What is the connection between sleep and stress?

The less sleep you have, the more susceptible is your body and mind to stress. Less sleep does not allow for the complete recovery of your brain cells, and this can result in irritability, emotional instability, depression the next day or over the course of the week. In several sessions with clients, when they say they had a rough day or they were depressed or irritable, I ask them to reflect on the previous night’s sleep or sleep pattern during that week, and in almost all cases, the client had slept irregularly and for less than 5 hours. If you wake up fresh you’ve had enough sleep. If you wake up tired and lethargic and still craving to sleep a little more, your body is asking you for more sleep. It needs rest.