Good Sleep vs. Bad Sleep - What’s the Difference & Why it Matters

After a good night of sleep, you should feel energized. Sounds obvious, right? Well, it isn’t for everyone.

A good night of sleep is not only feeling energized in the body but also in mind.

The body can be in a state of feeling well-rested. This comes from Deep Sleep. REM-Sleep, however, pertains to our mental state.

When we get proper Deep Sleep (physical recovery) but not adequate REM-Sleep (mental recovery), we can feel more groggy throughout the day - unable to follow conversations, do deep work, and complete tasks on time.

A good night’s sleep pertains to both Deep Sleep and REM-Sleep. This will result in feeling energetic, cognitively efficient, able to follow conversations, perform tasks on time, and improve overall mood and outlook on life.

A variety of devices can track Deep Sleep and REM-Sleep. We, alongside Dr. Matthew Walker, recommend the Oura Ring. It is easy to use and gives fantastic data on sleep and recovery, activity, heart rate, HRV, and other helpful information.

If you wake up tired every morning, you could be getting poor sleep, disruptive sleep, or not enough sleep throughout the day.

Waking up tired every morning is not normal and clearly indicates inadequate sleep.

Though it depends on what the morning entailed and how much energy was expended, afternoon sleepiness can signify inadequate sleep.

Though there can typically be a lull after lunch, afternoon sleepiness should not continue for an extended period.

Movement right after a meal can help with energy levels, but if one is still tired, this can indicate inadequate sleep.

Though there be different personalities, some more introverted than others, typically, a lack of sleep leads to an inability to hold deep conversations.

If we are taking a long time to speak back to someone, this could be a sign that we have been getting poor sleep.

If, after someone is speaking, it takes our brain time to catch up to what was being said, our brain may be starved of more sleep.

We know when we are at the peak of our ability to work and complete tasks.

If regular work is taking much longer and we find our mind wandering or having brain fog, we may not be getting the sleep we need.

Lack of sleep always leads to a prolonged period needed to complete work. Lack of sleep is detrimental to our ability to focus and, in the long run, can make things take much longer than they should.

The following quotes below will be from Dr. Matthew Walker (Author of Why We Sleep).

These quotes are very eye-opening and must be taken seriously.

It’s one thing to say lack of sleep is dangerous. It is another thing altogether to understand the damaging effects insufficient sleep has and the havoc it can cause on our overall being.

“Sleep loss inflicts such devastating effects on the brain, linking it to numerous neurological and psychiatric conditions (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, suicide, stroke, and chronic pain), and on every physiological system of the body, further contributing to countless disorders and disease (e.g., cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, infertility, weight gain, obesity, and immune deficiency.” (Dr. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, pg. 133)

“A single night of four hours of sleep… swept away 70 percent of the natural killer cells circulating in the immune system, relative to a full eight-hour night of sleep. That is a significant state of immune deficiency to find yourself facing, and it happens quickly, after essentially one “bad night” of sleep.” (Dr. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, pg. 184)

“Inadequate sleep is the perfect recipe for obesity: greater calorie intake, lower calorie expenditure.” (Dr. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, pg. 175)

When we don’t get proper sleep, we look less attractive. This comes from bags under our eyes and overall tiredness and fatigue on our faces.

“Sleep loss can erode the very essence of biological life itself: your genetic code and the structures that encapsulate it.” (Dr. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, pg. 186)

According to the American Journal of Psychology, J.G. Jenkins and K.M. Dallenbach found that “an equivalent time spent awake was deeply hazardous to recently acquired memories, resulting in an accelerated trajectory of forgetting.” (Dr. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, pg. 113)

This is alarming and should be taken seriously, as “One in ten adults over the age of sixty-five now suffers from Alzheimer’s disease” (Dr. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, pg. 157).

“As with the effects of sleep deprivation on memory, once you miss out on the benefit of sleep in the moment…you cannot regain the benefit simply by trying to catch up on lost sleep. The damage is done, and some of that harm can still be measured a year later.” (Dr. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, pg. 183)

“Deprive an individual of their REM-sleep dreaming state, and the emotional tuning curve of the brain loses its razor-sharp precision. Like viewing an image through frosted glass, or looking at an out-of-focus picture, a dream-starved brain cannot accurately decode facial expressions, which become distorted. You begin to mistake friends for foes.” (Dr. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, pg. 215)

Now that we have reviewed the difference between good sleep and inadequate sleep and why it matters, next is to figure out how to fix bad sleep.

We recommend reading the following articles on our learning center to better equip yourself in optimizing your sleep to help you feel better and perform at your best.