With tax season upon many of us, March is the perfect month to start habits that reduce anxiety and improve overall wellbeing! One aspect of wellbeing that is often overlooked is sleep quality. Sleep quality is directly related to our ability to regulate our emotions, which impacts all aspects of our lives. Emotional regulation is the ability to promote, inhibit, or initiate emotional states. People with low emotional regulation struggle with attention and patience. Individuals with poor emotional regulation also struggle to react in ways that they feel good about.

Poor emotional regulation, once identified, can be improved by attention to what types of situations are prone to triggering responses that feel bad or embarrassing. It is natural to feel bad or embarrassed when acting in ways that we do not value or that do not reflect our values. By identifying the situations that trigger these types of reactions, we can unpack why they do so. Setting is also something to consider. Some people feel more reactive in social settings and others feel more reactive in private. Being triggered can be a matter of poor emotional regulation or evidence of core pain.

Difficulty with emotional regulation is about your ability to respond in the way you would like to; it is not what your emotional response is, but how you communicate in the situation. If you are able to conceal emotions or express them in ways that reflect your values, then you most likely do not have emotional regulation difficulties. If you are not able to express yourself in a way that reflects your values, then you may be struggling with emotional regulation issues. One way to improve emotional regulation is through improving your sleep quality.

Sleep quality can be improved with a good sleep routine. A good sleep routine includes wind-down time and a time by which you wish to be asleep. In addition to a good sleep routine, having your sleep space be comfortable is important. This includes light levels, smell of the room, and comfort of the bed. For those without odor sensitivities, something that can improve the comfort of the bed and smell of the room is a sash of lavender or mint under your pillow.