We all have days when we feel we could have made better decisions and been more productive. And no doubt there are times when you reminisce on what could have been, perhaps a job you didn’t get, a relationship that was less than ideal or perhaps the one that got away.
How you feel about your life i.e., life satisfaction, can impact the quality of your sleep and vice versa.
What is life satisfaction?
Life satisfaction is about more than happiness although sometimes life satisfaction and happiness are used interchangeably. Life satisfaction refers to how you rate your life as a whole, not just your current happiness level. Life satisfaction is a combined measure of how you view your well-being, happiness and how fulfilled you are now. While it is an emotional response it can be influenced by external factors like politics, economics, personal and environmental factors. Life satisfaction is often asked of people to determine their level of well-being.
Happiness is an emotion that is experienced at the moment, and it can be fleeting. Happiness is impermanent and can be triggered by a conversation, event or thoughts. A healthy life includes moments of happiness but happiness on its own, is not enough to enjoy a fulfilling and satisfying life. It contributes to it.
Life satisfaction in Australia
According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies, in Australia life satisfaction declines from the age of 15 through to the mid-30s and it is at its lowest between the mid-30s to the early 50s. Thankfully from there it steadily improves until the late 60s. It then remains consistently high into the early 80s. Even for adults who are in their 80s, life satisfaction still remains higher than in most of the earlier life periods.
The decline in life satisfaction could be explained by the stage of life many people are in during their 30s and 40s i.e., establishing themselves, careers, families and social supports. Typically, it’s a stressful time for most adults.
Life satisfaction research
Research shows that life satisfaction is strongly correlated with health-related factors like chronic illness, sleep problems, pain, obesity, smoking, anxiety, and physical activity.
As humans, it is recommended we spend a significant portion of time each day sleeping, and research shows that those who sleep well are more satisfied with their life. While social relationships are essential for wellbeing, social activity is energy-consuming and can be costly.
Zero-sum game outlook
People who sleep poorly are more likely to view happiness as a zero-sum game i.e., if I become happier, you become less happy as opposed to us all becoming happier together. While this might seem pessimistic it is actually what happens according to the OECD Better Life Index. The overall level of happiness has not increased since it started being tracked however it does redistribute each year. That being said, a zero-sum mindset leads people to engage in more social comparison and less ability to savour happy experiences which over time leads to a decreased level of overall happiness.
Link between sleep and life satisfaction
It is thought that the link between quality sleep and life satisfaction is bi-directional, i.e., feeling satisfied about your life increases your sleep quality and good sleep positively influences how you feel about your life. What studies have found is that a zero-sum belief does impact sleep quality and life satisfaction. Indicating that holding a belief that happiness is a fixed, pre-determined experience that you cannot influence is more detrimental to your sleep than experiencing low levels of happiness.
In a second study by SleepScore Labs using the SleepScore sleep tracker app. they determined that of the 1600 people who participated in their study, 61% of people said they were satisfied with their lives and also reported they were satisfied with their sleep quality. Only 28% of those content with their lives said their sleep was unsatisfactory. About 51% of participants who answered “disagree” to the statement that they were satisfied with their lives said their sleep was also of poor quality, whereas 21% said their sleep was fine.
Life satisfaction means more sleep!
Of those who were satisfied with their lives, they fell asleep 13% faster, woke up 2.4% less, slept nearly 2% longer, and had nearly 2% higher sleep efficiency (a measurement based on the percentage of time in bed spent asleep) than those who reported being unsatisfied with their life. While these percentages may seem small, they are considered statistically significant. From all of this, those who are more satisfied with their life sleep 6 minutes more each night than those who aren’t. This equates to almost 45 minutes per week or over 2.5 hrs a month!
Life satisfaction increases your sleep by 6mins a night
We now know there is a correlation between sleep quality and life satisfaction. So, if you are suffering from poor sleep quality and have tried sleep hygiene and other things which haven’t worked, then your level of life satisfaction may be to blame.
Certainly, clients who have come to see me about their sleep have carried some residual or unprocessed dissatisfaction in some parts of their lives, which needed processing.
Steps to exploring your life satisfaction level
By exploring your level of life satisfaction, you can then decide whether you would like to change anything or not, and by how much. You may even realise that you need new goals.
13 Ways to improved lifestyle satisfaction
- To get a sense of where you may get the most impact take the Life Satisfaction Survey here
- Review and adjust your goals to better address what you learned in the Life Satisfaction Survey
- Practice Gratitude to increase positive emotions and reduce negativity
- Visualise a life that you love and work towards achieving it
- Nurture quality social relationships
- Appreciate the beauty in your life
- Do things that have a personal meaning for you
- Increase your physical activity with activities you enjoy
- Practice Self-compassion, self-acceptance and compassion
- Establish psychological safety by addressing financial and personal security
- Understand your emotions to regulate and manage them
- Align your behaviour with your feelings and thoughts
- Gift yourself alone time to reflect on your day, week and month
If reading this, it’s hard for you to identify how you can improve your lifestyle satisfaction levels then book in a confidential call with me and we will gently explore ways you could consider addressing your situation to improve your lifestyle satisfaction and sleep.
