HEALTH SPECIAL...CAN ‘T SLEEP

CAN ‘T SLEEP?  Rather than rely on music and pills, the trick lies in thinking differently about sleep     We’re all born able to sleep, but that doesn’t mean that we find it easy. One out of every 20 Indian suffers from sleep disorders, and Indian women (6.5%) outnumber men (4.3%) when it comes to disturbed sleep, says recent research conducted by the Warwick Medical School.     And if that’s not enough to keep you lying awake at night, research also shows that long-term poor sleepers are twice as likely to have relationship problems and an elevated risk of heart disease.     According to sleep physiologists, it’s this very obsession with sleep and the negative side effects of not getting enough that’s half the problem. Once you start feeling anxious about sleep, you become more alert and less able to drop off — creating the vicious cycle of insomnia many of us are all-too familiar with.     Contrary to what you may think, the answer doesn’t lie in sleeping pills or following elaborate bedtime routines, but in learning to think differently about sleep. THE GOOD VERSUS THE BAD Good sleepers have no rules. You ask them what they do to get to sleep and they’ll say ‘nothing’. Ask an insomniac and he'll say ‘everything’ and give you a list as long as your arm — from avoiding caffeine, bathing in lavender oil and listening to relaxation CDs. All these actions make you acutely aware of your insomnia, which ultimately makes the condition worse. HOW INSOMNIA TAKES HOLD Struggling to sleep can start with something as simple as having a stressful day at work. Then the following evening around bedtime, you get anxious about whether you’ll be able to sleep, which makes it harder to drop off. Once sleep becomes an ‘issue’, you focus on it too much, and the cycle begins. Because we’re such creatures of habit, it takes just a few days for the brain to start associating night-time with wakefulness rather than sleepiness, leadding to what experts call ‘hyper arousal’. LEARNING TO BE A GOOD SLEEPER Sleeping is a natural physical process. Our bodies know how to do it — we’re just getting in the way. To win the battle, we have to stop fighting it. At some sleep schools abroad, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is used. It works by teaching us to do the exact opposite of what we’re normally told to do when we can’t sleep. So instead of trying to find distractions such as getting up to make a drink or listening to music, it encourages insomniacs to lie in bed and allow themselves to experience the discomfort of not sleeping. If your mind  wanders off, gently bring it back. The  aim is to cultivate a gentle relationship with the discomfort of not sleeping, which will tell your brain that it no longer needs to keep you awake.     — Daily Mirror .

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