A late-night is something most teenagers and young adults are no strangers to, myself included. Too often, I find myself up past twelve, on a school night, below the glow of a phone screen, or just simply tossing and turning in bed, bored and restless. When I finally do pass out, it feels like just an instant of sleep before that blaring alarm wakes me up, making my mornings an unpleasant struggle. A painful internal battle between comfort and responsibility. However, my question is: does lack of sleep impact our mental health overall?

When I put out a survey to Bob Jones students, I found that about 30% of my respondents slept less than average, and most of that 30% also shared that they struggle with their mental health. If they were not part of that 30%, many spoke of times when they had struggled with sleep and how it negatively affected them. Several students shared their experiences and stressed the importance of a good night’s sleep:

Ashley Florence, a senior, stated: “I used to have a really off sleep schedule. It messed with me and my mental health and was not the best at the time. I started sleeping well after a while, and my mental health improved. I’ve heard of sleep affecting your mental health, but I really didn’t think much of it. But now that my sleep schedule is consistent and decent, I have benefited greatly.”

Freshman Keira McCostlin said,  “As someone who has been diagnosed and experienced a decline in both sleep and mental health, it’s hard to control your sleep, especially when you have a mental illness. I don’t know how well people sleep when they don’t have a mental illness, but I can definitely say that sleeping is how most people feel better and how they avoid [or at least manage] their mental illness.”

From their statements, we can see it can go both ways– mental health can cause sleep problems, and sleep problems can cause mental health problems. We can infer that regardless of whichever one is causing which, it’s always beneficial to get more z’s in.

In contrast to Ashely and Keira’s experiences, I had a few students believe that mental health was unaffected by sleep.

When asked our question, senior Jordan Kubecki asserted, “I don’t believe so; it can affect brain function, though.”

Abby Neely, a junior, stated, “I don’t think it has the biggest impact, it’s not like whether you get ten or nine hours of sleep decides your mental health for the day or not. But I do know constantly not getting enough sleep is detrimental to your mental health.”

Both Jordan and Abby make good points. From their statements, I think that we can infer that sleep is different for every person. Abby might feel just tired rather than sad after not getting a good amount of hours while it might ruin Ashley’s day. It all depends on the person. 

My sister, Breanne Thomas, is quite knowledgeable in this subject. She’s a graduate student of the clinical mental health counseling program at Southern New Hampshire University, and additionally, is a direct support professional at the p.l.u.s. Company in Nashua NH. Her statement on the matter was: 

“It’s normal for teenagers to stay up late. I certainly did, and it’s not the most detrimental thing to a kid’s mental health, but, if it’s borderline insomnia or in combination with other issues, it can be extremely devastating. But the good thing about it is that the average person can usually get it back on track pretty easily.”

In conclusion, sleep is great and almost always beneficial, so if you can sleep for longer, definitely do so.