Lying in bed, unable to doze off night after night can be an agonising experience.
Perhaps even worse is the way it affects the way we feel and our ability to function properly the next day.
Our new outpatient sleep group at St John of God Midland Private Hospital can assist people to live and sleep well.
Myths can make sleep worse
Unfortunately, there are a lot of myths about sleep that are really unhelpful and just add to the pressure and stress people feel when trying to have a good night’s sleep.
An example is the sleeping beauty idea, that it is normal to have one continuous undisturbed deep sleep during each night which is untrue.
Sleep actually goes in stages and cycles with some awakenings during the night being completely normal.
The stress that comes from having unrealistic expectations about sleep can ironically contribute to sleepless nights.
There are more myths about sleep than you might think.
These myths unfortunately lead to people trying strategies which are very unhelpful for improving sleep and reducing stress.
Sleep strategies
A lot of the ways we try to improve our sleep can actually work against us.
We all have systems and rhythms that our bodies follow and the trick is to work with these rhythms to get sleep back on track.
The problem is that a lot of the ways we try to either improve sleep or make up for lost sleep works against our body rhythms and makes the problem worse.
We can then end up feeling frustrated and having no control over sleep, believing that our best efforts are all for nothing.
Sleep group and support
Our new sleep group, Sleep EaZZZy, supports clients with sleep issues and concerns using cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) principles.
Studies have shown CBT to be very effective for addressing sleep problems.
The group will help clients to:
- understand what type of sleep we need, and don’t need, to feel restored and refreshed each day
- identify behaviours which, on the surface, seem like good ideas, but make it harder to have a good night’s sleep
- use practical, highly successful strategies to get sleep back on track.
Our next four-week “Sleep EaZZZy” group will run from late August.
It will provide clients with information, skills and strategies to assist with sleep issues and support them in living and sleeping well.
As this is a private service, a low-cost fee does apply with the group.
For more information or to book please contact 9462 4281 or [email protected].