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We all know that certain person—the grumpy morning person. Maybe we are that person: the one that takes a few hours to mentally wake up, the one that’s, “just not a morning person.” There are reasons mood can be affected that much in the morning hours.
It’s all about sleep. If the body does not get regular rest, a host of issues can occur. “You are subject to a whole range of problems, and one of them is with mood disorders,” said Wayne Woodward, sleep medicine educator at the Intermountain Healthcare Utah Valley Hospital Sleep Center.
Woodward also said sleep disruption can interfere with our cognitive throughput—the ability to see something and react appropriately. Even the ability to think clearly is altered.
Get adequate sleep
There are health-related reasons sleep experts preach the importance of getting enough sleep, including obesity, higher risk of diabetes, and also strokes. “If you are not getting at least seven to eight hours of sleep a night, then you are not getting adequate sleep,” Woodward said.
There are also similar dangers with getting too much sleep. It is vital to focus on keeping rest under at most nine hours on a daily basis for adults.
Get quality sleep
It’s not just enough to make sure you get to bed at a reasonable hour. The quality of sleep that you get also matters, as it affects your body and mood. “We start to worry about the quality of sleep, which is where sleep disorders come into the picture,” Woodward said.
Sleep apnea, insomnia, and restless leg syndrome are all major sleep disorders. If you feel like you get enough sleep but still feel exhausted, talk to a doctor to see if there are underlying issues.
Be careful with caffeine
There have been numerous studies done to understand the effect of caffeine on your body. The majority of the studies, Woodward pointed out, state that caffeine ingestion will help give a mood uptick.
Caffeine provides a two-hour alertness effect for your mind and body. But it also stays in your system for 24 hours, including four to six hours half-life. So if you are utilizing caffeine later in the day, there’s a good chance it’s going to disrupt your sleep later, to a point.
The problem with caffeine is that it also comes with a dependency factor. Some people immediately interpret tired with needing caffeine instead of focusing on getting more rest. Caffeine also has an accommodation factor, which means at some point a single cup of coffee won’t have the same effect it used to.
Power nap
The afternoon siesta will definitely help power your brain and lose the grumpiness.
“If you find yourself really drowsy or sleepy at work, the best recommendation is short naps. That 20-minute power nap is a real thing. It effectively pushes back your sleep drive,” Woodward said.
For more information on the benefits of sleep, visit http://www.IntermountainLiVeWell.org.
