Many people who come to Sleep Matters for help with their sleep use expressions such as “I can’t switch off” to describe having a busy mind that interferes with sleep. Many people mistakenly believe that switching off or shutting the mind down is necessary for sleep. It’s important to remember, however, that the human brain doesn’t have an off switch, …
Sleep Terrors, what are they and what can be done about them?
Eleanor Jones (Clinical Psychologist Registrar) What are sleep terrors? Sleep terrors (also known as night terrors) are often confused with nightmares, but they are actually a different phenomenon. Sleep Terrors are a type of parasomnia, an unusual behaviour that accompanies sleep. Sleep terrors are a partial arousal parasomnia, meaning that the person experiencing the sleep terror shows signs of being …
When kids find it hard to sleep alone
Eleanor Jones (Clinical Psychologist Registrar) For some children, sleeping alone at night can be a scary prospect. This can often lead to parents finding themselves co-sleeping with their children or having children frequently jumping into the parent’s bed in the middle of the night. This may be the case for toddlers through to teenagers. Although we all need extra closeness …
Tips for sleeping well when you’re away from home
Jakub Dammer, Clinical Psychologist (registrar) Australians love to travel during the holidays and the thought of seeing new places and being away from home can be exciting. Many of us are able to travel now that COVID restrictions are lifting. However, for some, travel can prompt concerns about trying to get to sleep in an unfamiliar environment. If you’ve ever …
TELEHEALTH CONSULTATIONS AS EFFECTIVE AS IN-PERSON FOR INSOMNIA
It can feel a little strange to think of having a session with your health professional via an online video session or phone. We’ve become a little more used to this during COVID-19 and there is now more evidence accumulating on the effectiveness of telehealth as a treatment format. A recent American study suggests that online telehealth consultations are as …
COVID-19 Pandemic Dreams: the what, the why, and the how-to manage bad dreams
Researchers around the globe are looking into the phenomenon of pandemic dreams and are finding that people are indeed experiencing COVID-19-related dream changes. According to an ongoing French study, the coronavirus pandemic has caused a 35 percent increase in dream recall among participants, and a 15 percent increase in negative dreams. All over social media, people are reporting bizarre and …
Join us for our free online community Q&A series: “From the Couch”
Join us as leading clinical psychology practices collaborate to bring you answers to common psychological challenges that have arisen as we navigate COVID-19. Recent studies suggest that for many people, distress is increasing during COVID-19. The rates of Australians with poor mental health has doubled since pre-COVID-19. Stress, confusion and anxiety are on the rise, while optimism has reduced.Despite these numbers, there has …
Benefits of Telehealth Consultations
BENEFITS OF ONLINE THERAPY aka TELEHEALTH It can feel a little strange to think of having a session with your doctor or psychologist via an online session or phone. COVID-19 is pushing us to be flexible and try new things, and we’re finding some unexpected benefits. We’d like to assure you that our telehealth options are: Simple: to connect for …
Treating Insomnia, how can mindfuless help?
Research is uncovering mindfulness to be a powerful aid in the quest to treat Insomnia. In recent years, there has been a huge amount of scientific interest in the benefits of mindfulness to many aspects of health and wellbeing, including Insomnia. After describing what Mindfulness is, we present some interesting summaries of clinical research trials (including one by Dr Melissa Ree from …
Sleep Tips: Get your sleep routines in order
It’s World Sleep Day this Friday March 15th, and to support this we’d like to encourage people to take a step towards building a healthy sleep routine by getting their sleep conditions in order. Give any changes you make a couple of weeks to work. Below are some of the behaviours we help our clients at Sleep Matters to implement. …
2016 Clinical Guidelines recommend that all adult Insomnia patients receive CBT-Insomnia
Insomnia is a very common health problem, affecting 10% of the adult population, but it is often viewed as a symptom of another disorder rather than a condition warranting independent clinical intervention. Further, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) recognised that the previous dichotomy of primary versus secondary insomnia does adequately describe the disorder. Indeed, DSM-5 suggests that ‘Insomnia Disorder’ should be …
Treating Insomnia to treat depression
New research shows great promise in treating people with insomnia and depression, and may ignite new excitement for an inexpensive therapy for these and other conditions. Previously, researchers and doctors believed that depression caused insomnia. Indeed, poor sleep is a diagnostic symptom of depression with about 90% of people with depression experiencing disturbed sleep. Insomnia was considered ‘secondary’ to the …