Last week at the time of writing, I was seriously ill for two main reasons. Firstly, I was really exhausted and ill because of malnourishment caused by my anorexia. Thankfully, I’m managing to get a handle on it and I’m finally starting to eat a little more. Secondly, I was really sick because I was my sleep schedule was so awful and inconsistent that my lack of eating and lack of sleep was causing me to get very ill. So much so that for the first time in my life I was actually needing to take naps because I was so fatigued and my headache was so bad. Therefore, in this clinical psychology podcast episode, you’ll going to learn how does a consistent sleep schedule improves our mental health, why does this happen and how can we improve our sleep schedule so we can improve our mental health. If you’re interested in clinical psychology, biological psychology and the importance of consistent sleep then this will be a brilliant episode for you.
Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Biological Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Why Is A Consistent Sleep Schedule Important?
Having a consistent sleep schedule is flat out critical to our physical and mental health because when a person has regular bedtimes and wake times then this allows us to develop a consistent sleep routine. Of course, this is unique to each of us because we all need the right amount of high-quality sleep. Therefore, sleeping consistently helps us to avoid what is known as a “sleep debt” and this can help protect us against negative health outcomes. For instance, high blood sugar, high blood pressure as well as high cholesterol.
Also, the reason why I’m talking about this on a psychology podcast besides the mental health impacts of not getting enough good quality sleep, is because sleep is a behaviour. As is our decision about when we go to sleep. These are all decisions we make and ultimately these decisions impact our health. You could argue that this podcast episode stretches across clinical psychology, biological, cognitive and health psychology amongst others. This is a critical topic for a lot of our subdisciplines.
Moreover, consistent sleep helps us to protect our mental health too, especially our emotional well-being. Since if we don’t get consistent sleep then this has negative impacts on our emotional and mood regulation, as well as something I know from personal experience that a lot of therapists and medical doctors suggest having a good sleep routine is the cornerstone of improving your mental health.
Personally, I completely agree with this but the relationship between sleep and poor mental health can be a vicious cycle. Such as I know someone who is basically nocturnal now because their sleep routine is so consistent but in the wrong direction, but they cannot get up because of their depression. Originally, their depression caused their sleep schedule to become chronically bad, but now their sleep schedule is maintaining their depression amongst other factors.
Ultimately, by having a consistent sleep schedule you can stabilise your mood in the short term as well as in the long term protect yourself against mood disorders, like anxiety and depression.
How Does Irregular Sleep Schedules Disrupt The Circadian Rhythms?
Our circadian rhythms impact our mood and mental health in a number of different ways. For instance, the genes behind the circadian rhythms regulate our mood as well as our mood-related behaviours, like symptoms of anxiety, depression and bi-polar disorder. This allows our bodies to regulate our emotions around a daily, 24-hour internal “body clock”. And a lot of different neurochemicals and hormones that influence our mood and our stress responses have their own circadian rhythm. Such as, melatonin, serotonin, cortisol, dopamine as well as norepinephrine (McClung, 2013).
As a result, when we disrupt our own circadian rhythms by giving ourselves inconsistent sleep then this messes with our mood and stress-regulating processes so their circadian rhythms are thrown out of order. Research suggests that the timings of our circadian rhythms are strongly linked to depression (Wirz-Justice, 2006), seasonal affective disorder, anxiety (Montange et al., 1981) and other mood disorders (McClung, 2007).
Furthermore, the impact of disrupted circadian rhythms isn’t limited to our mental health either. Since having a disrupted circadian rhythm increases our risk of inflammation too, and there is research suggesting inflammation increases the risk of developing mood disorders. Also, inflammation itself can negatively impact our sleep too, so it becomes even more of a vicious cycle.
Ultimately, having a consistent sleep schedule helps our bodies to effectively regulate our circadian rhythms, so our biological processes that impact the neurochemicals and hormones related to our stress responses and mood can occur in a healthy way. Yet when we disrupt our circadian rhythms by getting inconsistent sleep then we mess up these circadian rhythms and this has negative impacts on our mental health.
Why Does Inconsistent Sleep Patterns Increase Risk Of Depression?
Now I want to focus on some research that shows a person’s inconsistent sleep schedule can increase their risk of developing depression. Our first study comes from Fang et al. (2021) who looked at the impact of sleep routines on over 1,000 medical students’ day-to-day mood. Their results showed that irregular sleep routines were a big risk factor for developing depressive symptoms. Interestingly, this is even worse for medical students because they often experience an inconsistent work schedule so they can’t have a consistent sleep pattern, so the effects were easier to see in this population.
In my experience, this is the problem I had and this is why my sleep routine just died. I have to wake up at 6 am on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays because I need to drive to work. I don’t need to wake up on Fridays that early anymore but still, I did for 5 weeks. Then on the other days I would wake up between 8 am and 8:30 am. That’s a 2-hour variation in when I wake up, as well as my bedtime would vary too from 10:30 pm to midnight because I would be very bad and go on my phone.
That meant I could never get a good sleep schedule and combined that with lack of eating, I was very sick for two weeks.
Overall, my example shows how inconsistent sleep patterns really can impact physical and mental health.
On the whole, I’ll include more studies in the reference section near the bottom of the blog post but a lot of studies demonstrate how having an inconsistent sleep schedule can be just as damaging as not getting enough sleep to your physical and emotional health.
Clinical Psychology Conclusion
At the end of this psychology podcast episode, now we know that we need a consistent sleep schedule to help us regulate our circadian rhythms so the hormonal and neurochemical processes that regulate our stress and emotions can work at peak performance. Otherwise, if we disrupt these biological processes then there is an increased risk of developing depression, anxiety amongst other mood disorders. As well as we need a consistent sleep schedule because it is just as damaging to our physical and mental health as not getting enough sleep.
Personally, after being sick for the past two weeks I am really happy that I am getting back to a good sleep schedule and I am eating more too. I feel better in myself and granted I have a cold as I write this, but I am no longer exhausted and suffering from constant fatigue. I’m looking for continuing this new sleep schedule and reaping the mental health benefits that I have started to notice too.
Therefore, the takeaway message or question at the end of this episode is:
Take a look at your sleep schedule. Is it consistent and if not, how can you make it more consistent so your mental health can benefit?
I really hope you enjoyed today’s clinical psychology podcast episode.
If you want to learn more, please check out:
Biological Psychology. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.
Have a great day.
Clinical Psychology References and Further Reading
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), S232-S247.
Fang, Y., Forger, D. B., Frank, E., Sen, S., & Goldstein, C. (2021). Day-to-day variability in sleep parameters and depression risk: a prospective cohort study of training physicians. NPJ digital medicine, 4(1), 28.
Irwin, M. R., Olmstead, R., & Carroll, J. E. (2016). Sleep disturbance, sleep duration, and inflammation: a systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies and experimental sleep deprivation. Biological psychiatry, 80(1), 40-52.
Liu, Y. Z., Wang, Y. X., & Jiang, C. L. (2017). Inflammation: The Common Pathway of Stress-Related Diseases. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 11, 316. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00316
McClung C. A. (2007). Circadian genes, rhythms and the biology of mood disorders. Pharmacology & therapeutics, 114(2), 222–232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pharmthera.2007.02.003
McClung C. A. (2013). How might circadian rhythms control mood? Let me count the ways... Biological psychiatry, 74(4), 242–249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.02.019
Milojevich, H. M., & Lukowski, A. F. (2016). Sleep and mental health in undergraduate students with generally healthy sleep habits. PloS one, 11(6), e0156372.
MONTANGE, M. F., CAUTER, E. V., Refetoff, S., Désir, D., Tourniaire, J., & Copinschi, G. (1981). Effects of “jet lag” on hormonal patterns. II. Adaptation of melatonin circadian periodicity. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 52(4), 642-649.
Wirz-Justice A. (2006). Biological rhythm disturbances in mood disorders. International clinical psychopharmacology, 21 Suppl 1, S11–S15. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.yic.0000195660.37267.cf
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