How To Restore Healthy Sleep: Advice From A Psychologist. May Your Night Be Calm! - The Quality Of Life

According to statistics, more than 40 million Russians experience regular sleep problems, about 30% of the country's population struggles with insomnia. The psychologist Daria Pogodina and the leading manager of the Latrix brand of orthopedic mattresses Elina Yakofidi told why sleep disturbances so often and what can be done about it, having looked at the problem from different angles

Frequent awakenings at night have a negative effect on health, since it is in the stage of deep sleep that the body is restored. Insomnia drains him so much that it can lead to various diseases.

Sleep disorders can be caused by physiological or psychological causes. First of all, it's worth checking your health, and then dealing with the psychological causes of violations.

Too much information

Information overload is one of the first causes of insomnia. The flow of notifications in messengers and the need to be constantly in touch deprive people of their rest. They leave the office, but remain in chats, where work issues are resolved around the clock. I advise you to turn off audible notifications to avoid constant stress on the nervous system. Alerts affect brain health and performance. After such a working day, it takes time for him to switch and tune in to rest.

Written practices help to cope with information overload. By transferring thoughts to paper, we empty the shelf in the internal storage and it does not overflow. This practice can be interpreted as a plan for the day. This frees you from anxiety and fear of forgetting something.

Writing practices are also good because they use physical energy, which means they allow you to physically experience emotion. Outwardly, this is expressed by the force of pressing the handle and the volume of records.

Anxiety

Interrupted sleep, like insomnia, usually occurs when a person is unable to cope with feelings of anxiety. The inability to relax and let go of thoughts and unresolved problems makes it impossible to fall asleep with a healthy sound sleep.

It is important to be able to physically relax before bed. A bath with salt or essential oils, gentle yoga for sleep aimed at relaxing muscles, the practice of shavasana, or meditation work well. Thanks to this relaxation, clamps go away throughout the body, this allows you to quickly fall asleep. Yoga can be replaced by walking in the fresh air with the phone turned off. Being aware of oneself “here and now”, observing nature and those around us stabilizes a calm inner state in which it is good to go to sleep.

What you shouldn't do is count the sheep that are jumping over the fence. In sleep, the brain works in different rhythms, and when we count sheep, we do not give it the opportunity to rest and go into deep sleep.

Nightmares

Dreaming remains the most unexplored question in psychology, despite the amount of discussion and research.

To explain the reason why a person sees this or that dream, it is necessary to analyze not only the picture, but also the emotion, discuss what happened the day before, what worried and how it could be reflected in the dream.

From a psychological point of view, dreams are always signs that the unconscious gives. If dreams bother you, but you are not ready to go to a psychotherapist, you can try to analyze them by referring to the available literature. The theme of dreams is covered by Gestalt therapy, Jungian therapy and psychoanalysis.

Our emotional experiences are often the cause of nightmares. In a dream, a person lives what he could not live in wakefulness. For example, a conflict with a colleague that was not realized in reality due to subordination. Experiences in one way or another cause the nervous system to be excited, and when we try to ignore them, the response to them occurs in dreams. In a dream, we cannot control the work of our brain, our emotions, our unconscious. In consciousness, the brain controls us, it protects us from stress, tells us how to act rationally. The unconscious is much wiser, it knows all the answers, does not suppress the problem and often signals about it in dreams.

Waking up with Chronic Fatigue

The culture of big cities, where you need to constantly run somewhere and solve problems with burning deadlines, leads to emotional burnout and physical fatigue. This causes the feeling of a "broken trough" in the morning, when even a long sleep does not allow you to recuperate overnight.

To have a good morning, you need to not only get enough sleep, but also be able to get up correctly. The alarm clock is the first potential irritant. Therefore, instead of loud beats, it is better to put on a melody that is pleasant to you and does not get on your nerves even before you open your eyes. It can be a favorite song or birdsong and the sound of the surf.

The second thing you should pay attention to is that you do not need to jump out of bed immediately, when the alarm clock rings. Five to ten minutes in bed will give your body time to wake up and start the day feeling well.

Motivation is perhaps the main factor for a proper awakening. All kinds of things can motivate, from a delicious breakfast to an exciting new project at work. Everyone needs their own toggle switch. Conditionally switching it in the morning, you understand why you woke up. This allows you to start the day with pleasure.

The sofa is the enemy of man

“The reason for poor sleep and even nightmares can be an uncomfortable sleeping place,” says Elina Yakofidi, lead manager of Latrix orthopedic mattress brand. "In this case, the problem can be corrected in an elementary way - choose a comfortable mattress and pillow."

The parameters of the mattress should be chosen depending on the general health, body weight and personal preference. One of the most comfortable options for sleeping is material with a memory effect.

But sofas are not the best option. But if there is no alternative, a topper should be purchased for a healthy sleep on the couch. This is the name of small mattresses of varying hardness with a height of 4 to 7 centimeters. They hide the seams on the sofa and make the sleeping place more comfortable.

If in some sofas like an American clamshell the topper is included by default, then for a sofa-book you need to choose it yourself. As a rule, toppers in folding beds come with foam filling, which dries out over time, crumbles and can break when the sofa is repeatedly folded. Latex filler should be preferred.

Sleep Hygiene Checklist

It is recommended that you set aside the same amount of sleep every day. Depending on whether you consider yourself to be "owls" or "larks", you need to adjust your sleep schedule for yourself, starting from your own feelings.

Before going to bed, you should give up a hearty dinner, alcohol and drinks containing caffeine - all this activates the nervous system and has a negative effect on relaxation before bedtime. Alcohol also makes sleep fragmented. It is better to drink a cup of chamomile or buckwheat tea at night.

The optimum temperature for sleeping is 18-22 degrees. The room must be ventilated before going to bed.

It is necessary to organize a comfortable sleeping place: the mattress must correspond to the state of health and physiological characteristics, and the linen must not cause irritation.

Before contacting a neurologist or signing up for medication, I recommend seeing a psychologist. Of course, if there are no organic changes at the physical level. If you suppress the problem with sleeping pills, just as a symptom, it will have a temporary effect. You need to check your mental health and find the root cause that started the process.