Sleep issues is a common symptom when we have something on our mind like anxiety and stress. Especially when I was stressed about an exam for example I wouldn't sleep as well the night before and led to me waking up tired and not as fresh for the day but made me more nervous and stressed in fact. There are many ways to help with sleeping issues that I will speak about in this chapter.
There is a direct link between sleep and mental health, a poor sleep can lead to a poor mental health and a poor mental health can mean we get less sleep.
Having a regular sleeping pattern can help you to have a better body clock and allow you to feel more awake. Going to bed the same time and waking up the same time everyday allows you to have a better body clock, this allows you to feel more awake in the morning which helps to promote a better mood and mindset for the day. It is also important to remember to go sleep when you feel tired, you will struggle to get sleep when you are full of energy.
Another problem is that we don't relax before bed which could lead to us struggling to fall asleep at first. The biggest thing that causes this is technology, watching tv or a screen at night, the blue light emitted stops the production of melatonin which is a hormone that controls your sleep cycle. Therefore, it is important before going to bed it is to stay away from technology which allows our mind to relax more for bed.
Relaxation techniques can also help to relax us for sleep, breathing techniques can help calm our body for sleep, as well as this muscle relaxation techniques can relieve the stress in your muscles and relax them. We can also use music just before we sleep which can also help us to relax, make sure you pick the right genre of music which relaxes you the most and not make you feel more energised.
It is also an idea to help with sleep is to make sure it is the right temperature in the room for your own comfort, make sure your room is warm or cold enough for your own likes this allows you to feel more comfortable allowing you to drift off more easily.
Another idea is to write down your sleep experience everyday like a diary, in this diary can be many things such as how well you slept, how long you slept and why you think these things happened. What this allows you to do is to compare each nights sleep and what caused you to sleep better or worse, this allows us to better understand why aren't you sleeping as well. Therefore, we can use this to understand what things we can do to improve our sleep.
Finally, there is another potential cause for bad sleep and that's actually diet. Eating sugary drinks and sweets before bed can lead to us struggling to fall asleep due to the sugar in our bloodstream providing energy. Therefore, it is important to avoid sugary foods before bed allowing you to be more relaxed before you go to bed.
The message for this chapter is to understand what's causing these sleep issues, use the tips in this chapter to find ways to resolve these problems. Having enough sleep allows you to feel more energised for the day and this can helps promote a more positive mindset for the day and a happier mood.
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Mental Health and Me
Non-FictionThis book is a guide that helps you to improve your mental health by sharing my experience of it and my advice on how to cope.
