Three ways sleep can affect your mood

1^st March 2020

The editorial unit

The editorial unit

1 March 2020

Is it any surprise to learn that sleep has a profound effect on how you feel and act during the day? Of course not, it’s simply common sense that enables you to surmise that sleep affects your mood. It also affects the way you perform at work and the way your body functions physically on a regular basis. Yes, the way you sleep affects every aspect of your life.

While it should be obvious sleep is going to affect your mood, you might not quite understand exactly how that happens. In an effort to provide you with a little clarification so as to enable you to react appropriately, the following information will focus on the three primary ways a lack of sleep will affect generally someone’s mood.

The physical effects

Make no mistake about it, when you feel physically drained, your mood is going to fall to the negative side. Likewise, if your body feels good and full of energy, your mood will tend to be upbeat. When people have difficulty getting enough quality sleep, it causes the body to feel lethargic. The lack of energy causes people to experience moods like sadness, frustration, anger and even depression. There’s also the distinct possibility that chronic sleeping issues will result in significant long-term health problems. When people struggle with their health, it’s difficult for them to put on a happy face. A lot of what affects the quality of your sleep has to do with the mattress you sleep on. Finding a mattress that is fit specifically to your needs will help you get the quality night’s sleep you need to feel rested and ready for the day.

The mental effects

When you awake in the morning, you likely do so with the expectation you’ll be ready to immediately pull yourself together and get going. What happens if you don’t sleep well? Poor sleep almost always adversely affects someone’s mental capacity. It affects their ability to organise thoughts, remember things and concentrate on simple tasks. As the day passes, people who are having difficulty with mental function will start experiencing frustration and making mistakes. When that happens, sour moods and bad emotions won’t be far behind.

The emotional effects

People who have to navigate sleep disorders have a great deal of difficulty controlling their emotions. It doesn’t take much effort to get them crying, yelling or striking back against other people or things without any real reason to do so. Experts in the field of psychology refer to this as emotional reactivity. Without enough sleep, some individuals lack the mental and emotional strength to fight back against emotional outbursts.

Mood and sleep (the cycle)

When someone is experiencing sleeping difficulties on a regular basis, it’s going to affect their moods during the day almost every day. Where things really get dicey is when someone’s moodiness exacerbates their sleeping difficulties. This creates a mutually reinforcing cycle that’s very difficult to manage. It’s this kind of cycle that often leads to sleep disorders like insomnia.

While everything mentioned above seems dire, there is good news. Bad moods can often be easily resolved with a good night’s sleep. If you find that sleep issues are affecting your mood around family and friends, you need to find ways to relax. There’s an excellent chance that any moodiness you feel because of the lack of sleep will vanish once you start getting a good night’s sleep again.

The editorial unit