When we go through particularly distressful periods of time, our sleep is very often the first habit that can be affected. Given it’s strong role in nurturing our cognitive and physical skills in our daily life, it is important to take care of our sleep habits in exactly the same way we take care of other areas of our lives.

It can happen to anyone to go through particularly difficult periods of time and to experience occasional troubles sleeping.

Indeed, we could have problems falling asleep (the so-called initial insomnia), or we might wake up several times during the night and have problems falling asleep again (middle insomnia) or we might wake up too early in morning, not being able to fall asleep again (terminal insomnia).

Sometimes these problems could be triggered by specific stressful events, by bad habits regarding your sleeping routines or by distorted beliefs about sleep.

No matter what the cause is, if these troubles persist for at least one month and they have a significant impact in your daily life, it is recommended that you take care of the problem and consult a specialist, in order to avoid the chance of it becoming chronic.

Tips for a better sleep

Here are some of the little, but important, tips that are usually recommended in order to adopt a healthy sleep hygiene:

       Check the time spent in the bed

We should not stay in bed for too long if not asleep. Usually the 85% of the total time spent in bed should be ‘sleeping time’; this means that only 15% of this time should be spent awake.

As a consequence, the first tip to keep in mind is that we should spend as little time as possible awake in bed. If you find yourself for an extended period of time awake, with little chances of falling asleep, it is usually better to get out of bed, go to another room or the couch and do something else until you feel sleepy enough to go back to bed.

Why’s this? Our bed should be a stimulus associated only with sleeping. Usually when we have trouble sleeping, we tend to start thinking, worrying and ruminating, fostering our anxiety and waking up our sympathetic system (that definition is not an alli of relaxation and sleep). Spending too much time awake in bed implies indeed the risk of associating it with the experience of being awake and having stressful negative thoughts.

       Stop having naps

Having little naps during the day is not recommended if we tend to have trouble sleeping; think about naps as little thieves, every time we have a daily nap, a portion of our night sleep is stolen.

       Take care of your bedtime routines

If you have trouble sleeping, the preparation before going to bed is particularly important. Try to create some relaxing routines that your body will soon associate to ‘relax/sleep time’ and that can represent a sort of clear boundary between your day time and your night time. Examples could be:

• having a bath or a particular washing routine
• having a chamomile or another soothing drink
• doing something relaxing before going to sleep (listening to music, relaxation techniques, reading a relaxing book etc.)

Looking after your sleep is important. If you feel that you have troubles doing it by yourself, seek help. A psychologist can help you understand the causes of your issues and work on your worries and on the bad habits that could continue to affect negatively your sleep.

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Insomnia: what it is

Not sleeping as much as we would is unfortunately quite a common problem. Insomnia means having trouble falling asleep (initial insomnia), maintaining sleep during the night due for example to too many awakenings (middle insomnia) or early morning awakenings (terminal insomnia). Vey often insomnia is only a consequence of stressful lifetime periods, but as its consequences can have a strong impact in our daily life, it’s important not to underestimate it.

Insomnia’s consequences

Being insomniac is definitely not a great condition also because of the possible consequences that not sleeping could bring.

As a matter of fact, insomnia short-term consequences include intense sleepiness, sensation of physical unease, irritability, problems in concentrating and memorising information, worsening work performances, little daily accidents, and in general a reduced quality of life. Moreover, long-term consequences are more alarming. Chronic reduced sleep can lead to heart  and pressure problems, diabetes, obesity and depression.

Insomnia treatment

If you suffer from insomnia, the first thing to do is understanding the causes.

In the case of severe insomnia, some GP may prescribe sleeping pills but many patients usually prefer natural remedies.

For natural remedies we refer to talking therapies: counselling with a sleep specialist and psychotherapy.

Indeed, a psychological consultation may help you discover those behaviours that may be counterproductive and understand if there are specific stressors that are interfering with your sleep.

As very often the quality of our sleep is influenced by automatic bad habits, here there are some little tips that could help you to get your sleep quality better, the so-called sleepy hygiene.

Don’t forget that these hints do not substitute a professional help, such as a neurologic and psychological consultation.

1. The bedroom and the bed should be used only to sleep and sexual activity. It is preferable not to watch tv, read or work when you are in the bed.
2. Your bedroom should be sufficiently dark and silent, and the temperature of the room should not exceed 18 degrees.
3. During evening hours you should not introduce in your body stimulant substances as caffeine, nicotine or alcohol (so no coffee, tea, cigarettes or pre-sleep drinks).
4. Too heavy dinners should be avoided.
5. Afternoon naps should be avoided too because they steal sleep from night hours.
6. Do not practice intense sports in the hours before going to sleep, as sport releases adrenaline hormone that doesn’t help falling asleep.
7. During the hours before going to bed, try to avoid mentally engaging activities.
8. Pursue regular sleep rhythms: ideally you should go to bed and wake up always at the same time.
9. Try not to spend too much time in bed without sleeping: if you realise that you have troubles falling asleep, is way better to move to another room or the couch and to go back again to bed only when your are feeling really sleepy.

Related articles: “The night’s worst enemy: insomnia”, by I. Tedeschi

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