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 …
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 …
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. …
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 …
Results are in! Effectiveness of Sleep Matters’ group treatment for Insomnia
100s of clinical trials have lead to the recommendation that Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) be the recommended first-line treatment for Insomnia. Through 2018, researchers from Curtin University, Dr Clare Rees and Ms Jamie Hardman, have analysed data from the group CBT-Insomnia program developed by Sleep Matters and run through The Marian Centre in Perth, WA. This is important research as it evaluates …
Insomnia and mortality: Results from the world’s largest study
Many poor sleepers come to our service worrying that they are at risk of serious physical illness and even death. It’s easy to see why these worries exist, with there being so much frightening information at our fingertips about the link between poor sleep and health. Contrary to popular belief, an important paper published recently, suggested that Insomnia does not increase mortality risk. …
Partner Snoring?
At some stage in our lives many of us will have a bed partner who has annoying habits that disrupt our sleep. Anyone had the quilt stolen or copped a stray elbow or knee recently? One problematic habit in particular that we often hear about in our clinical work is snoring. Snoring occurs when airflow between your nose and throat …
Early Bird or Night Owl? Knowing what you are may help you get the most from your day
This year, researchers won a Nobel prize for their work on understanding the role of the body clock, aka circadian rhythm. We have a master clock deep in the brain (the suprachiasmatic nuecleus to be exact) which controls the timing several bodily features such as body temperature, hunger, and sleepiness. Melatonin is an important hormone controlled by our body clock and it …
Sunday Times: Perth’s problem with sleeplessness
The Sunday Times interviewed Perth sleep experts including Dr Melissa Ree from Sleep Matters for their article on sleep difficulties in today’s paper (page 20-21 and online). The article emphasises that sleep problems are very common in our high stress, high tech world and that this is true across the age span. The good news is that there are effective long term solutions. …
Treating insomnia in severe mental illness – what does the research say?
In a new text book published this month, Prof Flavie Waters, Dr Melissa Ree from Sleep Matters, and Ms Vivian Chiu (UWA) have summarised the existing scientific evidence for the use of Cognitive behaviour Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) in people with psychosis. They have also developed the Sleep Well, Feel Well with Psychosis Program which is an adapted treatment for Insomnia. The book a details instructions …
Awake late at night? Struggling to get going in the morning? Delayed Sleep Phase, a common teenage problem.
Struggling to get your teen out of bed and ready for school on time? Have they become a night owl who stays up after the family has gone to sleep? Are they losing sleep and feeling tired during the day? This can be an exasperating experience for both parents and children. ‘Delayed Sleep Phase’ can happen at any age but is …
The low down on screens before bed
There is a lot of talk about the negative impact of pre-bed screen use on sleep. Many of us still do it though…..and some of us do it and even sleep well. Media messaging often takes a one-size fits all approach and I want to challenge this. Sleep is a hot topic in the media – and so it should …
- Page 1 of 2
- 1
- 2