At some point in our life, we will all experience trouble sleeping and a poor night’s sleep can sometimes make it difficult to function the next day. However, for some people, sleep problems can be a major hurdle that makes life extremely difficult when sleep is continually disturbed for nights on end.
There is no doubting that getting a good night’s sleep leaves you feeling much fresher and helps to banish the dark circles around your eyes, but getting enough sleep is also an important part of a healthy lifestyle and can benefit you in many ways:
Better memory and sharper attention
Getting a good night’s sleep can help to strengthen your memories and practice new skills you’ve learned whilst awake, in a process called consolidation. This can be the case with both mental and physical skills. Sleeping well can also help to contribute to the brain being more effective and productive and improve your attention, spurring creativity.
Healthy heart
As well as reducing stress, a healthy sleeping pattern can help to lower the levels of inflammation to your cardiovascular system. This means that that the chances of heart conditions and strokes are reduced.
Improved general wellbeing
Not getting enough sleep can leave us feeling irritable and make us more likely to lose our temper, which is never a good thing. Sleeping well can help us to feel calmer and make better decisions. However, a good night’s sleep can have many more benefits that simply helping you to feel less agitated.
Not getting enough sleep can contribute to depression. Getting a good night’s sleep can help to improve your mood, decrease anxiety and reduce stress.
Improve blood pressure
It’s widely believed that sleep has an effect on cholesterol levels and helps you to have better control of your blood pressure.
Fights against infection
As we sleep, our body produces extra protein molecules that help our immune system to fight against infection. If you are feeling tired and run down and don’t want the sniffles to turn into a full-on cold, make sure to get plenty of sleep.
Sleep Therapy
If you find that your poor sleep patterns leave you feeling down, drained and lacking enthusiasm, this could mean that you are suffering from insomnia. Symptoms of insomnia include difficulties in falling asleep, waking in the night, waking up very early in the morning, feeling tired and irritable, having trouble functioning properly the next day and disturbed sleep for long periods of time.
The good news is that sleep therapy could help you to get your sleep back on track. Controlled clinical trials have indicated that as many as 80% of insomnia patients benefit from sleep therapy such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).
At Fiona Passey Osteopaths, the Sleep Clinic is an individual four week course that is designed to identify the causes of your sleep problems and to help you gain a fuller understanding of sleep. This course uses a number of simple and effective solutions for improving your sleep patterns, employing CBT approaches for insomnia.
Steve Brown is an Accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist with more 30 years of experience in the NHS and Private Healthcare sector. He is highly skilled in treating people suffering with sleep problems, using CBT, mindfulness based CBT and relaxation approaches.
To learn more about sleep therapy at Fiona Passey Osteopaths, or to arrange an appointment, you can call our Halesowen Osteopath on 0121 585 8555 or out Wombourne Practice on 01902 894 894.
