What to do if you’re struggling with your sleep and mental health

Stephen Buckley

Head of Information, Mind 

Help and support is available to those who may be struggling with their sleep and mental health. 

There is a strong relationship between our sleep and mental health. Having poor mental health can affect your sleep and not sleeping well can negatively impact your mental health. If you feel you are experiencing sleep problems, support is available to help you understand why this may be happening.

Causes of sleep problems

What affects our sleep will differ for everyone. For example, having stresses or worries such as issues with money, housing, or work can have an impact if these thoughts are preventing you from getting to sleep at night, or are waking you up. It may be that you are a parent or carer, have a health condition relating to sleep, work at night or are suffering from a current or past trauma.

Certain mental health problems can also affect your sleep in different ways. For example, having anxiety may mean you find it difficult to get to sleep or get enough sleep, while someone with depression may sleep a lot and stay in bed longer.

We also know that having sleep problems can affect your mental health. Disrupted sleep can cause feelings of anxiety and depression or may affect your ability to concentrate. It is important to remember that sleep issues, and their causes, are different for each person.

If you feel you are experiencing sleep problems, support is available to help you understand why this may be happening.

How to seek help

It is worth visiting your GP if you’re experiencing problems with your mental health, are struggling to sleep, or if you notice changes in your mood or sleep behaviour that last more than two weeks.

There are also a range of things you can try yourself to improve both your sleep and your mental health. Try to make your bedroom nice and cosy by providing optimum sleep conditions. Quiet, dark, cool spaces are most beneficial to a good night’s rest so try to control noise, light and temperature where possible.

An evening routine may also help, try to stick to a set time to go to bed and wake up every day, even on days when you don’t work. The hours leading up to sleep are also important so do things you find relaxing, such as having a bath or breathing exercises, and switch of your devices a couple of hours before you sleep as blue light can keep you up.