Many Australians are sleep deprived, with one in three people struggling with their sleep. The Sleep Health Foundation in Sydney reveals sleep disorders cost the Australian economy more than $5.1 billion a year in health care and indirect costs.

Not only does lack of sleep have an impact on your cognitive ability, being sleep deprived affects your psychological state and mental health. Both general practitioners and psychologists feel sleep (or their lack of) and mental health are closely connected and those with mental health problems are more likely to have insomnia or other sleep disorders.

The mutual relationship between sleep and mental health requires continual research and clearer understanding in the industry. However, neuroimaging and neurochemistry studies suggest that a good night's sleep helps foster both mental and emotional resilience, while chronic sleep deprivation sets the stage for negative thinking and emotional vulnerability.

If you struggle with getting adequate sleep for your body and mind, it’s important to remember that paradoxically, worrying about how much sleep you will get, only fuels anxiety.

We can try to avoid additional anxiety by cultivating acceptance in the moment while working towards improving sleep habits overall. If you find yourself awake it may help to focus on staying calm and challenging catastrophic thoughts related to your overall functioning. For example, reminding yourself that while you may not feel 100% the next day, you will most likely perform better than you expect. Do you already have evidence of this?

Aim for quality over quantity. It’s better to get a few good hours of sleep than stress about getting a certain number of hours. Everyone is different in what their brain and body needs.

Along with diet and exercise, sleep is one of the three key pillars of health. But whilst food and physical fitness gets a lot of media attention, sleep gets far less focus. Be patient and kind with yourself. Remember, developing good sleep habits take time so be prepared to keep learning and finetuning this process. Below are some tips to start to improve sleep:

1) Don’t worry about an optimum number

Every age group has different sleep needs. This number also differs between individuals so bear in mind that you may need a little more or less than the average. Listen to your body.

2) Keep your wake-up times consistent

Modern life, social commitments, social media can push our bedtimes on a regular basis. These can throw our circadian rhythms out of sync. To have better sleep, go for a more consistent bed and wake time seven days a week to help your body clock know when to be awake and when to be asleep. Try not to sleep in the day time, however, (if you can nap) than short 20min naps may be helpful.

3) Make your bedroom a sacred space for sleep

It’s not the place to stream or watch videos or do a lot of thinking or worrying. This is a sleep strategy called stimulus control. The relationship we want in our heads is: bed = sleep. If you work on your bed, your mind will associate it with work.

If you find yourself lying awake in bed for longer than 20 minutes, consider getting up and doing a low stimulating activity until you feel sleepy again. When you feel sleepy, return to bed.

4) You can’t exercise yourself to sleep

Exercising is good for sleep overall, but too close to bedtime and it might just wake your brain and body up. Exercise and having a healthy routine during the day is important but avoid doing any stimulating activity close to bedtime.

5) Avoid stimulants and heavy meals

Avoid eating big meals and drinking coffee or alcohol at least three hours before bedtime as they can interfere with your body clock. Steer clear of caffeine, which has a half-life of three to five hours. Which means, if you have a coffee at 5pm, you may still have 50% of the caffeine in your system at 10pm.

6) Get the right light exposure at the right time

Get plenty of natural light during the day and avoid blue light from mobile devices and LED lights at night. Blue light from devices delays the release of your hormone of darkness, melatonin, which helps you get sleepy. Getting your light right helps your body clock regulate day and night naturally.

7) Get the temperature right

Sleep will be affected if the environment is too hot or too cold. Research has also demonstrated that a drop in body temperature can initiate sleep. Having a warm bath or shower before bed may help trigger the physiological mechanisms necessary for this.

8) Delay your worries

If you find yourself worrying about events, keep a pen and paper by your bedside to write down your worries then allow yourself permission to let them go until the morning. You can also use apps to help you unwind or refocus your attention. Try the apps such as Headspace, Calm or Worry Time.

For further help and advice on how to improve your sleep and having a better understanding on insomnia and why it occurs, the following links could be beneficial:

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/sleep/insomnia-causes-and-cures.htm https://www.sleephealthfoundation.org.au/
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/

Sleep and Your Health