Sleep has a major impact on people’s health and overall well-being. Certain people tend to ignore their sleeping needs, but eventually, the organism responds to the mistreatment with natural countermeasures such as tiredness, lack of focus, and sensitiveness. In order to avoid possible consequences for physical and mental health, it is crucial to maintain healthy sleep habits that would contribute to a person’s sense of satisfaction, focus, rest, and motivation.
Certain people believe that it is possible to fill in the gaps of night sleep with the naps during the day or by significantly increasing the sleep time during the weekend in order to catch up on the needed rest. However, according to Wein (2021), the night is the only effective period of time for the brain “to remove toxins during sleep” and to take time to digest the information without any new inputs (p. 1). Essentially, day naps do not hold the same levels of efficiency and productivity as quality night sleep. Hence, the negative impact on the organism originated from the lack of quality sleep and cannot be properly compensated by the naps or even deep sleep during the day.
At the same time, the consistency of sleep has a prominent effect on people’s well-being. Sleep routine is very important due to the inefficiency of discontinuous sleep. According to Wein (2021), if someone tends not to get enough sleep on certain days but then “compensates” for it on days off, for example, it does not have a positive effect on their health and well-being. In fact, the brain cannot define specific time boundaries for deep night sleep that results in the general worsening of the quality of sleep.
In general, it is better not to take naps during the day. Even if it is not an everyday occasion, day sleep significantly changes the perception of time. Hence, often after the day’s sleep, people wake up with a feeling of being tired and confused. On the other hand, during the nighttime, they have distinctive troubles falling asleep, as the brain has already taken a rest before. Thus, naps generally disturb the balance of a healthy night time sleeping routine and do not productively contribute to the level of rest.
On the contrary, according to Chaput and colleagues (2020), maintaining a stable night routine with defined and hardly changing hours of sleep helps the organism to prepare for the resting process better. Moreover, a specific sleep schedule majorly contributes to a more effective digestion of information during the night. When a person goes to bed and wakes up approximately at the same time every day, the brain adapts to these actions. Therefore, it is easier for a person to fall asleep and wake up, which creates a web of supporting actions that maintain balance. Consequently, the studies by Mason et al. (2021) have shown that a constant sleep routine improves memory and cognitive functions of the brain in the long-term perspective. This way, people who regularly have quality sleep are more likely to perform better in intellectual and day-to-day tasks, and to score better in school, university, or at work.
Additionally, in order to maintain a decent and coherent quality of sleep, it is important to reduce the amount of screen time before going to sleep. According to Wein (2021), electronics affect the level of melatonin, which is crucial for a good sleep during the night. Wein (2021) suggests doing something calming before going to bed instead of spending time with the gadgets, as sleep preparatory activities make it easier to fall asleep. As a result, the cognitive capacities and general rates of a person’s well-being are evidently connected to their pre-sleeping routine as well as the sleeping routine itself.
Sleep does not solely determine the level of a person’s success, but also significantly affects the efficiency of communication and the level of satisfaction gained from it. According to Yang and colleagues (2020), sleep deprivation often evokes higher levels of anxiety and affects the well-being of a person’s mental health. As a consequence, sleep-deprived people can experience difficulties related to communication and healthy expression of emotions. Moreover, the long-term dynamics of sleep deprivation gradually decrease people’s mental stability and makes them more susceptible to various mental illnesses.
Despite numerous prejudices related to sleep behaviors that address the alternatives to “catch up” in the level of rest through the day naps or weekend sleep, it is necessary to maintain a stable night-time sleep routine in order to increase the capability of the whole organism. Quality sleep is proven to stimulate the brain better than naps and to contribute to a person’s performance in many areas of life. At the same time, proper rest with the long-term positive consequences is possible exclusively during the nighttime due to the levels of melatonin. Thus, people should be more attentive to their sleeping habits and be ready to contribute enough effort to the maintenance of a coherent sleep routine, as it is a detrimental factor in the sense of satisfaction, rest, mental stability, and overall well-being.
References
Chaput, J. P., Dutil, C., Featherstone, R., Ross, R., Giangregorio, L., Saunders, T. J.,… & Carrier, J. (2020). Sleep timing, sleep consistency, and health in adults: a systematic review. Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism, 45(10), 232-247.
Mason, G. M., Lokhandwala, S., Riggins, T., & Spencer, R. M. (2021). Sleep and human cognitive development. Sleep medicine reviews, 57, 1-11.
Wein, H. (2021). Good sleep for good health. News in Health, 1-2.
Yang, J., Fu, X., Liao, X., & Li, Y. (2020). Association of problematic smartphone use with poor sleep quality, depression, and anxiety: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Research, 284, 112686.