20% of population are not getting enough..... Sleep!

Around 20% of the adult population are said to be sleep-deprived at any one time. Experiencing mild to moderate sleep disturbance also causes problems in cognitive thinking and reaction times comparable to being drunk. Maybe you weren't expecting to hear that, but it has been shown to be true. Maybe you have felt drained when working to deadline or on a tough project and sleep has been the last thing on your mind.

So what if you are waking up several times during the night? what do you find yourself doing? Tell yourself you should stop thinking about something?

Do you turn over, plump up the pillow and fall asleep again or does your brain start to rev up and charge into action? Do you have to get up and make a drink or read a book to feel sleepy again? Can you sleep better in a chair than in your bed? Do you dread going back into bed? You are not alone. I've worked with people who suffered sleep deprivation and its' knock-on effects on their lives. It can be helped, it doesn't need to continue to have the impact it is.

If there are lots of things going on in your life, perhaps some things you have not tackled before, it can be difficult to drop off to sleep again. You see, I think of it like this, your brain is waking you up to help resolve the problem consciously. If our unconscious mind, the part that has all our previous experiences and values safely tucked away, cannot resolve a problem during REM sleep (the deepest part of sleep, when Rapid Eye Movement occurs), it requests the conscious mind get in on the act to help solve the problem. It's doing it's best to help in this situation. Perhaps this is not what we ideally want at 4am in the morning, so it can feel frustrating and tiring!

In the past, during difficult times in my life, I have found my normally regular sleep pattern destroyed temporarily. I found myself waking up in the wee small hours as if I was in an unpleasant dream. Then whatever had been playing on my mind earlier in the day came back to me. I was left considering what it was that I was being asked to solve. I was fortunate as sleep eventually descended after a while. Perhaps in part as I took a few simple steps to deal with the problem.

Writing my thoughts down was one way of tackling that shut-eye intrusion. Have you tried it? What did you find happened? Also making sure you switch off equipment like TV and phone at least 30-45 minutes before bedtime.

What else do you use to help with sleep disturbance/ insomnia? Or are you a master at super sleep habits? I look forward to hearing your own stories of sleep, how you get back to sleep or drop off to sleep in the first place? What do you think has helped you deal with sleeplessness?

I'd love to hear what experiences with sleep (or lack of) that you have had.

Tiredness & Sweet Dreams

'When was the last time you had a full, unbroken nights sleep?' A question asked of a client.  Their answer, 'about 6 months ago'.  The deterioration of someone's sleeping habits can be worrying and frustrating. Worrying about getting back off to sleep when waking during the night or when going to bed.

It's an all too common theme. A big part of this puzzle is the frustration feeding the sleeplessness monster. The minutes tick by and the thought of 'why am I not asleep?' arrives. Aggh! tossing and turning and counting sheep and yet... despite best efforts, sleep still does not arrive. Feeling wide awake, a swirl of thoughts flows in, uninvited. Does this sound in any way a familiar pattern?  

Accepting our body/ mind is trying to tell us something is the first step. Perhaps there is a physical reason (like sleep apnoea where someone stops breathing momentarily) or that the environment is not helping (for example the room is too light), or perhaps its caused by being worried about something? 

If we have got something exciting or new that we are experiencing, our brains let us know we need to process this consciously. It will wake us up to make sense of things, particularly when during dream sleep we are unable to come up with solutions or are lacking past experience to guide us. It is a natural part of the brains' way of adapting to new situations - whether emotional, physical or environmental.  

If it keeps happening, then there maybe underlying issues that need to be investigated. Sleep is extremely important for our state of mind as well as our health. The question is, what is enough sleep? There's lots of expert views on how long we need to sleep so we function at our best. There are those who seem to get by on just a few hours and others who feel they need more.  How many hours unbroken sleep are you getting?

If you are having any difficulties with sleep, you could always pop in for a free consultation to find out how I can close the loop for you on that negative sleep cycle. Zzzzzzzzzz...... sweet dreams!