If Only I Could Get Some Sleep

“If Only I Could Get Some Sleep”

Trauma disorders and sleep problems tend to go together. For some individuals, the same over-active brain chemicals that keep them feeling “on alert” during the day keep them feeling as if they must be on the lookout for danger throughout the night as well. Nightmares and upsetting dreams—a common consequence of traumatic experience—can awaken some people from sleep and make others dread falling asleep in the first place.

Other causes of sleep problems include medical problems such as chronic pain and stomach or intestinal distress. Research has shown that individuals with trauma disorders are far more likely than the non-traumatized person to suffer from both.

Unwanted memories of past traumatic events, from which the activity of daily living can be a distraction, sometimes resurface as an individual settles down for the night. And worry—about present day stresses or fear that something dangerous will again happen in his life—commonly interferes with the quality of a trauma survivor’s sleep.

All in all, it’s hard for many individuals who live with trauma disorders to get a good night’s sleep. These suggestions may help:
• Stay away from alcohol. Lots of people make the common mistake of using alcohol to turn off “on alert” feelings. While alcohol may help us fall asleep, it disrupts the sleep cycle, interfering with the length and quality of sleep as well as meddling with the internal clock that tells when to become sleepy the next night and the night after that. Alcohol causes more problems than it solves.
• Stay away from noise and light. Sleep in a bedroom with lights off or dimmed and the TV off. While lights and background noise may be initially reassuring, they interfere with being able to enter a deep, resentful sleep stage.
• Start early to prepare for bedtime. Try to get up every day at the same time, even when you are tired, to reset your biological clock for sleep time. Exercise early in the day rather than before bed. A soothing hot bath and cup of coffee may look good on TV commercials but exercise, heat and caffeine are all stimulants that will hinder becoming sleepy.

Sherry Cox