Sleep quality refers to the quality of your sleep and the way you feel after sleeping.
Poor sleep quality means that you have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, and as a result, you are sleep deprived. Poor sleep quality and sleep deprivation have a negative impact on your physical, cognitive, and emotional health.
Both internal and external factors affect your sleep. The internal factors include physical pain, stress, mental health issues, snoring, and sleep disorders. External factors include light and sound exposure, jet lag, medications, sleep environment, sleep schedule, caffeine and alcohol intake, and certain foods.
Internal Factors Affecting Sleep Quality
Physical Pain
Pain makes it harder to fall asleep and stay asleep. Whether you suffer from pain in the form of throbbing, aching, or pinching, pain disrupts sleep quality.
If you’re experiencing back or neck pain that’s disrupting your sleep, perhaps your mattress or pillow are to blame. To address neck pain, make sure you are sleeping on a pillow that supports your neck and maintains good alignment with the rest of your spine. Sleeping with proper spine alignment – you didn’t realize you had to focus on your posture while sleeping! – is one of the best ways to prevent pain from emerging or worsening. If you suffer from arthritis or joint pain, you may benefit from a mattress with pressure-relieving materials like memory foam.
Stress
Stress prevents the mind and body from relaxing and is a common culprit behind sleep deprivation. In fact, a recent survey found that 43% of adults reported losing sleep over stress.
Sleep deprivation increases cortisol, also known as the stress hormone. When you’re stressed, your body also produces more adrenaline. The combination of these two hormones can elevate your heart rate, blood pressure, and blood glucose levels, and as a result, your body has a hard time relaxing and falling asleep.
Mental Health
When mental health is lacking, sleep quality is harmed, and bad sleep quality worsens mental health. This is a vicious cycle and is a major reason why people struggling with their mental health have trouble sleeping.
Anxiety, whether situational or chronic, can negatively affect sleep quality by preventing you from falling asleep or creating disturbing dreams or nightmares.
Snoring
Snoring occurs when airflow causes a vibration against the throat tissues when they are relaxed. The reasons for snoring include body anatomy, sleep position, level of sleep deprivation, nasal problems, and alcohol intake.
Snoring can also be a sign of obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a disorder where you stop breathing while you sleep, causing sleep deprivation, high blood pressure, daytime drowsiness, mental fatigue, and more.
Snoring can often be relieved by sleeping on your side or stomach, losing weight, treating nasal congestion issues, avoiding alcohol before bed, and getting enough sleep each night.
Sleep Disorders
Sleep disorders affect the quality and duration of sleep. Common sleep disorders include Insomnia, sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, REM sleep behavior disorder, and narcolepsy.
Some disorders may be caused by lifestyle or physical factors, while others are neurological. Therefore, regulating a sleep disorder will depend on the condition and what’s causing it. Snoring and sleep problems should be discussed with a medical provider for diagnosis and treatment.
External Factors That Affect Sleep
Light Exposure
Both natural daylight and artificial light affect sleep by influencing the circadian rhythm, or your body’s internal clock, which regulates when we feel tired or alert.
Light signals to your body that it is time to be awake, while darkness signals that it’s time to rest. For example, when it is dark, your body releases increased amounts of the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin. Exposure to light just before bed stops melatonin production, making it harder for you to fall asleep.
You can regulate light exposure by avoiding blue-light-emitting electronics just before bed, using blackout curtains, and wearing an eye mask.
Jet Lag
Jet lag hinders sleep by disrupting your natural sleep-wake patterns and occurs when you fly across time zones. To regulate jet lag, slowly acclimate your sleep schedule to your upcoming destination. Additionally, if it’s nighttime at your destination when you’re flying, try to sleep on the plane. If you arrive at your destination sleepy, avoid napping right away; get outside and use the sunlight to help you stay awake until it’s time for bed.
Medications
Certain medications hinder sleep quality, including alpha-blockers, beta-blockers, steroids, and antidepressants, among others.
Conversely, some medications and supplements have a positive effect on sleep. Over-the-counter sleep aids like Benadryl, melatonin, and Valerian root may help you rest better.
Additionally, some doctors may prescribe sleeping pills for patients who continue to have trouble falling asleep. However, over the counter and prescription sleep medications are designed to provide a short-term solution and should not be used over long periods.
If medication drugs and sleep are an issue, you should consult with your physician, who may be able to prescribe an alternative treatment.
Sleep Environment
Sleep environment refers to the bedroom where you sleep. A low-quality sleep environment impairs your ability to sleep soundly through the night. The ideal sleep environment is cool, dark, and quiet.
A darker room fosters tiredness by increasing melatonin production, and experts say an ideal bedroom temperature for sleeping is between 60- and 67-degrees F. Additionally, noise can disrupt your ability to fall or stay asleep.
Inconsistent Sleep Schedule
Your sleep schedule is defined by when you go to bed and when you wake up. An inconsistent sleep schedule can throw off your internal clock, which controls the physiological changes that help you prepare for sleep and wakefulness. When these changes aren’t properly regulated, you could have difficulty getting enough quality rest.
Furthermore, a study reveals that irregular bed and wake-up times are linked to a higher risk of obesity, high cholesterol, hypertension, and high blood sugar.
Going to bed and waking up at the same time every day, including weekends, should improve your sleep quality. To set a sleep schedule, plan a bedtime and wake-up time that allows you to get enough hours of sleep and that you can stick to that every day.
Caffeine and Alcohol
Caffeine delays sleep onset and alcohol disrupts your quality of sleep.
Caffeine is a stimulant and delays sleep onset by blocking adenosine receptors, blocking the chemical from helping your brain foster sleep. This temporary block of adenosine receptors is also responsible for making you feel more alert after drinking caffeine.
Alcohol is a depressant and while it can make you tired initially, it is linked to lower quality sleep because it can wake up in the middle of the night and then make it hard to fall back asleep. Additionally, alcohol can reduce how much REM sleep you get. REM sleep is critical for memory formation and learning.
Certain Foods
Certain foods may cause nighttime heartburn and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Heartburn is a painful burning in the chest resulting from acid reflux. GERD is a severe form of acid reflux in which acidic contents from the stomach flow up into the esophagus.
Foods that can cause acid reflux and heartburn include fried food, fast food, pizza, potato chips, chili powder, pepper, fatty meats, cheese, tomato-based sauces, citrus, chocolate, peppermint, and carbonated drinks. Also, eating too much before bed can cause indigestion that keeps you up at night.
The Effect of Poor-Quality Sleep on Health
Sleep deprivation effects can be long-term. The long-term health complications include hypertension, heart attack, stroke, obesity, diabetes, depression and anxiety, impaired brain function, memory loss, a weakened immune system, decreased fertility, and psychiatric disorders.
To avoid these health issues, focus on getting enough high-quality sleep quality every night. If a particular issue is causing you to experience sleep deprivation, address the problem as soon as possible.
The Effect of Poor-Quality Sleep on Daily Life
The effect of poor-quality sleep on daily life is both physical and mental. Inadequate sleep leads to less energy, difficulty concentrating, and negative moods.
To avoid these negative effects, prioritize getting enough high-quality sleep every night. Implementing a consistent sleep schedule will improve every aspect of your life.