Why Get at Least 8 Hours of Sleep to Be Happier?

It is impossible to live without sleep, but how many hours of sleep do we need? What is the role of sleep in rest? Is just a few hours of sleep really healthy? Questions like these still occupy people’s minds. Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry published a study in 2017 which found that getting less than eight hours of sleep a day can cause anxiety, depression and psychological problems involving repetitive negative thoughts. Cognitive Therapy and Research published another study in 2014 demonstrating that going to sleep early has positive psychological effects.

Researchers from the Psychology Department at Binghamtom University assessed sleep timing and duration in individuals with moderate to high levels of involuntary repetitive negative thoughts. Participants were shown pictures intended to elicit emotional responses, and their attention was monitored through eye movements.

The researchers linked irregular sleep to greater difficulty dismissing negative thoughts that enter the mind. In other words, insufficient sleep can trigger intrusive negative thoughts, causing unwanted, unhealthy effects in people’s lives.

The participants in this study were observed to have increased negative thoughts, to be more affected by the negative stimuli presented to them, and to have greater difficulty disengaging from these thoughts. While people can normally move on despite negative information, the participants could not disregard this negative information.

Sleep Is for the Brain to Rest and Regulate Itself, Rather Than the Body

The researchers believe that these negative thoughts can cause certain psychological conditions, such as anxiety disorders, worry and depression.

Psychological conditions seen in people with repetitive pessimistic thoughts and intense worry about the past or future include major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and social anxiety disorder. These individuals also experience sleep problems.

The researchers note that good-quality sleep is already known to reduce psychopathological symptoms. Scientists studying this subject aim to understand how knowledge about sleep can be used in this way to help people with psychological conditions. According to this research, regular sleep lasting at least 8 hours may result in less emotional distress. Adequate sleep and rest may be beneficial for anxiety, worry and sometimes depression, which are especially common among people with cancer. The relationship between sleep disorders, psychological conditions and obsessive negative thoughts continues to be investigated. If further studies support the theories, adjusting people’s sleep timing and duration or intervening in their sleep patterns when they go to bed could potentially contribute to the treatment of anxiety and depression.

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