Dr Michelle O'Driscoll: Practical tips to help address sleep issues

Sleep is something that is vital for our wellbeing, but can become all too elusive as we age and our lives become busier.

Worries about family, work or societal issues can keep our minds racing in times of stress. When babies arrive, or hormones start to fluctuate, the days of a solid eight hours uninterrupted quickly become a distant memory.

Mainly due to their caring roles, and hormonal changes across the life-span, women are at greater risk than men of insomnia – which can present as having trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep, or early waking. The quality of the sleep you get is just as important as the quantity.

The health impact of insomnia over a prolonged period is primarily related to mental health – irritability, tiredness, low mood, and anxiety.

However, physical health can be affected too. The lack of quality time to consolidate learning and reset the body’s cells overnight can take its toll, and the impact of this should not be underestimated.

Patterns of poor sleep can be challenging to change, and rather than medication being the first port of call, addressing behaviours and thought patterns has been shown to generally be the most beneficial approach where there’s nothing physically wrong.

Here are some ways to start addressing the issue of poor sleep or insomnia:

Know your patterns

The first step to fixing the issue is knowing what sleep you’re actually getting. Write it down, and watch for trends. This clarifies the duration and quality of sleep you’re getting, so that any changes that you implement in your behaviours can be tracked for their benefit going forward.

Know what steals your sleep

Getting back to the basics of what we can be doing to support our sleep will lead to benefit over time.

We know lots of these tips and tricks already, but are we adhering to them?

• Avoid alcohol, nicotine, and heavy meals for three hours before bedtime
• Keep your bedroom quiet, dark, and cool.
• Don’t exercise or take a warm bath right before bed.
• Don’t drink caffeine after 2pm.
• Don’t look at the blue light of screens for at least one to two hours before going to bed.

Address associations

Reserve your bed for sleep (or intimacy!) – but not just rest or relaxation. You want to get your body used to associating bedtime with sleep time. This will help to trigger those sleep hormones more quickly once you lie down, rather than spending ages tossing and turning. This also means getting out of bed as soon as the alarm goes off – easier said than done!

Reading in bed is a luxury, but limit the time you spend doing this to reduce the risk of the mind becoming overstimulated.

Avoid napping

If you’re suffering insomnia, it can be tempting to take naps in the middle of the day to make up for sleep lost – but this can just add to a cycle of not being able to sleep later that night when you really want to. Cut out daytime sleep hours if you can, to make it easier to fall asleep at night due to a higher sleep drive. We all know the risks of baby having a danger-nap at 5pm -the same sleep drive principle applies to us!

Having a sleep schedule you stick to regardless of whether it’s a weekday or weekend is also great for the body clock regulation.

Brain dump at bedtime

As soon as our heads hit the pillow, our minds can start to race. Keep a notebook by your bed and jot things down as they crop up. That way you can rest assured you won’t forget it, and can let it go for now so that you can sleep undisturbed. Tomorrow is a new day!

Sleep is precious and can feel so elusive at times in our lives. It really benefits our health and wellbeing, and adopting practices and habits to support our sleep can help to get us to have the quantity and quality of sleep that we need.