9 Reasons Likely Causing Your Sleep Issues

Approximately 30% of individuals struggle with sleep deprivation; this lack of sleep is linked to obesity, Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, depression, dementia, and other physical and mental health related issues. The good news? Insomnia is a very treatable condition, but, we need to identify the etiology. In my clinical practice, these are the common reasons I’ve identified in patients finding themselves struggling with their beloved Z’s:

1) You are going to bed too early - as adults we still carry on the childhood tradition of a designated “bed time”. Our reasoning for going to bed often times is not because we’re about to fall asleep, but for other reasons - our partner is going to bed at that time, we’re bored and just done with the day, or 10 pm is the time that will set us up for that mythical 8 hours of necessary sleep for our 6 o’clock wake up time the next morning. Only get into bed when you are tired. I repeat: ONLY GET INTO BED WHEN YOU ARE TIRED. Specifically, when you literally feel like you are about to doze off.

2) Your naps are too long or too late in the day - The longer you nap, the deeper you go into those sleep stages. If you recall from my previous sleep blog, anything past 20 minutes of napping takes you into that physical and emotional restorative sleep. I promise you this will affect your night time sleep. Think of napping as “snacking” - Eat too big of a snack, you won’t be hungry for dinner. Eat a snack too close to dinner, your appetite won’t be as big. Still disagree with me because you’re still falling asleep just fine at bedtime? Alright, what about your 3:00am awakenings? How’s THAT working for ya?! Stop napping.

3) Your couch is the enemy - stop sleeping or napping on your couch. You are confusing your brain as it’s trying to associate what part of the house is meant for sleep. You’ve heard of the rule “only use bed for sleep and sex”, right? It goes the other way too - sleep is only meant to occur in the bed. Otherwise, the association with sleep is going to be weakened if there are multiple locations in the house you are getting your Z’s in. Im sorry, but you’ll thank me later.

4) You need to stress out a little more during the day - Okay, not like that. I mean more like, you need to make some committed “check-in” time for yourself about what’s going on internally for you. You will read a lot about my stance on being busy all the time in my other blog pieces. Constant busyness is just not good for us. I prescribe “Worry Time” to patients - put 20 minutes on your cell phone timer to give yourself permission and space to sit there and worry, plan, stress out, write out a To Do and Stress list. Do all this until you are blue in the face during and that 20 minute time frame. We are fantastic at remaining so busy during the day, we neglect ourselves the opportunity to slow down and practice mindfulness, prayer, etc. As humans, we need to check in with ourselves about how we’re feeling, we need to process, identify what needs to be accomplished the next day or later in the week, or what we are currently emotionally battling in our heads. Unfortunately, people who are predisposed to insomnia will struggle with this even more. That 2am wake up (usually prompted by a bathroom visit, water break, or completing a sleep cycle) then proceeded by finding yourself thinking of EVERYTHING? This is likely caused by you not taking some necessary space for yourself earlier in the day. Some of this stuff you’re not thinking about may be because you could be avoiding some painful truths. (Check out my last post one that).

5) You’re doing too much screen time before bed - the white/blue light shining from your laptop, phone, or tv is being absorbed into your eyes and entering into your pineal gland in your brain. This gland is responsible for melatonin release (the sleep promoting hormone). Everyone is different, but, it can take people up to 2 hours to get their pineal glands back in order to release that melatonin again so you can fall asleep. Cut off your screen time AT LEAST an hour before your body finds itself wanting to go to sleep, or, consider glasses with specific lenses that block out that light.

6) Because of engaging in the above perpetuating factors, your circadian rhythm is off balance - due to the accumulation of the above, your sleep cycle is off balance. After making some of the changes based on the above and still not seeing results, contact me and Im happy to work with you to reset your circadian rhythm. (jbergstrompsyd@gmail.com)

7) Get off the booze - you may fall asleep reeaal easy at night after having a few, but, if you’ve found yourself waking up in the middle of the night (approximately 4 hours after you fell asleep), you’ve just experienced the Alcohol Rebound Effect. Your body has just completed metabolizing those delicious IPA’s out of your system and you wake up, often times wide awake physiologically. So stop it.

8) OSA - a serious medical condition, Obstructive Sleep Apnea may be the culprit causing your sleep issues all together. Some common symptoms to help you rule this out before you ask your doc for a sleep study: you’re drowsy during the day despite the amount of sleep you received, you easily doze off during the day (particularly during inopportune times such as driving, meetings, etc), you’ve been told that you snore very loudly or have air gasping noises in your sleep. If you have sleep apnea, this needs to be treated so you can sleep but also avoid the serious health consequences this causes down the road.

9) Depression and anxiety - sleep disturbance can literally be a symptom of anxiety or depression. This is when insomnia is “secondary”. If you’re struggling, stop making it so hard on yourself. Check out your health insurance options to get the support you deserve through therapy, or, check out my curriculum with my colleague at http://www.onlinemeetingnow.com/register/?id=i2gyntbvfc.