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Can't Sleep? 15 Tips You Can Try
by Connie Saindon, MA, MFT,
Founder: Survivors of Violent Loss Program
In animal sleep, a sloth sleeps 20 hours a day while a porpoise
sleeps half a brain at a time. Birds do not sleep and rabbits and
squirrels sleep 10-14 hours a day. People need a wide variation
of sleep and can range from 1-10 hours a day. There is more need
for sleep at birth, while as we age our sleep needs are less and
lighter.
Sleep problems are a common symptom for people who are recovering
from traumatic events. One's usual methods for falling asleep may
no longer work. Disturbing thoughts of reenactment, rescue or reunion
may interfere with one's sleep cycle. Nightmares and sleep terrors
occur in response to adjusting to shattered realties.
Practice "Good Sleep Hygiene." Here are some tips for
you to try:
1. No reading or watching TV in bed. These are waking activities.
If your insomnia is chronic, it is not a good thing to do, says
Dr. Alex Clerk, head of Stanford Sleep Disorder Clinic in Palo Alto.
2. Go to bed when you're sleepy-tired, not when it's time to go
to bed by habit.
3. Wind down during the second half of the evening before bedtime.
90 minutes before bed, don't get involved in any kind of anxiety
provoking activities or thoughts.
4. Do some breathing exercises or try to relax major muscle groups,
starting with the toes and ending with your forehead.
5. Your bed is for sleeping, if you can't sleep after 15-20 minutes,
get up and do something relaxing.
6. Have your room cool rather than warm.
7. Don't count sheep, counting is stimulating.
8. Exercise in the afternoon or early evening, but no later than
3 hours before bedtime.
9. Don't over-eat, and eat 2-3 hours before bedtime.
10. Don't nap during the day.
11. If you awake in the middle of the night and can't get back to
sleep within 30 minutes, get up and do something else.
12. Have No coffee, alcohol or cigarettes two to three hours before
bedtime.
13. If you have disturbing dreams or nightmares add an ending that
you want.
14. Schedule a half-hour writing about your concerns and hopes in
a journal every night to free up your sleep from processing your
dilemmas as much.
15. Listen to calming music or a self-hypnosis tape for sleep.
If sleep problems persist, contact your physician or mental health
professional. Let them know what is happening in your life. Your
problem may have either organic or psychological contributors. Sleep
disorders are classified as chronic if they persist more than one
month. There are of two major categories of sleep disorders. They
are Dyssomnias -- when there are problems with the amount, quality
or timing of sleep and Parasomnias -- when there are abnormal events
occurring during sleep stages.
Sleep difficulties can mean that their is an underlying problem
that needs treatment. J. Christain Gillin, M.D. states that most
patients that have a sleep disorder have an underlying psychiatric
disorder. The different kind of sleep disorders include insomnia,
hypersonmia-excessive daytime sleeping, Nightmare Disorder, Narcolepsy-irresistible
attacks of sleep, Sleep-apnea and Sleepwalking. Let us know if these
tips help you and also if you have one that works for you and is
not listed here.
References:
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth
Edition.
Trauma and Recovery by Judith Lewis Herman, M.D.
Retelling Violent Death by Ted Rynearson, M.D., Virginia
Mason Medical Center, Seattle, Washington.
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