Sleep Soundly: How Psychotherapy Can End Your Restless Nights and Improve Your Physical and Mental Health
Are you struggling to get to sleep or stay asleep at night? It can be daunting trying to manage sleep issues when you don’t know why it's happening. You might start googling every answer and soon find yourself down a rabbit hole of confusing information. However, getting the proper amount of restful sleep is essential for both your physical and mental health. That’s where therapy can come in! In this article, we will explore how sleep deprivation and oversleeping affect our well-being. You'll also learn how therapy could help improve your sleep patterns so you can get the peaceful nights you need to make the most of the day ahead.
What Do Mental Health-Related Sleep Issues Look Like?
Sleep issues related to mental health can look like a lot of different things: falling asleep too soon, falling asleep too late in the night, or even not falling asleep at all. For many, trouble falling asleep at night is a major burden. No matter how hard they try, they still end up awake for hours longer than intended. For others, they stay asleep too long. Oversleeping can lead to a variety of difficulties throughout your day, including fatigue and increased stress. For others, they wake up throughout the night, preventing themselves from getting a full, restful night. From difficulty falling asleep to not being able to wake up, there are many possible signs that could indicate underlying mental health problems, issues that can complicate your responsibilities and goals.
Still, your first step should always be to consider other physical factors that may impact your ability to have a lasting, deep sleep. A sleep study may help isolate what may be impacting insomnia symptoms or interrupted sleep. For example, central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea can reduce your airflow during your sleep cycle. While this may lead to
How Can Poor Sleep Impact Your Personal and Professional Life
It is no surprise that sleep is a vitally important part of life. We have likely all seen the consequences of running on just a few hours (or less) of sleep. Poor sleep drastically impacts every corner of our lives, including our relationships, work performance, and leisure time. In relationships, inadequate rest affects communication between partners, leading to increased irritability and conflict. Without a calm mood and focused mind, small problems can build and seem unapproachable. Poor sleep can cause us to be less productive at work, leading to the stress and pressure of meeting deadlines. We might miss the insight and creativity we need to inspire a team or succeed in a project. Even during our personal time, we may not enjoy activities as much after a night of poor sleep due to lower energy levels, reduced motivation, and impaired memory retention. We can think of sleep as a sort of fuel for all we want and have to do. For many of us, we are running way behind what we should have.
What is a good night's sleep anyway?
Getting a good night's sleep is essential for our physical, mental, and emotional well-being. It helps us to rest, recharge and prepare for the next day. According to the National Sleep Foundation, we need at least 7 hours of sleep in adulthood. During this time, we go through a cycle that helps us to restore our body and mind. During the stages of this cycle, we go through distinct brain waves (alpha waves, beta waves, theta waves, and delta waves) that are associated with specific activities like dreaming or deep relaxation. Our circadian rhythm plays an important role in regulating when we feel sleepy or alert throughout the day as it follows the 24-hour cycle of light and darkness.
The first stage of the sleep cycle is known as Non-REM (Rapid Eye Movement) which can last from 5 minutes up to 30 minutes depending on how tired you are feeling before bedtime. This stage is characterized by slow brain activity and eye movement slowing down until eventually stopping completely along with muscle relaxation taking place during this time. The second stage is REM sleep which usually occurs 90 minutes after falling asleep where rapid eye movements occur while your body remains still but your mind begins to enter into a dream state where vivid dreams take place due to increased brain activity in this phase. Finally, the third phase involves deeper states of sleep where your heart rate slows even further and breathing becomes more regular allowing for complete restoration both physically and mentally. brain stem
How does mental health negatively impact one's sleep?
Mental health can have a significant effect on sleeping patterns; depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder can all lead to poor sleep. Those who suffer from depression often find it difficult to fall asleep, leading to long nights spent tossing and turning. A depressed mood is often linked with hopeless, reoccurring thoughts that prevent us from being in the relaxed state needed to fall asleep. Anxiety symptoms and disorders can also cause difficulty in falling or staying asleep. Similarly to depression, anxious individuals can become "stuck on worries about the future or some problem that has emerged in an area of their life.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, those suffering from emotional disorders can have difficulty waking. They may lack the motivation to get out of bed, preferring the temporary quiet of sleeping. They may instead feel exhausted by their lack of rest, so the "sleep debt" is made up at inconvenient times during the day. Those with bipolar disorder may experience episodes of insomnia alternating with periods of excessive sleepiness during manic states and depressive states. Finally, those living with PTSD may experience nightmares, flashbacks, or intrusive thoughts that prevent them from achieving a restful night. Even worse, poor sleep is linked with a greater chance of acquiring mental health conditions and overall worse symptoms in other mental health disorders.
Certain mental health conditions are specifically related to sleep. Sleep disorders such as insomnia disorder and hypersomnia are distinct from depression and anxiety, although they can produce similar symptoms. Insomnia is characterized by difficulty falling asleep or maintaining sleep, while hypersomnia is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and the inability to stay awake during normal waking hours. These two types of sleep disorders can have a wide range of causes, including underlying medical conditions, medications, mental health issues, lifestyle habits, and environmental factors.
In comparison to depression and anxiety, insomnia and hypersomnia often involve specific patterns of disrupted sleep that can be identified through a sleep study. For example, people with insomnia may experience frequent awakenings throughout the night due to racing thoughts or physical discomfort, while people with hypersomnia may experience difficulty staying awake during the day despite sleeping for extended periods at night. Additionally, these two types of sleep disorders tend to be largely independent of mood changes associated with depression and anxiety.
Although both depression and anxiety can lead to disrupted sleep, they are usually accompanied by other symptoms such as low moods or feelings of worry that are not typically present in those with insomnia or hypersomnia. Additionally, those suffering from these types of mental health issues may have trouble returning to sleep if they wake up in the middle of the night whereas people with pure sleep disorders do not generally experience this trouble. Sleep studies can also help differentiate between these two states as someone with an underlying mental health condition may show significantly lower levels of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) compared to someone without a mental health condition who is experiencing a purely physical sleep disorder like insomnia or hypersomnia.
What Does Psychotherapy For Sleep Look Like?
Sleep affects every aspect of life and poor sleep can lead to mental and physical health issues. Psychotherapy for sleep looks at the root causes behind problems like insomnia, meaning that it can provide strategies to help change behaviors and improve overall health. Sleep hygiene including adequate amounts of daily exposure to natural light, eating meals at consistent times, removing electronic devices from the bedroom, and establishing a regular sleep routine are just some of the strategies that psychotherapists often recommend in order to begin making changes. Additionally, relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation or other mindfulness exercises can be taught in order to help you relax quickly and deeply before bedtime. Together these strategies will help individuals improve their sleeping habits so they feel more alert during the day and get the quality sleep needed for optimal health.
What are the benefits of Psychotherapy for your sleep difficulties and Sleep Disorders?
If you're having difficulty sleeping, psychotherapy may provide a much-needed benefit. With regular sessions, you can get to sleep faster, stay asleep longer and get more restorative sleep. This can dramatically improve your performance during the day, allowing you to get the most out of each and every one of your waking moments. Psychotherapy is also great for redirecting negative thoughts which may be preventing a good night's sleep and replacing them with healthier thinking patterns that promote better sleep hygiene. This can help reduce the amount of time it takes to get to sleep and help keep wakeful periods shorter and more manageable. So if your current efforts aren't getting the kind of rested nights you need to get through your day, psychotherapy could be the answer you've been looking for.
Getting a good night's sleep has many physical health benefits, including improved heart health. Studies have shown that individuals with poor sleep habits are at greater risk of developing cardiovascular disease (i.e. congestive heart failure) and stroke due to the strain on their heart rate and blood pressure. Additionally, better quality sleep helps to regulate hormones in the body, which can reduce inflammation and improve cholesterol levels. Those who get a good night's rest are also more likely to have lower levels of stress hormones such as cortisol, which is linked to weight gain.
Better sleep also plays an important role in physical growth and development. Children who get enough sleep are better able to focus and learn throughout the day, while adults who get adequate rest tend to have stronger muscles and bones due to the restorative properties of deep sleep. As an added benefit, those who get enough sleep often find that they have more energy during waking hours, allowing them to engage in more physical activity, allowing them to get more done, and achieving their fitness/health goals.
What does the research say about how effective psychotherapy is in improving your sleep?
Don't take our word for it - psychotherapy has been scientifically proven to have a positive effect on your sleep! Research on the effectiveness of psychotherapy has shown that engaging in psychological therapy can help address underlying issues related to poor sleeping habits, such as anxiety and depression. With the guidance of an experienced therapist, individuals are able to develop coping strategies and learn new ways of thinking that can lead to more restful nights. Here are a couple of examples of research showing how psychotherapy has helped real individuals.
One study conducted by sleep psychologists and researchers at the University of Oxford in 2015 showed that psychotherapy helped reduce the time it took individuals to fall asleep and improve overall sleep quality. The study included 215 participants who had difficulty falling asleep, half of whom received psychotherapy while the other half received no intervention. After 12 weeks, the participants who received psychotherapy reported significantly greater time spent asleep and improved feelings of restfulness. Another study, from The Journal of Sleep Medicine, showed that participants in therapy vastly reduced instances of oversleeping after only 8 sessions of psychotherapy as well as better sleep quality. And more research is still ongoing! We are finding more and more proof that targeted therapy is a valuable tool in changing your sleep and improving your day.
Tired of Being Tired?
Because sleep is so essential to our physical, mental, and emotional well-being it's important to recognize when something isn't right. Too often we overlook the importance of getting a good night's sleep, but good quality sleep has such a huge impact on our lives. Though there can be many causes of sleeping issues that can impact our lives, through psychotherapy we gain a better understanding of our internal issues which can help us identify ways to improve. By taking steps today to address underlying concerns contributing to our issues with sleep, we will not only feel better rested and achieve more each day but also drastically improve how we cope with stress, manage emotions and handle relationships. Now take that first step and reach out for help—improve your sleep, feel more rested, and achieve more of what's important to you!
Find a therapist for sleep related issues today!
Interested in finding ways to get a better, longer-lasting night's sleep? Consider a consultation with Grand Prix Psychology. Through an evidence-based, individualized approach, we work with you to work through challenges and realign yourself with what is most important.
Not the right fit? Check out these resources to help find a therapist or other mental health providers.
Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapists
Therapist Finder: https://www.findatherapist.com/
or Contact your insurance company!
