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How Does Lack of Sleep Affect Your Mood?

Written by Molly Mills

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Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Have you ever woken up from a bad night’s sleep and felt incredibly grumpy or in a bad mood? The littlest thing might make you angry, or maybe you are just more irritable in general? Or maybe you are experiencing a string of rough nights, crying more easily and more often. If this has happened to you, you are certainly not alone; there is a link between lack of sleep and our emotions, but why does lack of sleep take such an emotional toll and how serious is it really?

Well, even partial sleep deprivation can cause emotional distress; there was a small study done by the University of Pennsylvania in which participants were only allowed to sleep for 4.5 hours per night for one week. All of these test subjects reported feeling sadder, stressed, angry, and mentally worn out from just one week of poor sleep. Consequently, once these subjects resumed normal sleep habits, their moods also improved.

Young businesswoman touching her head while sitting at her workplace with laptop she tired of her work at office

Sleep deprivation is not just experienced by adults, though. Through a series of studies focusing on the connection between sleep deprivation and anger/aggression, it was found that there was a deep correlation between sleep deprivation and destructive behaviors, but that these behaviors presented slightly differently for different age groups. Adolescent males experiencing sleep deprivation showed more outbursts of anger, while their female counterparts tended to be more sad and experience brain fog, but both adolescent groups reported engaging in “reckless behavior” such as consuming alcohol and smoking.

Younger children experiencing sleep deprivation were reported as having “impulsivity, hyperactivity, tantrum behaviors, and inappropriate social interactions.” We know that young children and teens need plenty of sleep as they develop, and it is obvious that accruing sleep debt affects them greatly.Tired schoolgirl sleeping in classroom at school

Unfortunately, for some, it is not always possible to get an adequate amount of sleep. Those experiencing psychiatric or psychological problems tend to struggle with sleep. When someone is dealing with depression or anxiety, they may find it hard to sleep, which may be further exacerbated by their medication. Sadly, this is a downward spiral, as less sleep amplifies these distressing mental states, which will likely lead to another sleepless night, and the cycle continues.

Another group of chronically sleep-deprived people is new parents. Postpartum rage is an often overlooked symptom of postpartum depression/anxiety. As HuffPost shares, there is a link between this upsetting emotion, which many new mothers find uncontrollable, and the sleep deprivation that all new parents are familiar with. As with all depression and anxiety, those experiencing postpartum depression/anxiety will likely struggle to sleep, even when their baby sleeps; again, causing a downward spiral deeper into a depressive state. 

Why Is Mood Affected?

There is an undeniable link between getting inadequate sleep and being in a bad mood or feeling uncharacteristically sad, but why? What is the brain science behind this unpleasant, yet all too common, phenomenon? 

The answer lies in the limbic system, particularly in the amygdala. The amygdala is the small, almond-shaped emotional center of the brain, and it plays a vital role in the mechanisms of sleep. When someone is experiencing sleep deprivation, there is a communication breakdown between the amygdala and the ventral anterior cingulate cortex which causes the amygdala to have heightened responses to emotional stimuli. The “fight or flight” response is regulated by the amygdala, and when sleep-deprived, your brain is unable to suppress activity in the amygdala, so emotional reactions made while in a sleep-deprived state will be extreme.

Imagine, as an example, that you find your child coloring on the walls. When you are sleep deprived, your brain may tell you that this is a threat and you react with extreme anger, when in actuality this is simply a learning opportunity for your child, albeit quite a pain in the rear end for you to clean up.

Furthermore, when you are sleep deprived, you skip past the rapid eye movement (REM) sleep into a deep sleep. In doing so, your body is trying to recuperate the sleep it’s lost, but the problem is that it’s during REM sleep that your brain is active, building connections and making repairs. So with prolonged shortened REM cycles, your brain may experience altered receptor activity. This leads to (you guessed it) mood alterations such as anger, impulsivity, sadness, and more. 

If you are experiencing extreme emotional reactions regularly, you should reflect on both the quality and quantity of sleep you’re getting, or not getting. Getting good sleep is just like any other aspect of a healthy lifestyle; it needs to take priority, and you (and those around you) will benefit greatly. The answer to fixing your mood could simply be going to bed earlier.

What Is Sleep Debt and How Do I Pay it Off?

Written by Molly Mills

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The sun is shining, the coffee is brewing, and even though you just woke up, all you want to do is go back to bed. Your eyes are heavy and burning, you feel irritable, maybe even a little sick to your stomach. We’ve all been there, that terrible feeling of not being rested despite having just woken up. If this is consistently happening to you, you may be experiencing the effects of sleep debt.

Portrait of successful businessman sleeping during long flight in dimly lit plane

The Center for Disease Control defines sleep debt as “not getting adequate sleepover a series of days” which causes the debt to increase. Basically, it’s when you regularly miss out on the sleep you need. The CDC then gives a good example of a person who needs eight hours of sleep, but only gets six; this would leave this person with a two-hour sleep debt. Not too bad; maybe a long nap the following day could “pay it back,” right?

Theoretically, yes, but most adults lack the time for a two-hour nap every day, and if this person continues to get six hours of sleep nightly, that sleep debt adds up. By the end of one week, this person has a sleep debt of a whopping 14 hours! Not many people have an extra 14 hours to spare throughout the week, and sleep deprivation can have long-term health effects such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. So what are some ways you can recuperate some of your sleep debt?

Weekend “Catch-Up” and Naps

man waking up late on weekendThere is nothing like a slow weekend morning, and while you may be thinking you can “catch-up” on your ZZZs by sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday mornings, that may not actually be the best idea. According to Harvard, though the hours slept on the weekend may technically make up for hours lost during the week, it does not truly even out because the daily amount, quality, and regularity of bed/wake times matter, too. By sleeping in, you run the risk of throwing off your circadian rhythms, causing you to stay up later and continue the cycle of sleep deprivation. As mentioned above, sleep deprivation can have long-term effects on your health, so anything that continues the cycle needs to be stopped. Avoid sleeping in more than an hour or two on the weekends to keep your biological clock ticking correctly.

What about naps? Naps are a great way to get refreshed and cancel some sleep debt, but be careful! Similar to sleeping in, if you nap too long, your circadian rhythms can get thrown off, causing you to stay up later. Sleep.org states that the ideal amount of time for a nap is 20-90 minutes. Any longer than that and you may be up tossing and turning into the wee hours of the morning, causing you to accumulate even more sleep debt.

The same article linked above shares many helpful ideas for canceling sleep debt; the best way seems to be moving up your bedtime just a little earlier. If you manage to get to bed fifteen minutes earlier each night, that is almost two extra hours of sleep per week! Once you’ve adjusted to the fifteen-minute time difference, see if you can bump your bedtime up by a full half-hour. By changing your schedule in this way, you will slowly chip away at your sleep debt and wake more rested.

Lifestyle Adjustments

The CDC states that when sleep deprived, you will sleep deeper. This deep, quality sleep will cancel out your sleep debt more quickly, without you having to make it up hour for hour. Of course, everyone wants to snooze more soundly, so the question remains: how do I get good quality sleep?

There are several lifestyle adjustments that can affect your quality of sleep immensely. One of the first adjustments to look at is your caffeine consumption. Consuming too much caffeine or consuming it too late in the day can have a negative effect on your nighttime sleep; caffeine causes your heart to race, your brain to release dopamine, and makes you feel more awake and alert. So next time you reach for that afternoon cup of coffee, pause and ask yourself if you would rather get some quality sleep tonight. Maybe trying a few jumping jacks, taking a brisk walk, or running up and down a flight of stairs would be a better way to wake up without the pitfalls of caffeine.

Along the same lines of caffeine, you will want to watch your alcohol consumption. Even though a glass of wine or two at the end of the day may help you slip into slumber more easily, alcohol will actually disrupt your cycles by shortening your REM (rapid eye movement) stage. This will cause you to feel foggy and unfocused the following day. If you need help winding down at night, instead of reaching for your wine glass, consider ditching the smartphone.  Screens can also have a detrimental effect; the blue light coming off of the screens can lead to suppression of melatonin and shortened REM cycles, to name a few issues. So instead of preparing for bedtime with a glass of wine and some social media scrolling, maybe give reading a book by dim lamplight a try. You’ll nod off more easily, and your brain and body will thank you when you wake up more rested! 

While limiting caffeine, alcohol, and screen time are some quick-term solutions, there are other lifestyle changes you can commit to that will benefit your sleep and overall health. For example, sticking to a regular schedule of waking up and going to bed at around the same times each day. Optimizing your diet and exercise routine can certainly have a positive impact, resulting in deeper slumber. Another adjustment you can make is to be sure you have the best mattress for you; this will mean less tossing and turning, more pain relief and support, which ultimately leads to more deep, quality sleep.

So, like all debts, sleep debt may take some time to pay off, but it is possible! A little diligence in your lifestyle (especially at night) to ensure better quality sleep, a good mattress, and a little discipline to get to bed earlier will go a long way in paying off that debt. Soon enough, you will be waking up a rested person ready to tackle the day!

Exercise and Sleep: How to Get the Best Rest

Written by Alex

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Happy friends exercising by running together outdoors living active healthy lifestyle

It is no secret that rest and regular exercise are both critical to overall health and wellness. But can you have one without the other? The simple answer is, not for long.

You’re probably familiar with the benefits of physical activity. And you’ve probably experienced the interdependence of sleep and exercise. Maybe you’ve had to skip your scheduled workout class because you were jetlagged or had a late night out with friends. Or you might’ve had trouble falling asleep one night when you spent the day lounging on the couch.

Sleep and exercise have been found to be deeply related, and that relationship is reciprocal. Read on to learn about how these two activities affect each other, and for tips on how to get adequate rest to help you maintain a healthy, active lifestyle.

Exercise can improve your rest

Scientists don’t know the exact physiology behind how exercise can improve sleep, but there is no shortage of evidence that it does. In fact, Johns Hopkins Medicine advises that just 30 minutes of moderate exercise per day can lead to better quality zzzs. Whether you’re running, briskly walking, riding a bicycle, or doing resistance weight training, researchers have discovered that regular exercise can help address several nighttime difficulties.

  • Insomnia: Regular physical activity regimens have been shown to improve sleep quality in older adults who suffered from chronic insomnia according to a study published in the journal Sleep Medicine. Insomnia may be acute or chronic difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up too early. To learn more about insomnia, read our article here.
  • Slow-Wave Sleep: Regular, moderate exercise can increase the duration of slow-wave, or Non-REM sleep. According to Johns Hopkins, this is the period that allows your body to recover from the day. Your sleep cycle can be broken into two major phases, random eye movement (REM) and slow-wave or Non-REM sleep. After you fall asleep you begin slow-wave, during which your body and mind recover from the day. Next, you enter REM, when the brain becomes more active and most dreams occur. To learn more about this cycle, read our article here.
  • Depression: Exercise has been shown to reduce depressive symptoms in several studies, including a 2013 study published in the Cochrane Systematic Review. The Sleep Medicine article also found exercise to improve depressive symptoms in subjects. Nocturnal disorders are major symptoms of depression, which is one of the most commonly diagnosed mental health conditions in the U.S.
  • Sleep Disordered Breathing/Apnea: Moderate exercise has been shown to improve sleep-disordered breathing or respiratory issues that interfere with slumber. One of the most common examples is obstructive sleep apnea, which occurs when an individual airway is blocked causing them to temporarily stop breathing and wake up as a result. Exercise may improve the conditions of sleep-disordered breathing and apnea in two ways. For one, excess body weight has been linked to sleep-disordered breathing. In fact, as many as 40% of individuals who experience sleep-disordered breathing can attribute it to excess weight, according to a study in the Journal of Applied Physiology. And according to an article in Harvard Health, exercise is an important part of losing weight and improving sleep quality. Additionally, a study published in the journal Sleep found that regular, moderate exercise improved sleep quality for subjects with obstructive sleep apnea independent of weight loss. Subjects experienced fewer apneas per hour and better REM and Non-REM sleep.

A word of warning about exercising before bedtime: some people may have a hard time falling asleep after working out right before bed. For these individuals, Web MD suggests that a higher core body temperature and heart rate from the workout might be to blame. The good news is that it shouldn’t harm the quality of your sleep, and doesn’t affect everyone the same way. So while it is not ideal for people with a strict bedtime, if you prefer late-night exercise and it doesn’t keep you up at night: carry on!

Getting your 8 hours can improve your ability to exercise

Side portrait of a man sleeping outside

A more recent, though intuitive, finding in the world of sleep and exercise is that there are bidirectional effects. That is, the relationship works both ways.

  • Poor sleep can make it difficult to exercise: A successful exercise routine can improve the quality of sleep, but the contrapositive is also true: sleep deprivation can make it more difficult to perform your exercise routine. In a 1980 study published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, researchers found that just one night of sleep deprivation had a negative impact on psychological responses to moderate and heavy exercise. After a full night of proper rest, all of the subject’s responses returned to normal. During the test, physiological measurements remained the same. Subjects felt that they were working much harder during exercise after missing a night of sleep, even though their hearts and lungs were not.
  • Quality rest may, or may not, encourage exercise: The inverse relationship, unfortunately, is not so clear. Scientific studies have different conclusions as to whether getting a good night’s sleep will make you more likely to exercise. Findings from one study in 2013, published in the Journal of Sleep Medicine, suggest that when subjects got more or better quality sleep they were more likely to exercise the following day. These results were more pronounced with individuals who got less rest to begin with. But a study the following year published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine found that improved slumber did not result in increased physical activity among subjects.

Bottom line

Regular exercise can help improve the quality of your rest, and getting quality rest can improve your ability to exercise. Rather than worry about whether the regular exercise or quality slumber came first, anyone looking to build, or build upon a healthy lifestyle, should work to incorporate both. And if you’re starting your nighttime ritual, read our eight sleep tips.