In our fast-paced world, Insomnia is VERY common. One in three Australian adults regularly struggle with their sleep and around 10 per cent of adults suffer from chronic insomnia. Insomnia is defined as a difficulty falling asleep or returning to sleep following night-time awakening, with significant negative impact on daytime functioning. Insomnia can be triggered by many different things – …
Does alcohol help or hinder sleep?
Many people believe that alcohol assists sleep. While it’s true that alcohol may help you initially get off to sleep, this is offset by a less restful slumber later in the night. As the silly season gets underway, it can be useful to bear in mind the impacts of alcohol on sleep. After a few drinks, we are more likely …
Understanding how to sleep well by understanding what gets in the way
There is a great deal of information on the internet about how to get a good night’s sleep. So much so that it can be overwhelming. In order to simplify, it can be useful to think of three types of ‘barriers to good sleep’. Understanding these barriers to good sleep help to make sense of some of the most useful Tips …
To watch or not watch the clock?
Many people have heard the suggestion that is is best not to ‘clock watch’ over night whilst trying to sleep. Today I’ll outline how clock watching can worsen sleep and how the simple suggestion to cover the clock at night can be powerful in improving your slumber. When we treat Insomnia, we work to reduce barriers to sleep. One of …
Sleep tips for Teens
Jessica Cole from Sleep Matters presented a seminar on teenage sleep to nearly 200 students at one of Perth’s high schools this week. It was a great opportunity to cover some interesting and important facts about sleep in adolescence. Getting good quality and quantity sleep can be tricky in adolescence. At the very age the teenage body is demanding more …
Feeling Tired?
Did you know that if you type into Google, “why am I so……”, that the first autofill option is the word “tired“. This is really saying something about how common the experience of tiredness is, and how many people are concerned about their levels of tiredness. Thinking about your experience with tiredness, which of the following do you think apply? Are there others …
What is Conditioned Insomnia and how can it be treated?
When people have experienced poor sleep for quite some time, the bed and poor sleep have been paired again and again. A kind of automatic learning, called ‘classical conditioning’, sets in. The bedroom becomes associated with being awake, alert, frustrated and/or worried, rather than with feeling relaxed and sleepy. This is conditioned insomnia. The bed becomes a trigger for feeling alert …