Everyone\u2019s talking about resilience these days, particularly during a year in which many of us had to strengthen our emotional resilience in the face of a global pandemic that affected our lives in so many ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You probably won\u2019t be surprised to learn\u2014this is a sleep health blog, after all\u2014that sleep plays an outsize role in making, and keeping, people resilient. Let\u2019s take a look at how and what that means.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is resilience, exactly? Psychologists define resilience<\/a> as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress. Those can be family and relationship problems, serious health issues, or workplace and financial stressors. In short, resilience is about rebounding\u2014bouncing back\u2014after a difficult experience. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While a lot of attention is focused on post-traumatic stress disorder<\/a>, it\u2019s important to point out that most people who experience trauma do not develop PTSD. Instead, most of us eventually move past the trauma, and many people even experience what is known as post-traumatic growth<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Psychologists define resilience as the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats, or significant sources of stress. Those can be family and relationship problems, serious health issues, or workplace and financial stressors. In short, resilience is about rebounding\u2014bouncing back\u2014after a difficult experience. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n This theory, developed in the mid-1990s by psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun, holds that people who endure psychological struggle following adversity can often see positive growth afterward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “People develop new understandings of themselves, the world they live in, how to relate to other people, the kind of future they might have, and a better understanding of how to live life,” says Tedeschi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Being resilient doesn\u2019t mean you won\u2019t experience hard times or stress. What it does mean is that you’ve developed\u2014and can teach others to develop\u2014behaviors, thoughts, and actions that help you face and pull through future challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sleep is the foundation of good health and peak functioning. We kid only ourselves if we believe getting less than the recommended seven to nine hours of nightly sleep will let us be our best. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Regularly short-changing your body\u2019s sleep needs has a cumulative effect that you can\u2019t undo simply by sleeping in on the weekends. Chronic sleep deprivation puts people at a much higher risk for such serious diseases as Alzheimer\u2019s, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker points out in his book Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams<\/em><\/a>, that there are two primary ways sleep impacts resilience: Good sleep is essential for learning and processing new information, and sleep is essential for emotional regulation, an important aspect of resilience in that it helps prevent extreme emotional swings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSleep is essential for our long-term physical resilience against disease as well as our everyday resilience,\u201d says Marcus O’Donnell<\/a>, associate professor at Deakin University, in Melbourne, Australia. \u201cIt enables us to learn and process our learning, and enables us to find that balance between emotional reaction and careful decision making.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sophie Bostock, health psychologist at University College, London, calls herself the \u201cSleep Evangelist.\u201d She minces no words when it comes to the essential role of sleep in resilience. \u201cExpecting improvements in mental resilience without first addressing lack of sleep is a pretty tall order,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Sleep is essential for our long-term physical resilience against disease as well as our everyday resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Bostock defines these core components<\/a>, or building blocks, of resilience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn the spectrum of resilience to vulnerability,\u201d says Bostock, \u201cpoor sleep puts you firmly in the most vulnerable category.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n A good night\u2019s sleep, on the other hand, helps put stressors into perspective and keep you resilient. \u201cBetter sleep means lower stress, less worry, and more upbeat mood,\u201d says Bostock. \u201cAt work, this means more energy, greater engagement, higher productivity\u2014and all the ingredients of greater resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The good news about sleep and resilience is that, as Bostock puts it, \u201cthe relationship between stress and sleep goes both ways; improve sleep, and those building blocks of resilience start to rebuild your mental shield against stress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the American Psychological Association (APA) notes in an article on Building Your Resilience<\/a>, \u201cLike building a muscle, increasing your resilience takes time and intentionality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The APA suggests focusing on these main strategies:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Resilience, or non-resilience, has a great deal to do with the choices we make\u2014including the amount of sleep we choose to get. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Carrie Wilkens, co-founder of the Center for Motivation and Change in New York City and the Berkshires, offers these tips<\/a> for improving your sleep\u2014even if you’re stressed\u2014and, by extension, building your resilience:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe key thing to remember about resiliency,\u201d says Wilkens, \u201cis that it is not a personality trait that you either have or you don\u2019t. It is buoyed and depleted by behaviors in one\u2019s control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
How sleep affects resilience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Tips for building resilience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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