As everyone highlighted the importance of self-care in marking World Mental Health Day last Saturday , I would like to raise awareness of the important role of sleep in ensuring our mental well-being. Over the past months, many surveys around the world have revealed an increasing number of people having sleep troubles , such as difficulty nodding off or frequent night awakenings. This should come as no surprise, because not only are our days filled with anxiety, stress and uncertainty in the current Covid-19 pandemic, we are also experiencing drastic changes in lifestyle, where we exercise less and spend more time on screens , which in turn tricks our brains into staying awake. Ideally, we should spend one-third of our lives sleeping. However, even before the coronavirus pandemic, the majority of Hong Kong teens and adults were found to be suffering from chronic sleep deprivation. In this highly competitive society, many view sleep as a squeezable sponge and sacrifice sleep for work commitments. Don’t be like Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, doctors warn While many do find themselves suffering from the negative effects of having a poor night of sleep – such as tiredness, headaches, inability to concentrate and even plummeting productivity – what is less commonly noted is that poor sleep also increases risks of anxiety, depression and other mental health issues, let alone the heightened associations with cardiovascular and metabolic disorders, such as hypertension and diabetes. The bidirectional relationship between sleep and health should not be overlooked and it accentuates the importance of prioritising sleep in our lives as one of the pillars of improving our health. Efforts must be made to raise public awareness of sleep as an essential component of a healthy life, just as important as having a balanced diet and regular exercise. Changing our sleep habits will be no easy task, but practising good sleep hygiene – by keeping a regular sleep schedule, avoiding electronic devices before bed and doing meditation exercises, for example – are simple first steps we may take. Lack of sleep can harm DNA, possibly increasing risk of cancer, study finds While Hong Kong has a long way to go in terms of promoting a positive sleep culture, it would be a worthy exercise, given the importance of sleep not only in optimising our daily functioning, but also our physical and mental health. It’s about time we put sleep higher on our to-do list and stopped glorifying the sleep-deprived . Judy Chow, Kowloon Tong