Trying to sleep during the recent heatwave has probably reminded many of us of the effect a restless night can have on our state of mind and mood the next day! Getting enough sleep – and sufficient quality of sleep – is important for maintaining good mental health and emotional wellbeing, in both the short and long term.
Sleeping well makes us feel refreshed, and improves our concentration, memory, and ability to think clearly. It’s restorative too, helping us to recover both physically and mentally if we’re going through stress. If there are things in our life we need to process, sleep helps us make sense of them. If you’re sleeping badly, as well as being tired and lacking in energy, you may become irritable and more easily upset, or find it hard to focus. A lack of sleep over a period of time can contribute to a decline in mental health.
Studies have proved that sleeping is a complex process that has an impact on the whole body. Regulated by numerous hormones and other chemicals produced by the brain, we move through multiple cycles and stages of sleep every night, each of which is thought to play a part in quality sleep. Periods of quiet sleep, which helps to restore the body, alternate with REM (dreaming) which refreshes the mind.
If our internal systems and rhythms are disrupted –for instance, waking up frequently in the night can prevent us from entering REM sleep – this can damage the quality of sleep we get. We can help to prevent this happening by paying attention to what’s known as our ‘sleep hygiene’.
Becoming too fixated on sleeping problems can create a vicious cycle, where feelings of anxiety about getting enough sleep actually stop you from sleeping!
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been shown to work well as a treatment for sleep issues: you can find out more about how it can help here.
In online CBT sessions with ieso, your therapist will first assess your sleep difficulties to check there are no other factors that need addressing. For example, problems with sleep can indicate an underlying mental health difficulty, such as anxiety or depression.
You’ll then spend some time formulating your sleep difficulties – discussing examples of what you experience. You can read more about formulation in this blog. The therapist will then work with you on techniques and strategies to change your beliefs, thoughts and behaviours around sleep. This might include behavioural experiments – for instance, instead of staying in bed tossing and turning you could try getting up and doing something else if you haven’t dropped off after 30 minutes, then going back to bed when you feel sleepy, and see if that helps to break the cycle.
If you’d like to refer yourself for online CBT with ieso, you can get started by registering here.
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