Learn Hardcore Indonesian: Setelah itu, saya merasa lebih sadar bahwa pola tidur dan pola makan saya benar-benar mempengaruhi kualitas kesehatan mental saya. - After that, I felt more aware that my sleep pattern and eating pattern really affect the quality of my mental health.

Setelah means after and normally needs something after it (a clause or a noun phrase):
- Setelah makan, saya tidur. = After eating, I slept.
Setelah itu literally means after that (event) and is often used like a discourse connector:
- Setelah itu, … = After that / Afterward, …

Alternatives:

Sesudah itu – basically the same meaning and formality as Setelah itu, just a different word for after.
Lalu / Kemudian – more like then / and then, used to continue a story.

In this sentence, Setelah itu is natural. You could also say Sesudah itu or Kemudian, but lalu would sound a bit more casual and story-like.

Why is it merasa lebih sadar and not something like menyadari? What’s the difference between sadar and menyadari here?

sadar is an adjective: aware / conscious
menyadari is a verb: to realize / to be aware of (something)
merasa is to feel.

So:

merasa lebih sadar = to feel more aware (describing a state/feeling)
menyadari
- object = to realize something (an action toward an object)

Your sentence:

saya merasa lebih sadar bahwa …
= I felt more aware that … (a change in awareness / state)

If you used menyadari, it would be:

Saya menyadari bahwa pola tidur dan pola makan saya …
= I realized that my sleep and eating patterns …

Both are grammatically correct, but merasa lebih sadar emphasizes the inner feeling of increased awareness, not just the act of realization.

What exactly does lebih do in lebih sadar? Is this always a comparison like “more than X”?

lebih usually marks a comparative: more + adjective.

lebih sadar = more aware
lebih sehat = healthier
lebih penting = more important

In practice, Indonesians often use lebih + adjective even when the comparison isn’t explicitly stated, just to show an increase from before:

Sekarang saya lebih sadar.
= Literally Now I am more aware, but pragmatically: Now I’m much more aware than before.

In your sentence, merasa lebih sadar implies I became more aware than I used to be, even if the “than before” is not said.

Why do we need bahwa here? Can I just say saya merasa lebih sadar pola tidur… without bahwa?

bahwa introduces a “that”-clause (a reported content clause), just like that in English:

Saya merasa lebih sadar bahwa …
= I felt more aware that …

Technically, you could omit bahwa in casual speech:

Saya merasa lebih sadar pola tidur dan pola makan saya benar-benar mempengaruhi …

…but without bahwa the sentence feels heavier, and it’s slightly easier to misparse where the clause begins. In standard and especially written Indonesian, bahwa is very common and natural here.

So:

With bahwa = clearer, more standard
Without bahwa = possible in speech, but less neat in writing

In pola tidur dan pola makan saya, does saya belong to both pola tidur and pola makan? Why not repeat saya?

Yes, in pola tidur dan pola makan saya, the saya is understood to apply to both:

pola tidur (saya) dan pola makan saya
= my sleep pattern and my eating pattern

Indonesian allows one possessive to “cover” both items when they are joined like this, and it sounds very natural.

You could repeat it:

pola tidur saya dan pola makan saya

This is also correct and maybe slightly more explicit, but it’s a bit longer and not necessary. Native speakers commonly use the shorter version you saw.

What does benar-benar add here? Is it like really or totally? Could I leave it out?

benar-benar literally comes from benar (true/right) and means:

really / truly / genuinely / actually

In this sentence:

…pola tidur dan pola makan saya benar-benar mempengaruhi…
≈ my sleep and eating patterns really do affect…

It adds emphasis and sometimes a sense of “no kidding / seriously / genuinely”.

If you remove it:

pola tidur dan pola makan saya mempengaruhi kualitas kesehatan mental saya.

That’s still perfectly correct; it just sounds more neutral and less emphatic.

Why is it mempengaruhi and not berpengaruh? What’s the difference between those?

Both come from the root pengaruh (influence/effect), but:

mempengaruhi (meN- + pengaruh + -i)
- A transitive verb: to affect / to influence (something)
- Takes a direct object.
- Example: Kopi mempengaruhi kualitas tidur saya.
  = Coffee affects my sleep quality.
berpengaruh (ber- + pengaruh)
- An intransitive verb/adjectival verb: to have influence / to be influential
- Often used with a preposition like terhadap / pada / bagi.
- Example: Kopi berpengaruh pada kualitas tidur saya.
  = Coffee has an effect on my sleep quality.

In your sentence:

pola tidur dan pola makan saya benar-benar mempengaruhi kualitas kesehatan mental saya

uses the direct-object structure: X affects Y.
You could rephrase with berpengaruh:

…pola tidur dan pola makan saya benar-benar berpengaruh pada kualitas kesehatan mental saya.

Both are grammatical; the given sentence is a bit more direct and common in this structure.

How is the noun phrase kualitas kesehatan mental saya structured? What is the head noun here?

The head noun is kualitas (quality).

The structure is:

kualitas (head)
kesehatan mental (what kind of quality? → quality of mental health)
saya (possessor: my)

So the whole phrase is:

kualitas (of) kesehatan mental (of) saya

In English order:
the quality of my mental health

This piling of nouns is very normal in Indonesian; there’s no word like of—just nouns placed one after another, with the possessor saya at the very end.

Would it still be natural if I just said kesehatan mental saya instead of kualitas kesehatan mental saya?

Yes, that’s also natural, but the nuance changes a bit.

kesehatan mental saya
= my mental health (the thing itself)
kualitas kesehatan mental saya
= the quality of my mental health (how good/bad it is)

If you say:

…pola tidur dan pola makan saya mempengaruhi kesehatan mental saya.

it means they affect my mental health (general statement).

If you keep kualitas:

…mempengaruhi kualitas kesehatan mental saya.

you highlight that the level/degree (good vs bad) of your mental health is what’s being affected.

Both are fine; the original is just a bit more specific/academic.

Is the overall sentence formal, neutral, or casual? How might a more casual version look?

The original sentence is neutral to slightly formal, suitable for writing, essays, or reflective speech:

Setelah itu, saya merasa lebih sadar bahwa pola tidur dan pola makan saya benar-benar mempengaruhi kualitas kesehatan mental saya.

A common casual, spoken version with aku and more colloquial words might be:

Abis itu, aku jadi lebih sadar kalau pola tidur dan pola makan aku bener-bener ngaruh ke kesehatan mental aku.

Changes:

Setelah itu → Abis itu (more colloquial)
saya → aku (informal pronoun)
bahwa → kalau (very common in speech as “that”)
benar-benar mempengaruhi → bener-bener ngaruh ke (really affect, more colloquial)
kualitas might be dropped in casual talk to just kesehatan mental aku.

The meaning is the same, but the original is more standard/neutral, especially for written contexts.