Go to bed!
It’s an experience you’re already familiar with: a lack of sleep sometimes makes you irritable and less patient with the people around you. Sleep has such a profound influence on our relationships that one of the first tips for better interactions is simply to get a good night’s shut-eye! And it’s something that requires less effort than working on yourself!
Sleep expert Matt Walker experimented with this idea in the lab on two cohorts: it only took one bad night for individuals to overreact to negative emotions. A comparison of MRI scans showed that people who were sleep-deprived and exposed to negative emotions were up to 60% more reactive than those who had enjoyed a good night’s sleep. Although the latter did still react to negative emotions, they did so in a measured, appropriate manner.
Your prefrontal cortex needs REM sleep to “clean up” the negative emotions of the day you’ve just had and to ensure you are fresh enough to tackle the challenges of the day ahead. Otherwise, you will experience a breakdown in the relationship between your cortex and the amygdala, the control center of your emotions. This then gets carried away, meaning you spurn anyone who dares to come to you with a problem or question.
One bad night is enough to induce a state of over-reaction, so start by taking care of yourself and your sleep to manage sometimes delicate interactions more effectively!
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