Tag: Sleep Hygiene

Sleep Anxiety: Is the Fear of Insomnia Causing Your Inability to Sleep?

Is the fear of insomnia causing your inability to sleep? In some people, insomnia can begin abruptly after one bad night of sleep. From there, sleep anxiety develops and becomes a nightly pattern. Worry builds as bedtime approaches, and by the time someone gets into bed, they are so worked up, they can’t fall asleep. The fear of not being able to sleep ends up driving insomnia.



After this lousy night of sleep, a negative association develops, and sleep begins to be linked with insomnia. I like this definition of negative association: read more

Sleep and aging: What happens to our sleep and how to make it better

Oh, the joys of aging and sleep!

Insomnia in the elderly is a frequent struggle. The amount of sleep people need (and the quality of sleep) changes over a lifetime.  Sleep may be affected by genetics, mental health, physical health, and medications. These changes can be part of the normal aging process and can happen independently of medical or psychiatric illness.

Sleep and Aging: What frequently happens with insomnia in the elderly?



  • Reduce total sleep time,
  • Cause daytime sleepiness,
  • Increase the number of times you wake up after you fall asleep (reduce sleep efficiency),
  • Reduce dream (REM) sleep,
  • Cause a lighter sleep,
  • Reduce the amount of slow wave sleep so there is less restorative sleep,
  • Shift your circadian rhythm so you are sleepy earlier in the evening and wake early in the morning.

Read here for an in-depth article of everything you ever wanted to know about aging and sleep.

Treatment of insomnia in elderly individuals:

There are many treatment options for sleep problems. read more

Can’t sleep? Back to basics!

Is your sleep suffering? Can’t sleep at all? Let’s talk about sleep problems, some basic information about sleep and sleep hygiene, and how to sleep better. We often don’t make the connection between poor sleep and habits we have that interfere with it. Quality sleep is essential to feeling well. We feel lousy when we have a lack of sleep! Chronic lack of sleep can have medical consequences and make it hard to recover from an illness like depression.

How to Sleep Better: Sleep Hygiene




You may be able to improve sleep by practicing better sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene is really about getting back to basics: minimizing disruptions while sleeping, maximizing comfort, and identifying things interfering with sleep while adding in things to improve sleep. Here is a link to a great review of sleep hygiene that will help you figure out how to improve your sleep problems. read more