, we lose the ability to remain neutral and anything can cause an emotional reaction.  Considering I was felt tears build after a spilt cup of tea this morning, I can see that this is a serious problem.

The best way to overcome this? Get some rest!  The benefits of rest are too many to ignore.  It reduces stress, increases immunity to disease, clarifies thinking, improves memory, stabilises your mood and can ease the symptoms of depression anxiety.

There are so many techniques that we can use to try to get a better nights sleep.  Mindfulness,  meditation, exercise, bedtime routines, less caffeine, less alcohol and minimal night-time screen time to name a few!  It is clearly easier said than done and the reality is, it is very difficult to relax and rest  in such a busy world, but can we afford not to try?

So take a walk, a hot bath , do some mindful deep breathing, have a cup of chamomile tea, put your phone down and try to get some rest, tomorrow is a new day.

References

Hendler T.  et al. Losing Neutrality: The Neural Basis of Impaired Emotional Control without Sleep. Journal of Neuroscience. 2015.

Klein (2014).  Health benefits of relaxation [online] available at https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/stress-awareness-day-relaxation-benefits_n_1424820.

NHS Choices (2015) Why lack of sleep is bad for you [online] available at https://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/tiredness-and-fatigue/Pages/lack-of-sleep-health-risks.aspx.