How a Good Night's Sleep Can Make You Feel Happier
I woke up this morning from a dream in which I was feeling sadness and dread.
These feelings lingered for a while upon waking, but dissipated, along with how I had been feeling about a dilemma from the day before.
Now, I am starting a new day, fresh and ready for whatever it brings me.
What is it about sleep that wipes away the concerns and obsessions from the day before? How is it that you can wake up feeling refreshed and joyful even if you might have been feeling gloomy and overwhelmed the day before?
It turns out that sleep washes away the aches and sorrows of life.
This happens during dreaming.
There is an emerging consensus among scientists who study the function of dreams using MRI imaging. It turns out that one of the functions of dreams is to process emotional content from the day before so that the mind is soothed from the spiky negativities attached to various memories.
The way this happens is that memories associated with events from the previous day are revisited in the creative soup of the dream. At the same time, the tag telling the mind that the content is stress-producing starts to get washed away.
There is a chemical in the brain that triggers the body's fight or flight response and contributes to the physical arousal necessary to respond to danger.
During dreaming, this chemical is absent. Memories are recirculated; reprocessed without this chemical tag which signals "danger". The outcome is to reduce the emotional valence of the event or issue.
Thus, dreams function to recalibrate the emotional self.
This extraordinary function happens both in the short term and in the long term.
We all experience the short-term effect of a good night's sleep on the previous day's concerns. The issues are still there, but we are able to look at them with a bit more objectivity and clarity. We can wake up with a sense of calm and see things differently. We can manage our problems a little less encumbered by the emotional storms which cloud our judgement.
Over the long term, this capacity through dreaming to recalibrate emotions can have a profound effect. Those of us who have experienced the loss of a loved one could have entirely different outcomes according to whether or not we are able to sleep well. A year after the event, being able to sleep can help us recover our enjoyment of life, even while holding the pain of the loss. Typically, for those of us unable to sleep well, the grief lingers, the pain persists, and life remains clouded by the loss.
As much as sleep enhances the capacity to remain positive despite life's challenges, it also works the other way around. Positivity enhances sleep. We all know that it is easier to sleep well when you are feeling good about life. This cycle of virtue works in your favor when you are able to sleep.
What about when you are not sleeping well, or enough, then what?
First, make getting enough sleep a priority. When you short-change sleep, you get less dream time. Most REM sleep, when dreaming happens, is in the last half of the night, intensifying towards the end of the sleep cycle. When you cut short sleep, you allow less time for dreaming and limit your capacity to recalibrate emotionally.
Secondly, you can do things to enhance positivity during the day, making sleep easier at night. Take the time to get some exercise, spend time in nature, connect with others, and do all the things that give you a spark of joy in life.
Maintain your happiness and equanimity by protecting your sleep.