Go to bed angry

Yeh, you heard me!

A bit on #Sleep - #Emotional Pillar

You know that feeling when you wake up angry about something that happened the day before? If I've had a bad night's sleep, I haven't been able to get the deep sleep (REM) required to effectively process my emotions and tend to wake up feeling the same way (if not worse than) that I felt the day before.

On the contrary, if I've slept well, I wake up ready to solve the world's problems and, chances are, I'm pretty much over the thingy thing thing that got me SHOOKETH the day before.

REM sleep has been found to help us process emotional memories, which can reduce their intensity. I used to always abide by the ‘don't go to bed angry’ rule, but I now find that ‘sleeping on it’ serves me better.

Yes, there is the risk that I may not sleep well (due to being angry lol) but, in my experience, trying to force a resolution late at night when I’m tired always makes things worse, which then pretty much guarantees a sh*te night’s sleep.

Night time is when our melatonin is the star of the circadian rhythm show, and having a heated discussion at this time can spike cortisol and suppress melatonin, leading to disrupted sleep. Disrupted sleep = waking up angry. No thanks. Let’s chat in the morning, thank you please.

If I’m struggling to fall asleep, I’ll do my NSDR (10-minute Huberman Lab recording here) - I discussed my obsession with this in one of my earlier posts.

Some words for thought: I feel angry and anxious when I’m under slept. Anger and anxiety releases adrenaline (stimulant). I recently read that this this is why we feel angry and anxious when we're under slept. It’s our body's way of keeping us awake! I found this fascinating… and comforting lol.

So, next time I’m under slept, angry, and anxious, I’ll blame it on the s-s-s-sci-sci-science.

Simply sleeping on it,

Salty