Your Sleep Quality Probably Sucks. How to Know and What to Do.

Stressed? Sluggish? Irritable? Exhausted? Unhappy? All signs you may not be getting efficient, quality sleep. Fix the problem and spend less time in bed and more time enjoying life.

Image: Pexels/Ron Lach

When you’re asleep, it’s kinda hard to know how well you’re sleeping. Genetics and the challenges of everyday life — things that might seem largely out of our control — can conspire to disrupt the quality of your slumber without you realizing it.

Poor-quality sleep can be just as bad for you as not getting enough hours of shut-eye, research finds. The consequences range from annoying to deadly.

Among the signs your sleep quality is suffering:

• You feel tired or unproductive, lacking the energy or focus for work or play.
• You’re frequently in a bad mood, cranky, perhaps losing your temper too easily.
• You sleep in on weekends, trying to catch up (which doesn’t really work, by the way).
• Stress or anxiety are constant companions.
• You’re not, in a word, happy.

What you won’t realize is that over time, low-quality sleep puts you at greater risk of…