Self-care can take many forms, whether it’s eating healthily, exercising regularly, meditating, journaling, or just checking in with yourself. One of the most important ways to practice self-care, though, is to get quality sleep.
The reason sleep is such a powerful part of self-care is that it impacts our physical, mental, and emotional health. We’ll go into these details and share some easy tips to help you achieve better overall health through sleep.
Why Is Good Sleep a Part of Self-Care?
Consistent and sound sleep is a big part of self-care because it affects our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Let’s look at these three components in depth.
Physical Health and Sleep
Sleep is critical for your physical health because it impacts multiple aspects of it1. More specifically, sleep heals and repairs your heart and blood vessels, monitors your appetite and insulin levels, and supports a healthy immune system. Conversely, sleep deprivation can negatively affect these functions. For example, someone who is sleep-deprived can have a harder time trying to fight off a cold.1
Additionally, sleep supports the release of the growth hormone, which explains why children and adolescents2 need more sleep than adults.1
Mental Health and Sleep
A 2021 meta-analysis3 found a causal relationship between sleep and mental health, meaning that participants showed improved mental health symptoms with better sleep quality. Some areas of mental health that were evaluated included depression, anxiety, and stress. In sum, this meta-analysis reveals that good sleep can help improve mental health symptoms.3
Emotional Health and Sleep
Being sleep-deprived can heighten your emotions4, which makes you more susceptible to stressors. Specifically, our negative reactions are stronger when we’re tired and sleep-deprived, which may manifest as irritability, frustration, or sadness.4 You can probably think of a time when you didn’t get enough sleep, and minor inconveniences throughout your day seemed to bother you more than they typically would.
Benefits of Good Sleep
- Improves memory and learning – According to experts5, sleep helps with learning new things and strengthening our memory. More specifically, they say the non-rapid eye movement stages of sleep (NREM) are especially important for learning.5
- Reduces stress levels – Research has found an association between sleep deprivation and increased stress levels. Specifically, a study6 of medical students who worked 24-hour shifts found that participants showed increased stress levels after being sleep-deprived due to their long shifts.
- Helps maintain a healthy weight – Sleep duration and quality are important for maintaining or losing weight. A 2022 study7 reported that increased quality and quantity of sleep boosted the chances of losing weight by 33 percent.
- Reduces risk of heart disease – Recent research8 found that adults aged 58-78 who had irregular sleep patterns were more at risk for heart disease than their peers who had good sleep patterns.
- Reduces mental health symptoms – Experts have found that better sleep quality is associated with improved mental health. A specific example from this research is that people with insomnia are more likely than those with this sleep disorder to experience higher levels of depression and anxiety.3
- Strengthens your immune system – Research from 20219 explains that regular sleep helps maintain homeostatic immune functioning, which helps fight off infection and disease.
- Helps regulate emotions – Being sleep deprived can heighten your emotional sensitivity, so getting enough sleep every night should help you maintain a more steady emotional balance.4
How Does Self-Care Improve Sleep?
Self-care combines practices to boost our physical and mental health. The great news here is that many healthy habits for good sleep overlap with common self-care practices. We’ll discuss some self-care sleep tips below and explain why these self-care practices can positively impact your sleep.
Self-Care Sleep Tips
1. Exercise Regularly
Exercise is a great way to practice self-care. Physical activity10 helps manage your weight, reduce the risk of disease, and strengthen your body. Not only that, but exercise can improve your cognition11 and positively impact your brain function.
Additionally, research has shown that physical activity can improve sleep quality and duration12, along with helping people fall asleep more quickly.
2. Eat a Healthy Diet
Good nutrition13 lowers the risk of serious health problems and helps keep your body physically fit. With regards to sleep, a 2020 study14 revealed that foods containing tryptophan, phytonutrients, and melatonin can help improve sleep quality.
Some foods that contain tryptophan15 are beef, pork, dairy, whole grains, nuts, and seeds. Foods containing phytonutrients16 include many fruits and vegetables. Finally, some foods with high melatonin17 levels are fish, eggs, and tart cherries18.
3. Don’t Eat Too Late at Night
Health experts suggest that you stop eating about three hours19 before you go to sleep. This time frame gives your body enough time to digest the food before bedtime. Further, recent research20 has demonstrated that eating within that three-hour window is associated with at least one nighttime awakening.
4. Manage Stress
Being stressed can take a toll on us physically and mentally. To manage stress, the CDC21 suggests that you meditate, exercise, eat well, and get good sleep.
While good sleep can help lower your stress levels, did you know that managing your stress can help you sleep better, too? High stress levels can make falling and staying asleep more difficult22. Stress and sleep deprivation have the potential to become a vicious cycle; if you’re not sleeping enough, your body’s stress hormone levels rise, which can disrupt your sleep even more.22
5. Limit Caffeine and Alcohol
While you may already know that drinking caffeine at night can harm your sleep schedule, you might not have realized that drinking caffeine in the afternoon is not ideal either. Caffeine can stay in your system for up to six hours23, so try to drink your last cup of coffee earlier in the day so you don’t disrupt your nighttime rest.
Additionally, a 2019 study24 found that alcohol and nicotine use in the evenings were both associated with lower quality sleep compared to sleep without the use of these substances. In hopes of improving your sleep quality and taking care of yourself, avoid or limit alcohol and nicotine use, especially in the evenings.
6. Have a Relaxing Nightly Routine
Having a relaxing nighttime routine is a way to take care of yourself because it allows you to unwind after a long day and prepare for a good night’s rest. If you have a consistent routine that you practice every night, you’ll begin to condition your brain and body25 to feel sleepy around your bedtime.
Some practices we suggest for a relaxing bedtime routine are reading, drinking non-caffeinated tea, practicing yoga, listening to calming music, taking a warm bath, or meditating. All of these practices should help to calm your body, reducing your stress hormone levels and promoting easier, better sleep.22
7. Avoid Electronics Before Bed
Electronic devices use blue light26, which can suppress your melatonin levels and shift your circadian rhythm. As a result, this can make it more challenging to fall asleep when it’s time for bed.26 Instead of using electronics before bed, we recommend reading a book or listening to music at night to help yourself wind down.
8. Keep a Consistent Sleep Schedule
If you go to sleep around the same time each night, your body will begin to start feeling sleepy around that time each night.25 The American Academy of Sleep Medicine27 recommends going to sleep and waking up around the same time every day, even on the weekends.
Along with going to sleep at a consistent time, getting the proper amount of sleep is just as important. Sleep health experts28 suggest that adults sleep between seven and nine hours nightly. Also, keeping a set schedule can help ensure you set aside the appropriate amount of time to get enough hours of shuteye.
9. Invest in a Quality Mattress
Investing in a good mattress is another great way to prioritize your sleep and wellness. There are top-quality mattresses for all types of sleepers and their varying needs. If you haven’t bought a mattress in a while, check out our in-depth guide with tips on choosing a mattress to help you narrow down your options.
Discover our favorite mattresses for 2024
10. Make Your Bedroom Comfortable and Stress-Free
Our last suggestion to help you have a better night’s rest is to keep your bedroom comfortable and stress-free. The ideal temperature to sleep in is between 60 and 67 degrees Fahrenheit29. Furthermore, keeping your room dark and quiet can further facilitate better sleep. While a quiet room helps eliminate distractions, keeping out light can help boost melatonin production to help promote sleep.26
We also recommend that you keep your bedroom clean and tidy. A study found that household chaos30 was associated with negative socio-emotional outcomes, including increased stress levels. When your stress levels are higher, it’s more challenging to sleep well.22
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, sleeping is a form of self-care. Quality sleep positively impacts our mental, physical, and emotional well-being, so if we get good sleep, we take care of ourselves.1
There are endless reasons why you should care about sleep and prioritize getting good sleep every night. Sleep can improve your memory and learning, reduce stress, help you maintain a healthy weight, reduce the risk of heart disease, improve your mental health, strengthen your immune system, and help regulate your emotions.3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Yes, self-care can improve mental health. According to the National Institute of Mental Health31, self-care practices such as sleeping, eating regular meals, exercising, relaxing, and practicing gratitude and positivity can improve mental health.
About Author
Emma is an Editorial Intern for Sleep Advisor. She collaborates with the editor and staff writers to come up with article ideas, create article outlines, and write for the website.
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