Can Gratitude and a Positive Attitude Help You Sleep at Night?

Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier

In a recent book “Thanks” by Robert Emmons, editor of The Journal of Positive Psychology, he says that being grateful can help you sleep better – and he has evidence to support this.

On the surface Simon’s life seemed to be going well. He had a beautiful wife, two children, a well paid job, a nice car, a large house and had a network of friends. Despite this, he found it difficult to sleep at night and did not have a positive attitude to his life.

He rarely expressed thanks for the things in his life. For example he:

• Did not tell his wife that he loved her
• Did not thank his work colleagues for their support on the projects they worked on together
• Did not tell his friends how great they were
• Did not give his children a hug to express how much he cared for them

Simon was given Robert Emmons’ book by a friend and began to put into practice what he read.

Soon his life changed for the better.

Robbert Enmons research showed that:

• People who regularly practice grateful thinking can increase their “set-point” for happiness by as much as 25 percent.

• Such increases can be sustained over a period of months — challenging the previously held notion that our set-points for happiness are frozen at birth.

• Keeping a gratitude journal for as little as three weeks results in better sleep and more energy.

Simon’s favourite quote form the book is:

“Our groundbreaking research has shown that grateful people experience higher levels of positive emotions such as joy, enthusiasm, love, happiness, and optimism, and that the practice of gratitude as a discipline protects a person from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed, and bitterness.

We have discovered that a person who experiences gratitude is able to cope more effectively with everyday stress, may show increased resilience in the face of trauma-induced stress and may recover more quickly from illness and benefit from greater physical health.

Our research has led us to conclude that experiencing gratitude leads to increased feelings of connectedness, improved relationships, and even altruism. We have also found that when people experience gratitude, they feel more loving, more forgiving, and closer to God.”

After reading the book, Simon slept well at night and generally felt happy about his situation in life. He not only apreciated the big things in his life such as family and his home, but became grateful for the little things also such as:

• The postman’s smile as he handed him a packet
• The daffodils growing by the side of the road
• The drawing of a flower that his young son made at school

Starting a grateful journal is easy. You just right down between 5  and 10 things each day that you are grateful for. It doen’t matter if you repeat some things. As you continue with the journal you will find more and more things to be grateful for, and soon you will notice that you life appears to be happier.

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