• Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Center for Therapeutic Services  & Psychodiagnostics

Center for Therapeutic Services & Psychodiagnostics

Blending Traditional and Holistic Therapies

Call today: ☏ 815.344.9443

  • Home
  • About
    • Results-Focused Therapy
    • Holistic, Comprehensive, Tailored to Fit Your Needs
    • Issues We Treat
    • Careers
    • Virtual tour
  • Staff
    • Our Staff
  • Psychotherapy Services
    • Psychodiagnostic Testing
    • Individual Therapy
    • Family Therapy
    • Couples Therapy
    • Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety
    • Meditation
    • Anger Management Counseling
    • Hypnosis therapy
  • Other services
    • Additional Services
    • Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
    • Applied Behavior Analysis (Autism treatment)
    • Social skills gaming group for kids
    • Coming soon: The BioMat for stress and pain relief
    • Coming soon: Infrared sauna
  • Living Well
    • Do you feel sad for no reason?
    • Do you sleep enough?
    • Relaxation Techniques for Anxiety
    • Relationships – three basic ways of communicating
    • A formula for assertive communciation that works
    • Relationships – Listening
    • Learning to control anger
  • New Client
  • FAQ
    • FAQ
    • Making an Appointment
    • Canceling Appointments
    • Fees and Insurance
    • Other Resources For You
    • Supervision Statement
  • Contact
    • Virtual tour

Do you sleep enough?

Young woman smiling, eyes closed“I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead”

How many times have you said this to either yourself or to someone close to you as you are downing your fifth cup of coffee?  With so many demands on us, from running the kids around, working a 40-80 work week, to daily household tasks, it is not surprising that we often do not get a good night’s rest. By the time we have accomplished our daily activities, decompressed from our day, and started thinking about what is on the schedule for tomorrow, it is time to get up and start all over again.   Sleep is one of the activities we devalue in order to get more out of our day.  In fact, we fool ourselves into thinking that we are able to function or just “make it” without sleep.

However, poor sleep can seriously impact our mental and physical wellbeing. It is well known that poor sleep hygiene can lead to an inability to focus, attend, and concentrate; as well as lead to forgetfulness, poor judgment, and being accident-prone.  When we have a lack of sleep we are sluggish, unmotivated, and have a harder time controlling our emotions.  Chronic sleep loss can also impact our physical wellbeing and put us at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Oftentimes we are likely to attribute our bad mood, fogginess, or lack of initiative to other things going on in our life such as stress, relationship or family issues, or employment problems.

Improving and maintaining good sleep habits is a simple way to regain control over many of the troublesome emotional, physical, and cognitive problems that we experience in our daily lives.  Here are some basic tips to improving your sleep:

  1. Food & Drink. Avoid stimulants including caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol as well as heavy meals close to bedtime.
  2. Napping. Do not sleep in the daytime as it can disturb your regular sleep-wake cycle.
  3. Exercise.  Regularly practice relaxing exercises (e.g. yoga, stretching) before bed that can promote sleep.
  4. Habit.  Create a stable bedtime ritual that allows you to unwind for the day and tells your body it is time for sleep.  This can include writing down worries for the day, light reading, a television program, or listening to calming music.  All the while reminding yourself that you are “slowing down” for the night.
  5. Calm.  Avoid emotional triggers before bed such as arguments, dwelling on issues, or attempting to fix stressful situations. You may want to write a “reminder” list for the next day’s tasks you want to tackle.  Allow and tell yourself to let go for the day.
  6. Bed.  Use your bed only for sleep.  It should not be used for television viewing, reading, or other activities.  To help with this you should remove anything in the bedroom that is a distraction from sleep.
  7. Survey.  Take a good look around your bedroom.  Is it relaxing, dark, quiet? Does your bedroom promote sleep?
  8. Awake.  If you are unable to fall asleep within 20 minutes (or wake up and cannot fall asleep after 20 minutes), then focus on sections of your body and notice any tension and let it go by using words or images that promote warmth, relaxation, and heaviness.  If you are still unable to sleep, calmly, and quietly get out of bed, and engage in a quiet and relaxing activity (e.g. listening to calming music) in a dimly lit alternate room until you feel drowsy and are able to go back to bed.
  9. Thoughts. Find one simple word (e.g. “bee”) and with as little movement as possible of your mouth repeat this word over and over.  If you have specific images stuck in your mind then find a familiar image (e.g. a jagged circle or spiral or the outline of a fence or house) and with your eyes closed, slowly track the outline of the image.  You may notice intrusive thoughts at times and you should simply acknowledge them and return to the task at hand. These two skills can help block out intrusive thoughts and images and help restore sleep.
Facebooktwittergoogle_pluslinkedin

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Let us know about your needs. Just fill in this form and click Send









If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, do not use this form. Call 911 immediately or go directly to the nearest emergency room.

☏: 815.344.9443

Holistic Models Tailored to Your Needs

We are committed to helping you with the most comprehensive, holistic services that are established in evidence-based treatment.
You are unique and your circumstances are unique.

We will apply a broad range of dynamic assessments that are individualized and tailored to fit your unique needs.

We take a creative approach to treating complex mental health problems both on an individual and group level.

Get started now on the road to healing. Call us, or just fill out the contact form and click Send.

Footer

Find Us on Facebook

4209 W Shamrock Lane

McHenry, IL 60050

815.344.9443

9 Crystal Lake Road

Lake in the Hills, IL 60156

224.509.8026