Sleep Keeps Humans Rational
Everyone Suffers Occasionally
If you are a mom, a dad, or have ever been a teenager, you have had a sleepless night or two. The next morning, you may have noticed that your emotional temperament, decision-making, and patience with others were less than optimal! Waking up on the wrong side of the bed is a common life experience. However, if you struggle to sleep regularly, you might not even know what you are missing in the way of functional health. Sleep is a great reboot for the brain and a critical part of our daily circadian rhythm. Sleep is the time for filing away the worries of the day and renegotiating traumatic memories. Healthy sleep matters if you are trying to feel better, get calmer, cope with stress or have a clear train of thought.
Scientists Connect Sleep and Moods
Some scientists have taken the study of sleep and emotional control to the laboratory. Decades of research have led to general conclusions that sleep has impressive effects on memory processing, association, integration, and creativity, as well as dramatic effects on emotional regulation. Results comparing emotional responses in sleep-deprived and well-rested participants could be summed up in a single sentence.
‘Going without sleep makes healthy people irrational and sick people even worse.’
One summary reads, “It would therefore appear that a night of sleep may “reset” the correct affective brain reactivity to next-day emotional challenges by maintaining functional integrity of this mPFC-Amygdala circuit and thus govern appropriate behavioral repertoires (e.g., optimal social judgments and rational decisions). Intriguingly, a similar pattern of anatomical dysfunction has been implicated in many psychiatric mood disorders that express co-occurring sleep abnormalities. (Davidson2002; Davidson et al. 2002; New et al.2007), directly raising the issues of whether such factors (sleep loss and clinical mood disorders) are causally related.”
“Walker: The Role of Sleep in Cognition and Emotion,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
Personal Applications
Since lack of sleep inhibits your ability to function in so many ways, you can prioritize sleep. Restful nights lead to productive, calm, happier days! Try these!
- Honor your need for a nap
- Check out of the party or the movie a little earlier
- Wake at the same time every day
- Use good sleep hygiene
- Learn about hormones for sleep and how Renova Worldwide products (i.e., Inositol, EMPowerplus, and VITAmino-23) play important roles in the production of healthy sleep!
