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What does Personality actually have to do with Health and Sleep?

  • Writer: Fred Malich
    Fred Malich
  • May 29
  • 2 min read

It is well known that both, healthy and unhealthy behavior has an influence on one's personality. For example, people who take planned breaks at work are less likely to have a permanently elevated stress level than workaholics. However, it is less known that one's own personality can also have an influence on one’s health. Let's take a quick look at this.


The starting point of this view is rather simple: personality is considered to be stable over time. For example, anyone who is extroverted as an adult was usually already extroverted as an adolescent. In this respect, people can be typified by combining certain characteristics with certain behaviors. This approach has been used in recent decades, particularly in clinics for the treatment of coronary heart disease. Two types of patients can be distinguished from each other particularly well.


The so-called Type A is characterized by excessive energy, aggressiveness that sometimes increases to the point of hostility and a staccato way of speaking. These characteristics are sometimes additionally overlaid with risky behavior caused by the consumption of nicotine and alcohol. Type B does not exhibit these characteristics of nervousness, but often pursues extra-professional interests. Current studies show that Type A has an approximately 25% higher risk of developing coronary heart disease than Type B, with hostility now considered to be the main underlying influencing factor. Irrespective of this, there are other approaches that can explain additional correlations in individual cases. For example, more social support can also have a positive influence on the onset and course of diseases.


When it comes to healthy behavior, one factor is often underestimated, namely the importance of sleep at night. As we know, this is controlled by our internal clock and takes place in several cyclical phases. In each of these cycles, the brain carries out necessary reorganization processes. To put it simply, from the new information received during the day the brain identifies such information that is evaluated as meaningful. It is precisely this information that the brain then transfers to permanent memory, where it is linked to the appropriate, already existing memory content. At the same time, the waste products of brain activity have to be disposed of. In particular, these are proteins that are first built up in complex chemo-electrical processes of neuronal information transfer, then converted several times and finally broken down again. These all are essential processes - directly for one's health, but also indirectly for the stability of one's personality.


Now here's a really practical tip: do not drink anything containing caffeine or take any caffeine-containing medication from late afternoon onwards and then also avoid alcohol. Even small amounts of alcohol can have a stimulating effect in the course of the night, interrupting the sleep cycles and thus significantly impairing the necessary mental recovery.

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