Sleep disorders are a very common problem in today’s society. In addition, they have a great capacity to damage physical and mental health; These types of alterations not only cause fatigue, but also generate a chain effect of effects in areas as varied as the management of emotions and personal relationships, work performance, or even the predisposition to suffer infections.
In this article we explain how lack of sleep affects mental health and How to work with psychological intervention for sleep disorders.
As their name indicates, sleep disorders are health problems in which a person’s ability to sleep adequately on a daily basis is affected. This may involve both not getting enough sleep (due to the number of hours in a row or due to poor quality of rest), and engaging in dysfunctional behaviors while sleeping.
In this sense, the main sleep disorders are the following:
How does lack of sleep affect mental health?
All animals need good sleep for their bodies to function properly. Sleep allows our body to regenerate and recover from the day’s stimuli. Therefore, an excess of waking time causes alterations, not only physical, but also psychological. If poor quality or lack of sleep accumulates for too long, complications can become extremely dangerous.
Lack of sleep produces symptoms on the first day: we feel more tired, perform less and have less retention capacity. However, it is obvious that these symptoms increase as the days go by and our sleep does not improve.
Below, you will find some of the consequences on our mental health that occur when our sleep is not what it should be.
1. High anxiety
Anxiety disorders are closely related to lack of sleep. However, before getting to that, We can go through states of quite high anxiety (without becoming disorders) if we do not sleep enough hours or without the quality we need.
But why is there such a close relationship between sleep deficit and anxiety? It has been studied that lack of sleep has a negative impact on the immune system, which leads to the development of infections that cause the body to be excessively activated. This state of hypervigilance can lead to the development of anxiety.
On the other hand, not getting enough sleep causes our attention to decline, making it much more difficult for us to carry out the tasks assigned in our daily lives. This causes obligations to accumulate and our anxiety to intensify.
2. Abulia and irritability
Lack of sleep can bring on symptoms related to depression, such as abulia, which is the inability to motivate oneself to carry out non-obligatory activities. The initiative when undertaking actions therefore decreases, and the result is stagnation that can worsen the situation.
In addition, getting a few hours of sleep leads to not only physical fatigue, but also emotional fatigue. This exhaustion incapacitates the person to react in a measured and proportionate way, since fatigue activates a state of irritability that makes us act impulsively and aggressively.
People in this state are practically incapable of responding assertively, have outbursts of anger that are apparently unjustified and meaningless, and may feel continually frustrated by things that, under other circumstances, would not affect them as much.
3. It makes the person more likely to fall into addictions
This is another aspect that makes psychotherapeutic intervention for sleep disorders more necessary, since the work of a psychologist can prevent the appearance of addictions.
And by activating a state of anxiety and depressive symptoms, lack of sleep can lead to greater vulnerability to falling into addictions. This is because addictions are experienced as a quick way to solve anxiety. The problem is that, in the long term, this “solution” ends up being much worse and can cause complications.
4. Predisposition to suffer psychotic breaks
This is not an immediate consequence, of course, but it has been proven that, if lack of sleep lasts long enough, it can cause psychotic-type symptoms. These symptoms are generally hallucinations and delusions similar to those that certain drugs can cause.
This is because the lack of rest alters the brain, which has not been able to regenerate properly. If you experience any of these symptoms, it is essential that you see a professional immediately, since these psychotic breaks can also lead to cardiovascular attacks.
What is psychological therapy for sleep disorders?
As many sleep disorders manifest their main effects and symptoms during a time of the day in which the person is not in a state of consciousness in which they can voluntarily carry out actions or apply therapeutic strategies, Psychological intervention focuses on generating changes around the time when the person is sleeping, both right before and right after, and even during everyday life. The main goals are:
Rest guidelines are mainly based on always going to bed at the same time, not eating excessively during the previous two hours and not entertaining yourself before bed with electronic devices, especially mobile phones, tablets or television. Think that these types of devices excite your mind and, therefore, make it difficult for you to fall asleep.
In extreme cases, doctors may prescribe medication to help you sleep (remember that you should always take it under medical supervision, since misuse can cause side effects); in any case, Psychologists do not work prescribing drugs but offering learning and self-knowledge strategies that can be complemented with the solutions provided by the field of medicine.
