Sleep and Mental Health

Overview

Sleep and Mental Health forms part of Canada’s Sleep Calendar, a coordinated program of national public education presented by The Sleep Society to improve sleep health awareness across Canada.

Mental health and healthy sleep are closely interconnected. Poor or insufficient sleep can affect mood, concentration, emotional regulation, resilience and daily functioning, and may contribute to or worsen anxiety, depression and other mental health problems. At the same time, many mental health conditions can disrupt the quality, quantity and continuity of sleep. The relationship is bidirectional: our mental health can affect how we sleep, and how we sleep can affect our mental health.

Sleep and Mental Health aims to broaden the conversation beyond viewing sleep simply as a consequence of how we feel. By encouraging Canadians to recognize healthy sleep as an important component of mental wellbeing, resilience and recovery, the initiative reinforces a simple message: Healthy Sleep Supports a Healthy Mind. Sleep is a biological necessity. There is no substitute. Looking after our sleep is part of looking after our mental health.

Why it matters

Mental health challenges affect millions of Canadians and place an increasing burden on individuals, families, workplaces and an already challenged healthcare system. At the same time, healthy sleep remains one of the most overlooked contributors to mental wellbeing.

Sleep is a biological necessity. Adequate quality, quantity and continuity of sleep support emotional regulation, concentration, mood, resilience and our ability to cope with everyday life. Poor or disrupted sleep can adversely affect these same functions and may contribute to or worsen symptoms of anxiety, depression and other mental health conditions.

Recognizing sleep as part of mental healthcare matters. Improving sleep may support the treatment and management of some mental health conditions and may also have an important role during recovery from addiction and substance-use disorders. Healthy sleep is not a substitute for appropriate mental healthcare, but neither should it be overlooked as an important part of mental health and wellbeing.

Sleep is a biological necessity. There is no substitute.

Background

Sleep and Mental Health is observed throughout January as part of Canada’s Sleep Calendar and promotes greater public understanding of the important relationship between sleep and mental health.

Historically, sleep was often regarded primarily as a consequence of mental health — we sleep poorly because we are anxious, depressed, stressed or experiencing other psychological difficulties. Sleep science has increasingly demonstrated that the relationship works in both directions. Mental health can affect sleep, while inadequate or disrupted sleep can also affect mental and emotional health.

This bidirectional relationship is important because sleep is not simply time during which the mind and body are inactive. Sleep is a biological necessity, supporting processes involved in emotional regulation, cognition, memory, physiological recovery and our ability to function effectively during waking hours.

Sleep and Mental Health was developed to bring greater public attention to this relationship and to encourage Canadians to consider healthy sleep as an integral part of protecting and supporting mental health throughout life. Its message is simple: Healthy Sleep Supports a Healthy Mind.

Sleep and mental health are deeply connected

The relationship between sleep and mental health can become a cycle. Anxiety, depression, stress, trauma and other mental health difficulties may make it harder to fall asleep, remain asleep or obtain restorative sleep. Poor or insufficient sleep may, in turn, affect mood, emotional regulation, concentration, motivation and resilience, potentially making existing difficulties harder to manage.

This matters because we do not experience sleep and our waking lives separately. A difficult night can affect how we think, feel, interact with others and respond to challenges the following day. When inadequate or disrupted sleep becomes persistent, those effects can accumulate, affecting relationships, education, work, physical health and quality of life.

Sleep therefore has an important place within mental healthcare. Improving sleep is not a substitute for appropriate treatment of mental illness, but recognizing and addressing sleep problems may support treatment, recovery and day-to-day functioning. Likewise, treating mental health conditions may improve sleep. The two should not automatically be considered in isolation.

The relationship may be particularly important during periods of increased vulnerability, including adolescence, major life changes, bereavement, illness, demanding work, caregiving, addiction and recovery. At such times, sleep can easily become one of the first things sacrificed, despite being a biological necessity and one of the fundamental processes upon which our ability to cope depends.

Current activities

The Sleep Society and SleepSafeCanada are currently working to:

• Promote greater public understanding of the close, bidirectional relationship between healthy sleep and mental health.
• Increase awareness that inadequate quality, quantity or continuity of sleep can affect mood, emotional regulation, concentration, resilience and daily functioning.
• Encourage greater recognition of sleep problems as an important consideration in mental health, while recognizing that mental health conditions themselves may significantly disrupt sleep.
• Help Canadians understand that persistent poor sleep should not simply be accepted as normal and may warrant appropriate assessment and support.
• Promote healthy sleep as an important component of mental wellbeing, while making clear that improving sleep is not a substitute for appropriate mental healthcare.
• Develop practical, evidence-informed educational resources for the public, healthcare professionals, educators, workplaces, families and community organizations.
• Support annual Sleep and Mental Health awareness activities throughout January as part of Canada’s Sleep Calendar.
• Encourage collaboration with healthcare and mental health organizations, hospitals, educational institutions, governments, recovery organizations, employers and community groups.
• Advocate for greater recognition of healthy sleep within mental health education, prevention, treatment, recovery and public-health initiatives across Canada.
• Build partnerships and national support for Sleep and Mental Health, extending the initiative’s reach and impact across Canada.

Help us make a difference

If your business or organization believes that better understanding the relationship between sleep and mental health can make a difference, help us make that difference. Give us your funding, your expertise, your resources, your reach, whatever you can bring, and help us make healthy sleep part of the mental health conversation across Canada.

Because behind the words “mental health” are real people and real lives. A child struggling to concentrate at school. A teenager whose anxiety, mood or ADHD symptoms are being made harder to manage by chronically inadequate sleep. A parent trying to hold a family together while exhausted and overwhelmed. Someone struggling with depression, addiction or recovery for whom disrupted sleep has become another part of an already difficult life. Sometimes the consequences are visible; sometimes the person suffering is sitting beside us and nobody knows.

Poor sleep will not explain every mental health problem, and better sleep will not cure them all. But sleep is a biological necessity, and overlooking it may mean overlooking something that could make a meaningful difference. A child may cope better at school. Someone may find treatment or recovery a little easier. A family may get back the person they thought they were losing. And, in the most serious circumstances, recognizing that something is wrong and getting the right help may contribute to saving a life.

We cannot know which conversation, resource, professional or campaign will reach the person who needs it. But if, together, this initiative changes the course of just one life, or keeps one person here who might otherwise have become lost, to the system, their friends and familys and even themselves – then everything we put into it will have been worthwhile.

Resources

Access articles, fact sheets, videos, posters and downloadable resources relating to healthy sleep, mental health, emotional wellbeing, resilience, recovery and the relationship between sleep and mental health.

Media centre

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One message, everywhere

SleepSafe International provides a framework through which the principles and initiatives developed by SleepSafeCanada can be shared with other countries and adapted to meet their own needs, cultures, healthcare systems and communities.

Wherever we live, whatever language we speak and whatever our circumstances, every human being needs adequate quality, quantity and continuity of sleep to support health, wellbeing, performance and safety.

Through SleepSafe International, we are offering the SleepSafe national program and initiative template to other societies, institutions, associations and countries for their own implementation, should they wish to use it. This includes the underlying framework, campaign structure, educational approach and developing resources, while allowing each country to establish its own identity, priorities, partnerships and initiatives.

The intention is to share freely what we have developed in Canada and invite others to build upon it.Some initiatives may be relevant almost everywhere; others will need to reflect local priorities. We all benefit from shared ideas, experience, resources and international collaboration.

As more countries participate, SleepSafe International can provide a common point of connection, enabling successful initiatives developed in one country to be shared with others and allowing us to learn from each other rather than repeatedly “reinventing the wheel”.

Discover SleepSafe International →