Sleep is a link between day and night and are you aware that lack of adequate sleep causes adverse effects on your body?

Yes, and the colloquial saying is cent percent right.

Sleep is strongly connected with mental emotional health and the functioning of the brain and can lead to certain unpredictable conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and so on.

Want to know more about the role of sleep in our brain function and mental health? How is it important for our wellbeing? Karetrip is here to explain it for you. Let’s dive in.

What is the importance of sleep in human life?

Still several researches are going around the world to understand the relationship between sleep and mental health. Though they sound to be to two extreme entities they are directly connected.

It is believed that improving it can have a beneficial impact on mental health and can be helpful in treating many psychiatric disorders.

Though science has improved a lot, people still underestimate sleep. However the importance of sleep can not be negated especially when it comes to brain function.

Apart from this, sleep allows the body to take a deep rest, plays a vital role in the cognitive process, emotional well being and proper health.

Let us discuss the benefits of a sound sleep and how it helps the human brain. A good sleep is very necessary for the functioning of the brain and all the important functions are listed below.

• Restoration and Repair It is a proven fact that sleep ensures the opportunity for the brain to restore and repair without the help of external agents like medicines or therapies.

• Memory Encoding The role of sleep in the area of memory consolidation is an undeniable factor. It helps the individual to store things in his or her long term memory.

• Development of the brain It is crucial to note that sleep plays a significant role in a good cognitive and psychological development in an early stage of life.

How Does Improper Sleep Affect Your Brain?

• Bad Memory Even the youngsters in the postmodern era have a bad memory. That’s mostly because they do not get adequate sleep. A proper sleep helps the brain to differentiate things on the basics of its importance.

• Increased chances for Alzheimer's Alzheimer's has become more popular today due to its rapid spread. It is proven that deprivation of sleep for a long period of time can lead to Alzheimer's.

Through enough sleep, the brain flushes out the toxins more efficiently than when awake, removing waste material trapped between brain cells and clears it out through cerebrospinal fluid.

• High Risk of ADHD
  A good sleep is crucial for children's brain development. When kids don't get enough sleep, they can become arrogant, but there are several other serious consequences.

Research has proven that children with sleep problems, will have problems like breathing issues, are more prone to ADHD symptoms. Additionally, studies indicate that good sleep directly correlates with better academic performance.

Therefore, sleep deprivation in children can contribute to mental disorders and impair cognitive abilities and focus, affecting their overall well-being.

Now let me move into the importance of sleep in maintenance of mental health.

How Is Mental Health Related to Sleep?

It is a known fact that the activity of the brain fluctuates during sleep and its level increases and decreases during different stages of sleep.

Each stage plays a role in brain health, allowing activity in different parts of the brain to ramp up or down and enabling better thinking, learning, and memory.

Research has also uncovered that brain activity during sleep has profound effects on emotional and mental health.

During sleep, the brain works to evaluate and remember thoughts and memories, and it appears that a lack of sleep is especially harmful to the consolidation of positive emotional content.

This can influence mood and emotional reactivity and is tied to mental health disorders and their severity, including the risk of suicidal ideas or behaviors.

As a result, the traditional view, which held that sleep problems were a symptom of mental health disorders, is increasingly being called into question.

Instead, it is becoming clear that there is a bidirectional relationship between sleep and mental health in which sleeping problems may be both a cause and consequence of mental health problems.

Mental Health Problems Associated With Less Sleep

• Depression Depression is a state of feeling hopelessness and many people are affected by this all around the world. Though one cannot claim that depression is caused due to lack of sleep, it increases the chances of depression.

• Anxiety Disorder These particular disorders create excessive fear that can affect an individual's daily life and makes the health worse by increasing the risks for health problems like heart disease and diabetes.

• Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a mental health condition characterised by a difficulty in differentiating between what is and what is not real.

There are several ways to improve the mental health in human and some of them are :

• Practising behavioural cognitive therapy
• Good sleeping habits
• Avoid the consumption of alcohol
• Practising a healthy diet
• Avoid the use of technological devices right before bed
• Usage of dim lights
• Using high quality mattresses and pillows

So remember that improved sleeping habitats will make a person physically, mentally and intellectually fit.

We can say that health is the greatest wealth and one should prioritise it over anything.

It should be taken into consideration that sleep can create amendments in life as it plays a vital role in all crucial functioning of the individual like functioning of the brain, physical and mental health.