With the increasing popularity of social media and growing mental health concerns, maintaining a good sleep schedule and focusing on re-energizing oneself with the right activities is more important than ever. While sleep hygiene techniques such as cutting down screen time and not drinking caffeine before bed are quite common, friendships and their impact on sleep is still a less studied topic.
New studies suggest that friendships are not just positive attachments, but rather a biological requirement for achieving optimal sleep and recovering mentally.
In this blog, I will explain how friendships influence our rest periods and mental relaxation with the available evidence and make one appreciate the importance of social relationships from a different and newer perspective.
Understanding Friendship’s Effects on Sleep and Mental Recovery
Sleep is a remarkably intricate and complex physiological process. It can be split into cycles of rapid eye movement (REM) and non-REM stages. Each stage is critical for a different aspect of health. The physical body during deep non-REM sleep undergoes restorative functions while toxins are cleared from the brain. The brain also processes emotions and strengthens memories during REM sleep. All these functions aid in mental restoration.
The brain’s ability to recover from cognitive fatigue and deal with stress heavily relies on these functions. Insomnia, or not sleeping enough can badly affect the prefrontal lobe. This part of the brain is critical in emotional management and decision making.
Regardless, sleep’s not just a biological process, it is also affected by our day to day activities. Emotionally, if a person is suffering from stress and tumultuous feelings, it could disrupt their sleep cycle. However, an individual who feels secure and connected will sleep more soundly. This social and neurological condition is crucial to determining friendship’s impact on sleep quality.
The Social Side of Health: Friendship’s Impact
Social interaction is an integral aspect of human existence. The Harvard Study of Adult Development discovered that friendships – not wealth or popularity – are the best determinants of one’s long term health and wellbeing. Friendships in particular hold special significance as they offer emotional support, a sense of belonging and even control physiological stress responses.
From a psychological perspective, friends serve as a buffer against life’s challenges. According to a 2017 meta analysis done in Perspectives on Psychological Science, social support can cut the chances of mental health issues by 50%.
From a physiological perspective, positive social interactions may encourage the body to release the hormone, oxytocin, which decreases cortisol levels and promotes relaxation. This mechanism creates a ripple effect that reaches cardiovascular health, boosts immune function, and as emerging evidence proposes, improves sleep quality.
How Friendships Affect The Quality of Sleep?
Friendship is one of the greatest emotional support systems that a person can have. While increasing the levels of social interactions, it places its subjects in a far less stressful zone. Stress on the other hand has been proven to disrupt sleep. A 2020 study concludes that people suffering from insomnia can make strides towards better sleep just by knowing they have a friend to confide in which alone is a revolutionary thing.
Social Routines and Sleep Patterns
Social activities like socializing, going for evening walks or even going on weekend hikes with friends increases the level of physical activity which drastically improves sleep. On the contrary, friends who love staying up late for some engagement can promote erratic sleeping habits which can cause sleep issues. There was a study which reported children who used to get enforced bedtime routines had far less issues with sleeping compared to those who did not.
Physiological Mechanisms
In addition to strengthening social bonds, oxytocin aka the ‘bonding hormone’ aids in stress relief. Studies on animals demonstrate that oxytocin boosts REM sleep, signaling the link between sleep and social contact. Numerous studies show that laughter boosts endorphins that relax the body and help induce sleep which is very common in healthy friendships.
Friendship and Mental Restoration
Mental restoration is based on friends and their help to recharge the brain by dealing with emotional processing. Some of the other factors are discussed below.
Positive Interactions: These actions include cheerful social activities, which facilitate the production of serotonin and the dopamine, which are neurotransmitters responsible for mood and increased positive response. In addition to improving the quality of sleep, these chemicals also prepare the brain to solve problems effectively after waking up.
Cognitive Buffering: Friends have differing points of views, and thus help in looking at problems from different angles. This cognitive shift decreases tiredness making it easier to fall asleep.
The Dark Side – When Friendships Disrupt Sleep
Not all friendships are restorative. Such negative and unwanted behaviors such as competition, conflict, or codependency can increase stress even more. A 2018 study in Journal of Sleep Research linked social conflict to increased nighttime awakenings and reduced REM sleep. The same goes for “frenemies”, those with ambivalent relationships, they exhaust the brain by creating uncertainty.
Peer pressure can be very influential. For example, college students might develop poor sleeping patterns to fit in with their peers, forsaking sleep for friendship. There’s also the aspect of having friends online: while it can reduce feelings of isolation, excessive texting or social media activity at night makes it hard to fall asleep, and when sleep is eventually attained, it is easily disrupted.
Creating Friendships that Contribute to Sleep and Mental Wellbeing
In order to restore the effect of friendship, do the following:
- Focus on fewer relationships but deeper ones: Building a few strong relationships can be more advantageous than having many shallow relationships.
- Put limits in place: Setting a good sleeping routine by placing ‘digital curfews’ and avoiding sensitive topics before sleeping may assist with sleep.
- Participate in active challenges with friends: Get friends to participate in yoga, meditation, or sleep challenges.
- Mindfully use social media: Use group calming activities like virtual book clubs and guided meditation instead of stimulating chats.
Conclusion
Friendship could either help or hinder our sleep and mental health. Therefore, in a world whereby loneliness is severely becoming a public health issue, it is prudent to redefine social connections as important for well being.
By working on investment in meaningful friendships and community-building that supports social well-being, we can achieve more profound sleep, clear-headedness, and more robust lives. The issue is not simply how to sleep more soundly but who we need around us to relax.
