This week, we’re chatting with Katherine Morgan Schafler, a psychotherapist and the author of The Perfectionist’s Guide To Losing Control, to find her One Good Thing.

Hey, Katherine. If you could recommend One Good Thing we can all do for our mental health, what would it be?

Prioritise sleep.

Sounds good to us. Why is this your One Good Thing?

Sleep does for your brain what hydrating does for your skin – it makes your brain glow. We don’t think of sleep as an activity, and we certainly don’t think of sleep as a productive activity, but sleeping is one of the most productive activities you can engage in.

While you sleep, a system of vessels called the glymphatic system flushes all the cellular trash out of your brain and helps you to feel clear headed and focused the next day. While you sleep, you clear synaptic space so you can remember things better the next day. Your metabolism and endocrine functions begin to stabilise (which mean fewer mood swings). Your body releases the cellular equivalent of thousands of tiny hands to repair every muscle in your body so you’re less achy (including your heart muscle).

Sleeping also carries huge immunity enhancing effects; one research study showed, for example, that after you take a vaccine and you sleep for the night, your body creates nearly twice as many antibodies for that virus than those who were kept awake the night after receiving the vaccine.

One Good Thing: why you need to prioritise sleep for better mental health