Anyone who doesn’t sleep well at night also feels this during the day: Why even small sleep deficits can upset our mental balance and how we can promote good sleep.
Our psychological well-being is also linked to our sleep quality. “Sleep is like a daily therapy session for the brain,” explains Petra Beschoner, specialist in psychiatry, psychotherapy and psychosomatic medicine.
If there is no nightly regeneration, our mental equilibrium can quickly become unstable. Emotional stress would then become increasingly difficult to balance, as the medical director of the Bad Saulgau acute clinic explains.
This can have consequences, especially in the long term: those who sleep too little or restlessly for a long time react more sensitively to stress and develop depressive or anxious symptoms more often. Learning and performance skills also suffer from persistently poor sleep.
This is how you can promote better sleep
Healthy sleep cannot be forced, but it can be encouraged. According to Petra Beschoner, what can help:
- giving the brain enough time to shut down before bed
- see the night as a protected phase of regeneration
- Regular sleeping and getting up times
- a darkened bedroom
- consciously avoiding screens and bright light in the last hours before sleep
- Write down worries or tasks before going to bed if you tend to ruminate
- seek professional support for long-term problems
Under certain circumstances, sleeping pills can also provide relief, but should only be used temporarily and under medical supervision.
When do we speak of a sleep disorder?
Important: A few bad nights in which you lie awake because your thoughts don’t stop do not necessarily mean that you have a sleep disorder.
The specialist only speaks of a sleep disorder in the medical sense when problems falling asleep or staying asleep occur at least three times a week over a period of more than three weeks and noticeably affect your daytime well-being, explains the specialist.
An incipient sleep deficit can manifest itself in everyday life like this:
- You can hardly get out of bed in the morning despite having enough sleep
- At lunchtime you struggle with concentration holes
- In the evening you already feel anxious about the next restless night
- You ponder as you fall asleep or wake up at night with your pulse racing
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