Taken from APA (American Psychological Association) Online, "Surveys conducted by the National Sleep Foundation reveal that at least 40 million Americans suffer from over 70 different sleep disorders and 60 percent of adults report having sleep problems a few nights a week or more."
We all know that when one does not get a sufficient amount of sleep they become ill. Some symptoms of sleep deprivation are fatigue, dizzy, suffer from general confusion, headaches, irritable, memory lapses, weight loss or gain, slowed reactions, nausea, etc.
There is also a direct correlation between insomnia and depression. It affects the brain; at night when a person reaches REM sleep, the individual retains all of the memory and new learned information and it is stored into the brain. When a person does not sleep he or she becomes very sluggish and has a difficult time functioning and remembering. Recent studies show sleep deprivation has some potential in the treatment of depression. About 60% of patients, when sleep-deprived, show immediate recovery, with most relapsing the following night. The incidence of relapse can be decreased by combining sleep deprivation with medication.
Instead of medication, many people are turning to Cognitive behavior therapy. CBT is a psychotherapy based on modifying cognitions, assumptions, beliefs and behaviors, with the aim of influencing disturbed emotions. Research shows that CBT reduces false beliefs about sleep (the cognitive part) and also addresses the behavioral aspect, such as what to do when you are lying in bed and can't fall asleep.
Here are some tips to get a good nights rest:
- Restrict the amount of time spent in bed as close as possible to the actual sleep time
- Go to bed only when sleepy, not just fatigue but sleepy
- If unable to sleep (e.g., within 20 min), get out of bed and go to another room and return to bed only when sleep is imminent
- Use the bed and bedroom for sleep (and sex) only; no eating, TV watching, radio listening, planning or problem solving in bed
- Maintain a regular sleep schedule, particularly a strict arising time every morning regardless of the amount of sleep the night before
- Avoid daytime napping
2 comments:
no wonder we have problems sleeping with our diets and late night tv shows and also the stress that we deal with in our lives with work and school
Sleep can be easily disrupted by variety of conditions. Most of medical illnesses could be a primary condition causing secondary insomnia. The common underlying mechanism of secondary insomnia is presumed to be stress effects on sleep. The assessment and treatment of secondary insomnia are often complicated. Establishing an causal inference between primary condition and insomnia is the key to assessment. However, it can be difficult even for experienced clinicians due to diagnostic ambiguity of secondary insomnia. Therefore, through medical evaluation and integrative understanding of primary condition is essential to manage secondary insomnia properly. Although treatment have been usually focused on the primary medical illnesses per se, nonpharmacologic interventions, such as sleep hygiene, might be effective in many cases.
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