What is insomnia?
For our physical and mental wellbeing, sleep is important. A decent amount of sleep and night allows our mind and body to relax and refresh our energies.
The fact that we do not get enough sleep can lead to a lack of concentration and energy, a state of irritability, and weaken our immune system. In the long run, sleep difficulties can contribute to mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety.
Sleeplessness is the most prevalent sleep disorder which impacts wellbeing and quality of life quite adversely. Sleeplessness requires sleep or restless sleep for at least three evenings a week for at least one month or longer. Sleeplessness is not necessarily the case. In key areas of everyday activity, we speak about insomnia as overnight sleep contributes to severe disturbance or degradation.
Causes of insomnia → Why can’t I sleep?
The causes of insomnia are not fully known but generally involve biological, psychological, and social factors.
• Predisposing factors
→ These factors may increase the likelihood of insomnia: family history of sleep problems; to be a person who does not have a good sleep in general; to be a generally worried person.
• Triggers
→ These factors are also called precipitating factors and include lifestyle changes: change of home, change of job, an illness, the appearance of a child, etc.
• Maintenance factors
→ This category includes all those factors that maintain or accentuate the problems, such as increased levels of anxiety; developing depression, behaviors that do not help you adapt (such as daytime sleep, disordered sleep schedule, staying in bed for a long time); stress (which can disrupt the metabolism of hormones in the body); cognitive factors (worries, rumination, and fear of insomnia).
Insomnia in Depression and Anxiety
Insomnia may help produce signs of depression and anxiety over time if it lasts for a long time and has a significant negative effect on how the individual functions.
Insomnia is related to increased activation of the mind and body.
Anxiety leads to an acceleration of metabolism and thus to a state of activation that is incompatible with sleep. In this way, melatonin is not secreted, a hormone produced by our body that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. Thus, it is difficult to fall asleep when we fear because our body is preparing for battle or flight. More and more thoughts start to come to mind, we see that we could not fall asleep, we predict that we will not fall asleep even now, and we start to catastrophe and think about how serious this is. And as a result, our anxiety worsens and prevents us from falling asleep, we look at our watch more and more often and think about how little time we have to sleep, go and go back to bed, and these thoughts and behaviors anxiety increases even more. We thus enter a vicious circle.
It may have happened to you that you couldn’t sleep for a few days in a row and started worrying about it. Thus, you will begin to have more and more irrational thoughts and maladaptive behaviors regarding your sleep. Thoughts that cause you anxiety can occur more often and keep the negative circle, making it harder and harder for you to fall asleep.
Sleep problems can be solved by changing the thoughts and behaviors we have related to sleep. There are methods and strategies in this direction that you can use and apply to eliminate sleep-related maladaptive behaviors and change your thoughts that interfere with your sleep. If these problems persist and negatively influence your life or are associated with anxiety and depression, you can seek specialized help.
What can you do when you have trouble sleeping?
1. Sleep log
• You often may not realize that certain sleep habits can contribute to your insomnia. That is why it is advisable to make a diary in which you write down the hours you go to sleep and wake up, the place where you sleep, what you eat and drink a few hours before bed, and stressful events that take place during a day.
2. Adopting new habits to help you sleep
• Make sure that your bedroom is comfortable, that there are no loud noises and that the room temperature is right.
• Adopt a fixed sleep schedule → try to fall asleep and wake up at the same hours every day, even if you are tired, so you will be able to adjust your biological clock and introduce a regular sleep rhythm.
• Avoid sleeping during the day → because this will make it easier for you to fall asleep at night. If you need to sleep during the day, do not sleep more than 10-20 minutes.
• Exercise and exercise → can help you reduce your anxiety and stress and release those important hormones in your body to regulate metabolism. It is important to exercise in the morning because this will increase the adrenaline level in your body. If you exercise in the evening, this will prevent you from falling asleep.
• Avoid activities that stimulate you or stressful situations before going to sleep → these include intense exercise, conflict, watching TV, computer, or video games.
• If you’re not ready to get out of bed, → Don’t push yourself to sleep. It raises your discomfort by turning to bed. If you can’t sleep, go from bed, get out of bed and try to relax, read, drink a cup of tea, take a bath, and listen to calming music.
• Hide your bedroom clocks → set your alarm to know when you need to wake up, but hide all your bedroom clocks because this will help you not worry about getting fewer and fewer hours of sleep.
• Use the bedroom only to sleep, → do not work, do not read, do not watch TV, and do not use the computer when you are in bed or the bedroom. This will help you associate the bedroom only with sleep because when you prepare to go to sleep, your mind and body will receive a strong signal that it is time to fall asleep.
• Limit your caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine consumption → try not to drink coffee or caffeinated products at least eight hours before bedtime. Alcohol can affect your sleep quality, and nicotine can stimulate you.
• Avoid eating very large meals before going to bed → because your body has to digest food before you can fall asleep. If you feel hungry before bed, have a light snack.
When to seek specialist help with your sleep problems?
When sleep problems do not last long, and you can fix them with the above recommendations’ help, there is no need to worry because they are transient.
If your exhaustion problems persist longer than months or if your day time and your capacity to perform interferes with the consequences of sleep deprivation, you require professional assistance. In this situation, you have to figure out if it is fatigue, medications, emotional wellbeing, or other issues triggering insomnia.
Sleeping pills can have the desired effect in helping you sleep, but you need to keep in mind that medication-assisted treatment can have certain risks, side effects or can be addictive. Use specialized help to guide you before you start using sleeping pills. Some medications can help you cure your insomnia for a while, but they can’t cure it. Thus, the best approach is to seek help to determine the causes of your insomnia and adopt new healthy habits related to your sleep.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Insomnia, Depression, and Anxiety
When both mental health problems (depression and anxiety) and insomnia are present, the best approach is a combined treatment to improve life quality.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy has a high success rate in treating insomnia and associated problems. This form of therapy includes various techniques, such as sleep hygiene strategies, relaxation techniques, readjusting sleep habits, and changing thoughts and behaviors that prevent people from having a restful sleep.
People who do not have insomnia see sleep as an automatic thing that happens when they sleep. In other words, they do not stop to think about sleep and the fact that they have to sleep.
Sleep-related thoughts and emotions play an important role in maintaining insomnia, as people associate sleep with a wide range of negative thoughts and emotions. Cognitive-behavioral therapy focuses on identifying and debating these irrational thoughts and replacing them with rational alternatives.
In conclusion, the therapeutic approach is useful for people with insomnia because it encourages learning new sleep habits, eliminating irrational sleep-related thoughts, and developing a healthy and positive attitude towards sleep.
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