Sleep problems: One of many mind-body challenges

If only sleep was always as easy and pleasant as it seems to be for this little charmer.

You or your clients or loved ones may:
1) be kept awake by worries and even headaches and stomach aches worsened by worry.
2) wake up in the middle of the night feeling scared, agitated, sweating and afraid
3) take hours to fall asleep and then take hours to become alert in the morning
4) sleep fitfully, up and down throughout the night as if never really falling into a deep sleep.

Although true biologically based sleep disorders are rare, sleep problems are common. Sleep is an arena where our bodies and minds interact; the new psychiatric diagnostic manual recognizes that it's hard to separate cause from effect when sleep, mood, thoughts, the body, and behavior are all not working smoothly.
You have probably heard that  reduced and disrupted sleep can lead to problems in the mind and body; research tells us that sleep loss can lead to problems in thinking/learning/concentration, physical illness, emotions, weight gain, premature aging, inflammation, and more.


This list of problems doesn't mean that forcing sleep through medication is the one correct pathway to get the whole sleep/mind/body system working smoothly again.  In fact, I've had clients become "immune" to all sleep inducing medications because there is an underlying problem leading to sleep avoidance.  These problems have included fear of nightmares, or simply not wanting to snore and disrupt a partner's sleep.

Dealing with sleep issues is also not a simple matter of just "dealing with what's on your mind."  People have genuine biologically-involved sleep problems such as narcolepsy, delayed or advanced sleep phases,, sleepwalking, and sleep terrors (not the same as nightmares, in fact they take place in deep sleep, not in REM sleep).  I say "biologically involved" because a problem that began as a lifestyle or anxiety issue can become a biological issue and vice versa.  Depression itself is a mix of emotional, cognitive, and whole-body effects including too much or too little or unrestful sleep. I've learned as a therapist to be flexible in realizing that sometimes the body (medications) are the first point of intervention, sometimes the mind or behavior should change first to bring the body back into balance.
Most often, in the case of sleep, depression, anxiety, anger, thought disorder, or attention and learning problems, getting on the road to health means making coordinated changes in body, thoughts, relationships, and lifestyle.
The new diagnostic manual of mental disorders makes special mention of how sleep issues are not just rooted in mind or brain or body alone; I am glad when medical and mental health professionals recognize this about many mind-body problems and work together with clients/patients on figuring out what's going on and making life better.