How To Overcome Sleep Difficulties – A Psychologists Guide

Do you have trouble falling asleep at night, and find yourself constantly waking up?

Regardless of how much time you spend in bed, do you wake up feeling sleepy and exhausted?

Many people find themselves feeling this way, which can affect your everyday life significantly, especially your energy, mood, pleasure level, interest levels, concentration, memory,  productivity and health.

A lack of sleep can cause various health problems, such as poor brain cognitive performance, an elevated risk of chronic disease, which can be a burden and stress on your body and mind.

Although many individuals underestimate the significance of consistently getting a good night’s sleep, it’s important for you to be able to get consistent sleep to manage your life and mental health well.

There are practical methods for resolving sleep issues and improving the quality of your sleep.

Let’s explore what effects sleep, common sleep disorders and practical & custom strategies to help you get some restful sleep .

At ST&A Psychology our highly skilled and experienced psychologists in Manly and Northern Beaches can help support you and provide you with important, helpful and at times necessary  psychological skills & techniques so you can start to get the sleep you need consistently and improve your physical and mental health. Lifestyle Factors that Can Affect Your Sleep

Your everyday routines and behaviours have a big influence on how you sleep. The first step towards understanding this is to realise that there might be several factors going on in your life which may be affecting how your physical body and mental health affects your quantity and quality of sleep.

These factors may include :

Stress and Anxiety :

Your thoughts may circulate, ruminate or race at night from worrying about school, work, uni, friendships, relationships, family, health, or other aspects of your life making it hard to get to sleep or remain asleep.

Diet and Exercise :

What you eat and drink, can highly impact how you sleep right before you head to bed. This may include heavy meals, alcohol, and caffeine which can all interfere with your sleep cycles. In a similar way, a lack of irregular exercise might result in a poor night’s sleep.

Irregular Sleep Schedules :

By going to bed at inconsistent times, your internal body clock can be disrupted leading you to not feel sleepy when you are supposed to be going to bed to sleep. It can also then wake you up at inconsistent times during the night.

Your circadian clocks typically follow a 24-hour repeating rhythm, called the circadian rhythm. This rhythm affects every cell, tissue, and organ in your body and how they work.

Your central circadian clock, located in your brain, tells you when it is time for sleep. Other circadian clocks are in organs throughout your body. Your body’s internal clocks are in sync with certain cues in the environment. Light, darkness, and other cues help determine when you feel awake and when you feel drowsy. Artificial light and caffeine can disrupt this process by giving your body false wakefulness cues.

Most people’s natural circadian cycle is slightly greater than 24 hours. Some people naturally wake up early and some naturally stay up late. For example, it is natural for many teens to prefer later bedtimes and to sleep later in the morning than adults.

Less physical activity or less time spent outdoors, also affect circadian rhythms. As a result, older adults usually sleep less and wake up earlier.

Screen Time :

If you follow a natural schedule of days and nights, light signals received through your eyes tell your brain that it is daytime. This helps your central body clock stay in tune with the day and night.

Exposure to artificial light interferes with this process. The light–dark cycle influences when your brain makes and releases a hormone called melatonin. The amount of melatonin  starts to increase in the evening and peaks in the early morning. Melatonin is thought to promote sleep.

As you are exposed to more light, such as the sun rising, your body releases another hormone called cortisol. Cortisol naturally prepares your body to wake up.

Exposure to bright artificial light in the late evening can disrupt this process and prevent your brain from releasing melatonin. This can make it harder to fall asleep.

So, If you use your screen devices regularly at night, the blue light emitted from computers, phones and tablets can make it difficult to fall asleep. This can interfere with your body’s natural cycle of sleep and wake.

How Much Sleep Is Enough?

Experts recommend that adults sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night.

Adults who sleep less than 7 hours a night may have more health issues than those who sleep 7 or more hours a night.

Sleeping more than 9 hours a night is not necessarily harmful and may be helpful for young adults, people who are recovering from sleep deprivation, and people who are sick.

How much sleep children should get depends on their age. Sleep experts consider naps to be appropriate for children under age 7.

Recommended hours of sleep 

Below you can find the recommended hours of sleep, including naps, for different ages. :

• For newborns younger than 4 months, sleep patterns vary widely.
• Babies 4 months to 1 year old should sleep 12 to 16 hours per day.
• Children 1 to 2 years old should sleep 11 to 14 hours per day.
• Children 3 to 5 years old should sleep 10 to 13 hours per day.
• Children 6 to 12 years old should sleep 9 to 12 hours per day.
• Teens 13 to 18 years old should sleep 8 to 10 hours per day.

What Are Common Sleep Disorders that Can Affect the quality and quantity of Your Sleep? 

Your quality of life can be greatly impacted by sleep issues.

You might be asking yourself why can’t I easily fall asleep at night?

Why do I keep waking up during the night?

What can I do about my lack of consistent quality sleep?

Insomnia :

This is characterised by the difficulty of falling asleep, staying asleep or both despite having the opportunity to sleep. This also may come with other symptoms like weight gain, difficulty concentrating, depression and anxiety.

Insomnia negatively impacts your brain functioning, performance speed and ability. Making concentrating on information harder, as well as encoding, storing and retrieving information harder.

With memory and concentration affected negatively your work uni or school performance and ability to learn is negatively affected.

Sleep Apnoea :

This disorder causes frequent and repeated breathing pauses while you sleep, often coupled with loud snoring. Your body is taking in a lot less oxygen which can easily cause you to rapidly wake in the middle of sleep.

This can come in the form of two types :

• Central sleep apnoea : Where there is difficulty between your brain and your body muscles which ultimately control how you are breathing
• Obstructive sleep apnoea : Also known as (OSA), this causes your upper airways to be much narrower or blockage while you’re sleeping which may cause reduced or lack of breathing.

This may cause fatigue during the daytime, dry mouth and urinating during the night, due to your body’s reaction to the lack of breath.

 Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) : 

This can interfere with sleep by causing an uncomfortable sensation in the legs and an overwhelming desire to move them.

If you’ve ever tried to fall asleep with pain in your legs waking up with a disruptive sleep this can often be the cause of this.

Narcolepsy  :

This is a neurological condition resulting in abrupt sleep attacks and severe daytime drowsiness. This means you might feel tired at random times out of nowhere.

You might also feel like you cannot move around right after waking up called sleep paralysis, this is often caused by a combination between narcolepsy and (sleep paralysis).

Parasomnias :

Parasomnia sleep disorder includes sleep related activities such as night terrors, sleep waking and sleep talking. This is classified as very unusual sleep behaviours, which can be common in adults but mostly children.

If you are experiencing any of the following conditions you should always speak to a qualified doctor or medical professional.

How Are Sleep Disorders Diagnosed? 

At ST&A Psychology we diagnose sleep disorders using a thorough process of assessment.

Our approach consists of :

• Enquiring about your sleep habits, patterns and any symptoms you may be experiencing.
• Psychological assessment : As part of the diagnosis process, we will assess your mental health, as health issues can lead to sleep disorders and problems are often associated together.
• Sleep Diary : To monitor your sleep, we may ask you to keep a sleep journal for a few weeks  to help us track your sleep patterns.
• Referral for Physical Examination : This helps tous rule out any underlying medical conditions that may be interfering with your sleep.
• Sleep study : To track your sleep over night, we may recommend a sleep study(polysomnography) to monitor your sleep overnight. We work alongside trained medical professionals to help with this, which is done after an assessment and through evaluation.

How Do We Treat Sleep Disorders?

Spending on your specific sleeping conditioning, different sleep disorders require different treatment approaches.

We provide several evidence base therapies at ST&A Psychology such as :

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) : 

This is a highly effective treatment for insomnia that helps you change ad manage thoughts and behaviours that prevent you from falling asleep.

Education on Sleep Hygiene :

Together we’ll partner with you to establish healthy sleeping practices and a sleep friendly environment, in a supportive and individualistic approach, as we understand that each person is unique along with your sleeping habits.

Relaxation Techniques :

These may consist of mindfulness meditation, deep breathing techniques and gradual muscular relaxation.

Medication :

In some cases, we may recommend consulting with your GP to consider medication as part of your treatment plan (e.g. melatonin) , but it would always be in combination with other therapy.

How Can You Make Lifestyle Changes to Improve Your Wellbeing and Sleep

Improving your whole quality of life is the goal of better sleep, not just feeling less exhausted. A good sleep can benefit your mental and physical health.

Getting better sleep means :

• A strengthened immune system
• Improved mental and emotional wellbeing
• Increased productivity and cognitive function
• Lowers the incidence of chronic illness
• Increased your energy levels and physical performance

Strategies That Can Help You Sleep

The Observing, accepting and Defusing from thoughts and feelings.

This method is a useful strategy for managing thoughts that interfere with sleep. This method has roots in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which helps you separate your thoughts from reality and understand the difference between seeing them for what they are, just thoughts and not facts.

You can try some of these defusion techniques :

• Notice your thoughts : First just tell yourself “I’m noticing that I’m having the thought that” This helps create the distance between you and your thoughts
• Observe the form of your thoughts : Be mindful of whether your thoughts are sensation, words or images. Where do they appear to be? Are they still or moving?
• The ‘Hands as Thoughts’ exercise : Imagine that your ideas are your hands. To see how thoughts can cloud your perception of the outside world, hold them in front of your face.
• Saying “That’s an interesting thought” allows you to recognise the idea without becoming engrossed in its details
• The ‘Annoying passenger’ metaphor can be used. Think of your ideas like a bothersome passenger in your car. You can be aware of them without allowing them to dictate how you control your actions or how you feel.

Simple Ways to Get Present & let go of thoughts Techniques

Take Ten Breaths

This is a simple exercise to centre yourself and connect with your environment. Practice it throughout the day, especially any time you find yourself getting caught up in your thoughts and feelings.

1. Take ten slow, shallow/light breaths. Focus on breathing out as slowly as possible until the lungs are empty—and then allow them to refill by themselves.
2. Notice the sensations of your lungs slowly emptying. Notice them slowly lightly refilling. Notice your rib cage rising and falling. Notice the gentle rise and fall of your shoulders.
3. See if you can let your thoughts come and go as if they’re just passing cars, driving past outside your house.
4. Expand your awareness : simultaneously notice your breathing and your body. Then look around the room and notice what you can see, hear, smell, touch, and feel.

Drop Anchor

This is another simple exercise to center yourself and connect with the world around you. Practice it throughout the day, especially any time you find yourself getting caught up in your thoughts and feelings.

1. Plant your feet into the floor. Heels into the matress if lying on the bed.
2. Push them down—notice the floor/Matress beneath you, supporting you.
3. Notice the muscle tension in your legs as you push your feet down.
4. Notice your entire body—and the feeling of gravity flowing down through your head, spine,  and legs into your feet.
5. Now look around and notice what you can see and hear around you. Notice where you are and what you’re doing.

Notice Five Things

This is yet another simple exercise to center yourself and engage with your environment.

Practice it throughout the day, especially any time you find yourself getting caught up in your thoughts and feelings.

1. Pause for a moment
2. Look around and notice five things that you can see.
3. Listen carefully and notice five things that you can hear.
4. Notice five things that you can feel in contact with your body (for example, your watch against your wrist, your trousers against your legs, the air on your face, your feet upon the floor, your back against the chair).
5. Finally, do all of the above simultaneously

By trying these techniques opens the road to your sleep journey, and a great night sleep.

 Exercise

By doing regular exercise this can greatly improve the quality of your sleep.

Here’s how :

• Decrease worry & stress : Exercise lowers cortisol levels, which in turn reduces worry and stress that can disrupt sleep
• Increase sleep duration : People who regularly work out frequently report getting more rest and longer sleep
• Improves sleep quality : Exercise can help you get more restful deep sleep
• Controls circadian rhythm : Exercise outside exposes you to natural light, which helps control your body’s circadian rhythm.
• Decreases sleep on set time : Means you can fall asleep more quickly if you exercise regularly.

Important note: In order for your body temperature and heart rate to return to normal, make sure you finish your workout at least a few hours before bed .

ST&A Psychology Can Help You Manage Your Sleep Disorders

We at ST&A Psychology in North Sydney & St Leonards, understand the profound impact that sleeping problems can have on your everyday life.

Our highly experienced team of skilled psychologists are committed to assisting you in overcoming sleep issues and obtaining a great night’s sleep.

We provide individualised treatment programs based on your unique requirements.

By using evidenced base treatment we can support you by creating better sleep habits and uplift your physical health and mental health.

Make an appointment for a consultation with our team today to begin your path to a restful and restorative sleep.