The Science of Wellbeing: How sleep organises your emotions

Each month, Ali Roff Farrar explores the deep and mysterious realms of psychology and neuroscience, to help us understand and reach greater levels of wellbeing in body and mind...

- By Ali Roff Farrar

I recently found out that someone very close to me had cancer. And that my grandma had passed suddenly. On the same day.

It was almost too much for my brain to process at once. I went into a state of freeze, mind paralyzed; then flight, moving around the house without reason, and then finally fight, frantically trying to understand all the information and fix the problems. As I took in the information, and as sad as I was that I had lost my grandmother, thankfully, the close family member diagnosed with cancer told me he had been given very a strong chance of survival.

Still, I went to bed that night feeling like a truck had hit me. 'It will all seem better in the morning', my husband said; that age-old saying bringing some childhood-like solace. But I also knew the adage was true — a good night's sleep should always be a priority when we receive bad news — without it, we leave ourselves open to emotional chaos.