Why sleep matters

What does sleep have to do with your mental health?

Sleep is essential to your physical, emotional and mental wellbeing, yet it often goes unrecognised.

Lack of sleep can affect mental health, but mental health difficulties can also affect how well you sleep.

So it’s important to look at and address these issues from both sides.

The missing link

It might feel easy to write off the contribution of our sleep (or lack of sleep) to the mental health difficulties we experience.

However, there is a strong link between sleep deprivation and symptoms of low mood, anxiety and irritability.

In fact, ongoing poor sleep can be a huge risk factor for the development of serious mental health conditions.

Often, when we are trying to find ways to understand and improve our mental health, sleep is one important piece of the process.

Learn more

• Why is sleep important?
• Are you getting enough?
• Keeping a sleep diary