Sleep and rest

  Sleep problems are very common and most of us have at some time or other experienced them to some degree. Have you ever gone to bed feeling very tired but as soon as the light goes out, your mind starts working overtime? Have you ever got off to sleep but woken after a few hours in the middle of the night, tossing and turning in your bed unable to get back to sleep? Have you ever woken up a few hours earlier in the morning and lay there clock watching, knowing that you have a busy day ahead of you and that you are going to feel exhausted all day? If your answer to any of the above questions is ‘Yes’, it is likely that you have suffered from one of the three types of sleep disturbance known respectively as initial, middle and late insomnia. Sometimes, even if you have slept right through, you may still feel as if you have not had a proper night’s sleep and lack energy through the day.

Stress is a major cause of insomnia. When under stress the individual may feel better when they are busy and distracted but when they go to bed a whole host of worries crowds in on them. Sleep problems are also commonly found in depression, low mood and bereavement reactions. Poor bedtime routine such as eating or drinking a lot just before you go to bed, or not giving yourself enough time to wind down from work, can cause sleep problems. Age is another factor in that as you get older you require less sleep but may still be trying to get a similar number of hours as you needed when you were younger. Often linked to age is the need to go to the toilet during the night and this can disrupt one’s sleep pattern. However, this can also happen during pregnancy or if you drink too much fluid just before going to bed. Environmental factors such as noise, too much light, unfamiliar surroundings, physical discomfort, excessive heat or cold can be causal factors, as can the discomfort caused by a bed that is too hard or soft, physical pain and illness, or the effects of medication. Shift work can also seriously affect your sleep pattern, especially if the shift patterns change frequently and can prevent you from getting into a good sleep routine.

There is a common misconception that we need a minimum of eight hours sleep per night and if we do not get it, we will become ill. It is true that many people aim to have this much sleep and are in the habit of getting their eight hours a night. However, this is not the same as needing this much sleep. People differ in how much sleep they require and this can range from four to ten hours a night depending on the individual. Thus, the amount of sleep required is very much an individual thing and some people simply do not need as much sleep as others. On average, newborn babies sleep up to seventeen hours a day, children about eleven hours, teenagers and young adults about eight or nine hours per day. The average requirement for adults is six to eight hours per night and older people tend to need less sleep. The need for sleep also varies depending on how much physical activity a person does. For example, if a person is retired and physically not very active, they may need less sleep. However, if they are in a very physically demanding job and running around trying to bring up a young family at the same time, they may require a lot more sleep. People often worry that if they do not get enough sleep, they will become seriously ill. However, research has shown that even with quite severe sleep deprivation, the individual is unlikely to experience severe physical or mental symptoms. It can make the individual feel mildly depressed, but this lifts once the individual catches up with the lost sleep. However, it can also make you feel more irritable, less vigilant and can lead to making more mistakes, and poorer concentration and memory. It also feels unpleasant, can impact on your ability to do your work effectively and can lead to accidents. Thus, sleep deprivation needs to be taken very seriously.

There are five different levels of sleep, ranging from the lightest level (stage one), to deep sleep (level four) and ‘rapid eye movement’ (REM) sleep at level five. REM sleep is the level at which most of our dreaming occurs. There are various views about what the function of dream sleep is. One view is that it serves to process and organize all the information that we have taken in throughout the day, while others believe that it has something to do with unconscious processing of drives and motivations and can be interpreted (Freudian theories), and others that it has no meaning at all. Whatever the reason, the body goes through the sleep cycle from level one to five and back again about five times each night. As with the amount of sleep we require, the sort of sleep we require also varies with age. Older people tend to spend less time in REM sleep and wake more during the night but do not seem to suffer any ill effects.

The first step to overcoming a sleep problem is to identify what the causes are. You need to establish whether or not the sleep problem is the primary or secondary problem. For example, if the sleep problem is a secondary consequence of another problem such as stress at work, the primary problem (i.e., work related stress) may need to be tackled before the sleep problem can be resolved. Similarly, if there are medical causes, you will need to seek the appropriate medical treatment such as pain relief medication to help you overcome the associated sleep problem. You may need to seek help from a counsellor or psychologist to help you through problems of depression, bereavement or relationship difficulties in order for your sleep pattern to return to normal. However, where sleep is the primary problem there are a number of helpful tips that you can make use of to get your sleep pattern back to normal. These are listed below.