Brain Tired – Sleep Hygiene

Kevin Phillips

People will often tell me how they have difficulty concentrating, how depressed they are, how angry they are and how they have anxiety. They go on to tell me how easily frustrated they become and how irritable they are and how they want to change. Sometimes people put pressure on me like they need me to come up with some wiz banger, re-invent the wheel concept or phenomenon that will cure all their problems. I understand the sentiment as I yearn to help but sometimes we can overthink and gloss over simple common-sense interventions that our grandparents seemed to inherently know about. Sometimes we get too complicated in seeking answers and we espouse that one has to be some kind of guru to find the answers. In my close to 20 years studying, observing and talking to thousands of patients about their struggles, I have discovered a profound trend. Sometimes our mental health difficulties can be diminished, ameliorated for and greatly improved by consistent, ongoing sleep quality and getting enough sleep. But there’s plenty to take away from our sleep quality: 1) work pressures 2) family squabbles 3) relationship friction 4) financial problems 5) Covid worries 5) the Russians attacking Ukraine and whether that war will spill over into other countries and whether our gas and food prices will go up 6) keeping up with social media and how good we look on Facebook and on and on. Oftentimes our phones, tablets and devices keep us looking at stuff even when we’re tired. We don’t get rest and rejuvenation anymore. When’s the last time we went a few hours without our cellphones? Studies have shown that if people for example continue to use their devices up until they go to sleep it takes their brain about two hours to reach the relaxation stages of sleep. So if you want to sleep better, quit using your electronic devices and phones about two hours before you desire to fall asleep and create other healthy and balanced bedtime routines like reading or talking or painting or writing or taking a soothing bath. We need to stop the merry-go-round, the hamster wheel and the rat race and chill. If we don’t learn to chill before we go to bed and relax our brains, we’ll continue to build anxiety into our lives and invite its cousin along for the ride – depression. Some of us may need a sleep aid to help us get into a routine of good sleep. I encourage you to talk to your pharmacist, doctor or family and friends to see what they use. Most of the sleep aids can be purchased over-the-counter although some may have to be prescribed by doctors or nurse practitioners. All of us make sure we’re doing our personal hygiene frequently so we smell better, are more healthy and to be honest to not offend our peers. Why don’t we consider working on our sleep hygiene more effectively so we can feel more alert, more mentally sharp, more emotionally in control, more calm and more resilient to handle the difficult world we live in? Sometimes we don’t have to seek far-flung cures, methods and fancy interventions, we just need more sleep! Sleep on it and see how you feel about it tomorrow