BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – An expert with the Pennington Biomedical Research Center is talking about the importance of sleep during Mental Health Awareness Month.
Dr. Prachi Singh serves as the director of the Sleep and Cardiometabolic Health Laboratory at Pennington. She said that getting a good night’s rest is vital.
“Sleep is foundational,” Dr. Singh explained. “It not just helps you with your metabolism and keeps you healthy physically, but it is very important for your emotional regulation.”
Emotional regulation has to do with how someone reacts to certain situations. According to Dr. Singh, people who don’t get enough quality sleep tend to get irritated more often.
“You are likely to overreact and get stressed about even minor issues,” Dr. Singh said.
Sleep can also impact a person’s cognition and psychological resilience.
“When we talk about cognition, it’s quite explanatory. It is how you work, how much attention to detail you are able to provide, and how many errors you are going to make overall,” Dr. Singh said.
The Pennington expert said that adults should get seven to nine hours of quality sleep a day. She said that younger people should sleep even longer, depending upon their age.
According to Dr. Singh, naps can help, but they aren’t the same as sleeping throughout the night.
“Don’t let that be the way you live. You need the nighttime sleep. You need all those different sleep stages — the non-REM sleep, the REM sleep, which helps build different aspects of you health, especially the mental health,” Dr. Singh explained.
While people of all ages aren’t getting the sleep they need, the problem has hit young people in Louisiana especially hard. The CDC reported in 2024 that 50.3 percent of children between the ages of fourth months old and 14 years old in the state suffered from a sleep deficit.
People can improve their sleep by following some easy steps. Experts at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center recommend people limit screen time before bed and create a relaxing sleep environment.
For more information about Dr. Singh and her research, click here.
If you or someone you know is struggling with mental health, you are not alone. You can get immediate help from a mental health professional by dialing 988. The service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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