This week, we’re chatting with Katherine Morgan Schafler, a psychotherapist and the author of The Perfectionist’s Guide To Losing Control, to find her One Good Thing. 

Hey, Katherine. If you could recommend One Good Thing we can all do for our mental health, what would it be?

Prioritise sleep. 

Sounds good to us. Why is this your One Good Thing? 

Sleep does for your brain what hydrating does for your skin – it makes your brain glow. We don’t think of sleep as an activity, and we certainly don’t think of sleep as a productive activity, but sleeping is one of the most productive activities you can engage in. 

While you sleep, a system of vessels called the glymphatic system flushes all the cellular trash out of your brain and helps you to feel clear headed and focused the next day. While you sleep, you clear synaptic space so you can remember things better the next day. Your metabolism and endocrine functions begin to stabilise (which mean fewer mood swings). Your body releases the cellular equivalent of thousands of tiny hands to repair every muscle in your body so you’re less achy (including your heart muscle). 

Sleeping also carries huge immunity enhancing effects; one research study showed, for example, that after you take a vaccine and you sleep for the night, your body creates nearly twice as many antibodies for that virus than those who were kept awake the night after receiving the vaccine.

Are there any potential pitfalls of your One Good Thing?

Caffeine, alcohol and looking at electronics before bed. What works for me won’t work for everyone else, but I don’t drink caffeine after 11am, I only drink alcohol on occasion because it seriously disrupts my sleep and I don’t look at electronics before bed. Removing these things may feel extreme, but it’s not that big of a deal. We think these three habits help us restore. For me, they only delay actual rest and restoration. What helps me restore is having two hours of open time in the morning before the day begins to do whatever the hell I want.

How do you personally do your One Good Thing?

It’s very simple. I don’t look at my phone or watch TV before bed. This habit developed by accident. I’d put my young daughter to bed by reading to her in a dim, quiet room, then I’d often fall asleep in her bed myself. Once I realised how much easier it is to fall asleep without electronics, it was no longer an issue of discipline. I’m not interested in looking at electronics before bed any more. It doesn’t make me feel good. It’s not actually restorative.

How has doing your One Good Thing changed your life? 

I wrote my book in the morning hours; it’s when I review all my intentions and goals, and it’s when I think about what I want and how my choices are either in or out of alignment with what I want. Giving myself that pocket of time every day has been such a gift for myself. And what did I really have to trade for it at the end of the day? Nothing. Staring at dumb shit on my phone in the dark for an hour? Doomscrolling? Drinking more iced coffee when I know I don’t need more iced coffee?

Images: Getty; Stylist