“I would really encourage people to talk to their GP and get a referral to a sleep disorder centre or an insomnia specialist because these interventions work 75 percent of the time. “Something very quiet like that which helps the brain wind down and sets the stage to more easily be able to go to sleep.”įinally, he says that if you’re seriously struggling with insomnia or a lack of sleep there are very good treatment options available that aren’t necessarily medication-based. That blue light makes it harder for us to fall asleep even if we’re not stressed out.”Īnother tip is that we establish a bedtime routine that involves a relaxing activity and doesn’t include devices such as reading, praying, sewing, or meditating. “Devices are particularly evil because not only do they get our brain rolling and looking at social media or work emails, but also the blue light that comes from devices sends signals to specific parts of the brain saying it’s time to be awake. Drummond says this too can trigger a conditioned arousal as people start to stress about things like whether they will get more sleep before their alarm goes off and they need to head into work.ĭrummond says we should be very wary of using our devices before bedtime or if we wake up in the middle of the night. “Even when you are nice and relaxed and falling asleep in front of your TV, if you get up and go to your bedroom and lie down your eyes pop open and your mind starts to race because the brain thinks that is what the bed is for.”Īs our sleep gets degraded by conditioned arousal, or anything from shift work to a crying baby, the emotional part of the brain becomes overactive when it should be relaxing.Īnother aspect of sleeplessness is people who are able to get themselves to sleep but find they wake up in the middle of the night. Thus, the bed, bedroom, or bedtime becomes the conditioned arousal trigger to the brain that says it’s time to be stressed and begin ruminating on things. What happens, essentially, is that all this time in bed stressed out and worrying and ruminating starts to send these signals to the brain saying, the bed is a place to be awake and to worry, rather than the bed is a place to be comfortable and relaxed and falling asleep.” “Then they realise they can’t sleep so they get frustrated and upset that they can’t sleep and they’re tossing and turning. That then generally leads to negative emotions such as anxiety or depression. “But what we see in the group of people who go onto develop chronic insomnia is that part of their being stressed out is that they lie in bed worrying and ruminating and problem solving and thinking about whatever’s stressing them out. Most people who have a bad time sleeping do so because of a stressor in their life and their sleep goes back to normal when their stress resolves. The reason for our brains turning to negative thoughts at bedtime is what’s called ‘conditioned arousal’. Chronic insomnia, on the other hand, is when it lasts three months or more and is experienced by around 15 percent of the adult population. He says acute insomnia, when people have a short period of finding they’re unable to sleep, is extremely common and most people will experience it in their lifetime. That’s how I got into it.”ĭrummond’s main area of study was the interaction between sleep and mental health. “Having sleep difficulty, particularly insomnia, is also associated with anxiety and anxiety is associated with rumination and having a hard time turning your mind off. He says the so-called ‘rumination spiral’ has been known about for quite some time but is only recently being seriously investigated. Listen the to full interview with Sean Drummond
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |