Tips for Building Healthier Relationships

Do you seem to feel better when people aren’t around? Sometimes we all do. And one of the reasons we may feel that way is a lack of quality sleep. When we don’t get enough sleep, strange things happen in our brains. One common side effect is a general intolerance of people, which if you couldn’t guess, can wreak total havoc on your relationships. If you're looking forward to building healthy relationships in 2020, the answer is simple - more sleep!

Reduced Tendency to Withdraw

Call it crazy or call it fascinating, but lack of quality sleep actually makes us want to push people away. A study published in “Nature Communications” figured this one out. When people didn’t get enough sleep, the circuits in their brains associated with social repulsion lit up more strongly when they were being approached by strangers. This led researchers to conclude that lack of sleep results in people becoming more socially avoidant, keeping people as far away as possible. Not a good time to have a heart-to-heart with your partner, for sure.

Less Prone to Make Mountains out of Molehills

We don’t need a scientific study to conclude most of us are much more irritable and on edge when we’re lacking sleep. The smallest things can often set us off.That’s because the amygdala gets all messed up. The amygdala is the part of our brains that links emotions to memories, and it can end up releasing too many or not enough neurotransmitters. Too many neurotransmitters make us prone to overreacting.

Increased Ability to Empathize

When the amygdala churns out too many neurotransmitters, we can make a big deal out of a little thing. When it churns out too few neurotransmitters, it can wipe out our ability to notice other people’s emotions. If a pal or partner happens to be in distress, the distress may not even register if we’re lacking sleep. If it does register, we may not really care. In addition to the amygdala being affected by lack of sleep, so is an area of the brain within the insular cortex that’s associated with emotional empathy. The better sleep we get, the more empathetic we tend to be toward other people in distress. Adequate quality sleep has been shown to help us more accurately read other people’s emotions and to empathize much better during romantic conflicts.

Less Likely to Punch out a Car Window

Yes, we’re more irritable when we don’t get enough sleep. But our emotional explosion doesn’t necessarily stop there. We canalso become angrier and more aggressive. A study published in the “Journal of Experimental Psychology” divided participants into two batches. One batch got adequate sleep for two days while the other batch did not. Participants were then put in a room with a highly annoying noise and asked to complete a difficult task. The batch that got inadequate sleep became much angrier while trying to complete the task, and they just couldn’t stop being bothered by the annoying noise. Not only that, but other reports have shown that women with poor sleep habits tend to be more aggressive toward their partners. Children who are victimized by other kids at school are prone to becoming bullies later in life if they end up with sleep issues. Thus lack of sleep can make our anger reel out of control, making us more likely to blame or target others around us.

Building Healthy Relationships is Easier with a Synced Circadian Rhythm

By now you can see how quality sleep can aid in building healthy relationships since you’ll be less repulsed, less prone to overreact, better able to empathize, and less likely to punch out a car window. This can go a long way toward relations, especially if that car window happened to be in your partner’s car. For help getting the sleep you need to enhance your relationships, try a natural sleep supplement like RestoreZ.

Unlike traditional sleep aids that force your body to fall asleep, RestoreZ help your body’s circadian rhythm align. Circadian rhythm is your body’s natural sleep and wake signals, and their alignment can bring on the quality sleep you need to feel rested, balanced, and restored. Your body, brain – and everyone you know – will thank you.

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