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Have you decided on the meaning of life? Now you can sleep well!
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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Those people who have defined their life's meaning sleep better than others and suffer from insomnia less often, scientists say.
Many people experience regular sleep disturbances. For example, they are often bothered by incomprehensible night awakenings, difficulty falling asleep, daytime sleepiness. As a rule, most of these people become regular patients of clinics: they are prescribed sedatives and sleeping pills, various physiotherapeutic procedures. But all this has only a temporary effect. And only some doctors advise to consult a psychotherapist: indeed, often only such a specialist can solve the "sleeping" problem.
How can we improve our sleep? Experts from Northwestern University say that to get a full and quality sleep, our lives should be filled with meaning as much as possible.
Professor Jason Ong and a team of scientists conducted a survey of more than 800 volunteers aged sixty and over. The main question was: how do they rate the quality of their own sleep, and do they consider their lives to be filled with meaning?
The test consisted of thirty-two questions in total. For example, one of the most "capacious" questions was: "Could you apply this statement to yourself: "I am proud of what I have done in the past and what I intend to do"?
It was found that people who are satisfied with their lives and have a clear idea of what they live for sleep without any particular problems. They experience apnea much less often – this term refers to short-term pauses in breathing that negatively affect the quality of sleep and over time can cause cardiovascular problems. People who know their purpose in life complain of restless leg syndrome more than 50% less often, and daytime sleepiness is unknown to them.
As stated, only elderly people participated in the project – both male and female. None of the participants suffered from senile dementia. However, scientists believe that a similar tendency based on the meaning of life can also be found in younger people. The only caveat is that young people are much less likely to think about the meaning of their lives.
Can psychotherapists correct the direction of thoughts? Is there really a cause-and-effect relationship between our life affirmation and the quality of sleep? The researchers themselves claim that further experiments will be able to prove the existence of this connection. And the meaning of life really will help you sleep peacefully.
The study is described in the pages of Sleep Science and Practice (https://sleep.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41606-017-0015-6).