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Find Your Good Mood with a Good Night’s Sleep

A few observations:
•    Unless I get 7 or 8 hours of sleep, I am cranky for at least an hour.
•    I have an aunt who won’t even give any semblance of a smile until she “gets her coffee.”
•    If you want to have any sort of a conversation before 10AM with my granddad, forget about it.

All of this morning moodiness got me thinking about how the amount of sleep you get can affect your mood. Should we expect to just be cranky sometimes, or can we adjust our sleep and improve our mood?

According to an article I found called, Sleep Deprivation: Possible Cause of Mood Swings, which cites an unnamed study that shows the difference. Apparently, college students who got a good night’s sleep “showed a modest, controlled response in the emotional center of their brains, while the sleep deprived students showed a hyperactive brain response - the same kind of problem often found in people who have psychiatric disorders.”  While I wish they’d cited the source of this so I could check-in to it, it makes sense to me that emotional control (like a lot of things) is easier to achieve when you’re rested.

Sleep is one of those things we take for granted. Getting a good night’s sleep sometimes comes secondary in our busy lives, but it is more important to long-term health than most of us probably realize. An article on The Insomnia Blog that explains why the Moody Blues Have Meaning:

There’s still quite a big mystery shrouding mood disorders and how, for example, sleep loss can impact how we behave, act, and even make decisions. This could shed light on evaluating people in unique jobs like doctors, pilots, and the military who act hostile or who make bad decisions. Could a focus on their sleep habits help treat or change them for the better?

So how can you be sure to get a good night’s sleep? Well, there are a few ways that I like to bring on slumber, and you might find them useful, too:

•    Go to bed at the same time every night – Your body has a good way of remembering your habits, so if you get into the swing of going to bed every night and getting up at the same time, you’ll be able to assure that you can have a restful night.

•    Take Melatonin – I love this stuff and take it nightly before I go to bed. Like SAM-e, Melatonin occurs naturally in the body and it promotes a nice natural drowsy feeling if you take it around bedtime.

•    Exercise – When I can’t sleep, it is usually the result of me being restless. If I wear myself out during the day, it gets a lot easier to fall asleep fast at night.

•    Turn on a fan - Maybe it is the white noise, or possibly just the sensation of the cool breeze a fan puts out, but having a fan on at night--ceiling or oscillating--always helps me get right to snoozville.

•    Reading – No offense to my favorite authors, but reading right before I go to bed helps me take my mind off my day. Once I get a few chapters read, I can barely keep my eyes open.

For a few more helpful tips on sleeping better, you can check out Psychology Today’s article How to Get Great Sleep, or read these 10 tips for better sleep via the Mayo Clinic. If you have other ways you like to make sure you get a good night’s sleep to be in a great mood the next day, please let us know in the comments.