The Sound Sleep, Sound Mind perspective is not held by most healthcare professionals despite growing evidence to support this knowledge.The 21st century may be out of diapers, past the toddler stage, and approaching kindergarten, but it has yet to develop a mature, intelligent perspective on the critical inter-relationships between sleep and mental health.
Perspectives on sleep and mental health are often flawed when they overemphasize the importance of mental health or stress on sleep while discounting the impact of sleep on stress and mental health. The end result is a healthcare paradigm that routinely places patients on merry-go-round leading nowhere.
This problem manifests most commonly when mental health patients with sleep problems hear or take up the chant themselves: “Take care of your mental health, and sleep will take care of itself.”
But what if that’s wrong?