Sleep Smarts for a Happier Life

What if the key to unlocking emotional stability and peak cognitive function was as simple as getting a good night's sleep? On this episode of Have a Cup of Johanny, we kick off our new season themed around growth by spotlighting the often-overlooked hero of mental wellness: sleep. As a self-proclaimed "nappinator," I share my journey from sleep deprivation to discovering my optimal sleep duration, revealing how critical sleep truly is for maintaining sanity, especially as a single parent. With insights from the National Institute of Mental Health and personal anecdotes, we unpack the intricate link between sleep and mental health, offering actionable strategies to improve your sleep hygiene.

Through heartfelt and candid storytelling, I recount the profound impact that lack of sleep had on my mental well-being, from bouts of anger to ineffective daily functioning. This episode is both a wake-up call and a guide to prioritizing your rest to ensure a happier, healthier you. Tune in as we explore practical tips to enhance your sleep quality, helping you bring balance and joy back into your life. Don't miss out on these crucial insights that could transform your approach to mental wellness and daily effectiveness.

Resources
Why We Sleep by Mathew Walker https://bookshop.org/a/97197/9781501144325

Breathe How You Want to Feel: Your Breathing Tool Kit for Better Health, Restorative Sleep, and Deeper Connection by Matteo Pistono https://bookshop.org/a/97197/9781401975869

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Oh, we could, we could fly. Welcome to this new season of the have a Cup of Johani podcast. So I want to title this new season that I'm embarking on with I'm growing, so this is going to be the season of growth and that's what I'm going to share with you throughout the season. So I thank you for coming over here and sitting with me, and I hope you enjoy.

Speaker 2: 0:26

All right, vasitos, welcome back to the have a Cup of Joannie podcast, where every oops is a gateway to aha or shoot. How did that happen? And on today's episode, we are talking about the unsung hero of mental wellness. Can you guess what that is? If you said sleep, you are 100% right, because that's what we will be discussing today. Are you ready? Yes, you are. Yes, you are yes, you are ready, because why else would you be here? All right, vecitos.

Speaker 2: 1:21

In this episode we're going to explore the importance of sleep. Oh, my goodness, so important. I am a nappinator, a nap connoisseur, and I love best friends. I love it, I need it. I know that if I get five to six, I will be struggling throughout my day, starting from 1 pm on down. It will be very chaotic inside my brain, trying to process information and give answers to certain things when I'm not fully rested. And I know that about myself and I have used so many different sleep trackers from all the way back the beginning of 2005, all the way till now, and that's what has helped me to become more self-aware of what I need when it comes to sleep. So I know, for me, my happy place of sleep right now is seven to nine. That will change as I age, I know that. But I will continue to track sleep and track my behavior to ensure that I am resting my body and my mind enough to embark on a new day, because sleep is very important. Unfortunately, sleep is often overlooked, but it's so important for regulation, for cognitive function Like I just said, I can't answer oh so many questions when I'm groggy and overall well-being, because when you're rested, you just feel at peace and you have the ability to feel happiness because your body is rested. Nevertheless, let's get into how sleep impacts mental health and I'll share with you some strategies on improving sleep hygiene and then tell you about the ones that I don't follow. All right, that I don't follow, all right.

Speaker 2: 3:51

So, like I hinted at the beginning, understanding that sleep has a mental health connection Well, what is that connection? Right, I think you have heard me say about being a single parent and all of that. I was so sleep deprived during that time. I was constantly tired, angry and just really not effective as a human being and in my performance. But why? Because I didn't understand it back then. Why, I will say I kind of did, but not really. But why? That's because it's linked. Sleep and mental health are linked. If you don't get enough sleep, you're going to have more issues functioning when you're awake and all of that can contribute to mental health issues such as anxiety, anger, depression and all of that. That's the linkage between sleep and mental health, and the National Institute of Mental Health emphasizes that adequate sleep is vital for brain health and emotional stability.

Speaker 2: 4:56

Now, looking back at my time of where I was sleep deprived because I was doing oh, so many things and I was a single mom and I was trying to say yes to everything like you heard me on my previous episode, right, this made me super unstable emotionally and then I didn't know back then how to regulate. So that was really horrible. It was a bad experience, a bad experience to live in. But looking back at it now, I understand why sleep. I should have prioritized sleep, for sure. I should have prioritized sleep so that way I can be more effective, more regulated and better able to. If I wouldn't maintain those poor habits of being sleep deprived, it could have led to chronic sleep deprivation, which then just aggravates everything else, right. So now we are going into serious mental health issues because we are continuously not resting our minds and not resting our bodies, and I have seen it, because there are times where I go through a long period of no sleep, either because of training or anything else that I have going on at work and at life and trying to balance that, and I start to feel myself getting physically sick, like catching a cold, having those cold symptoms, and also I'm feeling myself getting angry quicker. Those are usually kind of like my trigger points to know that I need to rein it back in. Furthermore, according to the American Psychological Association, the lack of sleep affects mood, just like I told you, right Decision-making and stress levels. So like, if your life is already stressful enough, not getting enough sleep will make it more stressful. But here's the catch-22, right? Because usually when you are stressed, then you cannot go to sleep or your sleep is not productive. So this is where improving sleep hygiene comes in, and I'm going to give you a disclaimer first.

Speaker 2: 7:29

I don't follow every single thing that the professionals say when it comes to sleep hygiene. I don't. I don't. I go on my phone prior to falling asleep, and I know that's a big one. They want you not to do that. I do have a screen over my screen, though, and it's a darkened screen. So I'm hoping that that helps. But I do, I do check it and we shouldn't check it and we should have the phone like far away. But I want to be able to react if something happens. So I have the phone next to me and then I also use it as my sleep tracker. So that's why the phone is usually there. I just need to work on myself to not touch it an hour prior to going to sleep, so that way I don't have that blue light on my eyes messing up with my sleep cycle.

Speaker 2: 8:28

But I do read prior to going to sleep, either read or listen to a book, and that, to me, is helpful because it helps me unwind. Another thing, too, that helps me unwind and helps me to pluck whatever stressful things I'm going through is to write them down in a journal. Stressful things I'm going through is to write them down in a journal. Write them down in a journal. I repeated that for effect, because if you are stressed before going to sleep, let's say you're exhausted, yes, you're going to fall asleep, but you're not going to stay asleep. If you're like me, you're not going to stay asleep, you're going to get up with whatever was stressing you in your mind, going around and around and around in circles. So that's why I say it's a catch-22. Because if you're stressed you're not going to get good sleep, and if you don't get good sleep then you get stressed. So it's almost like this vicious cycle.

Speaker 2: 9:27

So that's where, for me, journaling came into being, because I noticed that I kind of like observed myself and I was like Johnny, if you have this big reaction throughout the day and it stays on your mind so much that you're venting for 10 minutes to your husband, that is a clue that you may want to put this experience into your journal. So that way I can ease that thought out of my head. Something about writing something down and then do this with your to-do list, by the way, as well. But right now we're talking about mental health, but it is something about just exercising that experience that got you so emotionally charged into a journal. I have a virtual journal. That is so helpful. It's insane.

Speaker 2: 10:33

When you're writing it down, you're telling the brain don't worry about this any longer, because I have written it down here and I will remember by coming back to this journal and looking at it. So when you write and you tell the brain that, then the brain will let it go and be like okay, joannie, you got it, I'm going to go lay down, and then we go lay down and then we stay laid down until it's time to get up. So that is something that I have implemented as part of my night routine, part of my sleep hygiene, which is to write down any triggering experience that occurred to me throughout the day and I know that they triggered me. When I feel big emotions from those experiences and those interactions, and if I'm still feeling those big emotions, I'm still thinking about that conversation, that tells me that my brain will hold on to it and I need to write it down so my brain can let it go. For you, it may not be a journal. For you, it may be that you record it, you voice it out loud and you record it. It may be that you write it on a piece of paper and that's your way of letting go of that. But something has to happen in order for you to tell the brain that I got this. I know what happened, but I got this. And for me, that's what has helped Reading, writing, go figure, reading, writing and having eye shields on.

Speaker 2: 12:17

So that way I have no light filtering. You see, then I put my sleep tracker on and I'm good, and that habit, right there, has been so important for me because I am able to monitor myself and monitor what works and what doesn't work when it comes to sleep and then just practice what works so that way I can continue to get good sleep, so that way I can function the next day. But if you want to read more about it, there's a book called why we Sleep by Matthew Walker, and I'm pretty sure there's a lot of other books out there as well. I just know of this one, but you can check out that one. I'm going to Google a few more and then I'll put it on the show notes.

Speaker 2: 13:14

But, in conclusion, sleep plays a pivotal, pivotal role when it comes to maintaining mental health, understanding the connection, so that way we can keep ourselves from being sleep deprived, and implementing good sleep hygiene to maintain this. It's crucial to mental health. While quality sleep is a cornerstone of mental health, it often goes ignored. But by understanding it's important and implementing strategies to improve sleep, you like me, we can turn this bad boy around. I have full confidence in you. All right, asitos, don't forget to drop a comment, subscribe, like the show, but, most importantly, tune in. Tune in. I will see you next time. All right, talk to you later. Bye.

Speaker 1: 14:22

Thank you so much for listening. I want to hear from you. Leave me a comment, do a rating, if you can, on the podcast, share it with somebody you love, but, most importantly, come back. See you next time. Bye.