Good Sleep Practices

To understand more about the causes of insomnia and sleep problems, please take a look at Common Physical Outcomes.

It is essential to understand as much as we can about sleep problems following a brain injury before we attempt to incorporate other changes.

There has been a lot of research into sleep problems, and there is a lot of information designed to help people create better sleep practices for themselves. However, the causes of sleep problems can be missed in many articles, and it is crucial to take a broader whole-body approach post-injury.

You may find that you need more sleep than before your brain injury, which is normal. In time you will see the time you need to sleep for reduces naturally.

If you struggle with insomnia, you must see a sleep specialist.

Many of the outcomes and symptoms of brain injury perpetuate each other. For example, cognitive difficulties, such as maintaining attention, can then cause frustration, frustration induces more stress and stress can cause a whole host of other knock-on-effects – including sleep problems.

Taking a whole-body approach helps us to tackle many things at one time. We need to take as much care of and give as much attention to our general health as we do to using strategies aimed at improving our ability to manage our everyday lives better.

Many of the outcomes and symptoms can play a role in and effect, how well we sleep post-injury. If we can start to get to grips with other possible causes and begin to improve the impacts these have on us then it can be possible to re-establish more regular sleep patterns and falling to sleep can feel as natural as it once did.

In other words, post brain injury, in many ways, it is best not to isolate each outcome, but rather to do many things together. For example, you may find that getting to sleep is the most frustrating symptom you have, and therefore, you might want to prioritise this. The underlying cause could be anger, uncontrolled emotions, depression or a multitude of other things.

Whatever it is that we are trying to improve, it is best done at the same time as incorporating a plan for a healthier body and lifestyle. One of the main things we need to recognise is that the body post-injury can no longer manage without our full support.

We can no longer get away with many of the things we thought of as our ‘naughty treats.’ It is essential to bear in mind that much of our thinking in this regard doesn’t stem from our recognition of the things we enjoy, but has way more to do with behavioural conditioning. For example, how many of us would look at a packet of ‘x-brand’ cookies, read the ingredients label and then think – ‘this is going to be very healthy and nutritional.’

Before the days of mass-produced and heavily marketed processed products, people used to think it was a treat to eat an orange!

We have to tackle our attitudes just as much as anything else when it comes to remodelling sleep habits.

Speak to your doctor and get your vitamin D and B12 levels checked.

Many people struggle with getting a good nights rest because at some point they have become ‘overtired.’ While everyone has a natural sleep pattern, this can be disrupted when life events disturb routines, such as, a member of the family being poorly or stress and worry that interfered with sleep.

Sleep is especially important following a brain injury because this is the time in which memories are stored and is when the brain flushes out toxins that built up during the day. Sleep is restorative, so it is vital for healing.

Some people are aware that if they miss any sleep, they don’t feel right until those lost hours have been caught up with again.

Chronic sleep loss can interfere with the natural rhythms of the body and brain and sometimes catching up the hours that were lost can, on its own, restore natural patterns.

Being overtired can also cause insomnia and often a herbal sleep supplement will help people regain natural sleep patterns by inducing rest and more extended periods of sleep. It is worth taking a few days or more to see if this is the cause of your sleep problems. It is best to put a few days aside where you can sleep for as long as you need to without interruption to see if ‘catching-up’ helps to restore natural sleep. 

Rather than just incorporating changes by addressing one thing at a time, such as not watching the tv in the bedroom, it is more important to think about the whole picture so that when one thing doesn’t work on its own, we don’t stop trying. Trying to change things one thing at a time can cause disappointment when one thing doesn’t work, this disappointment may lead to frustration and so on, and on, exacerbating all the problems we are trying to improve and change.

There are three critical things that everyone should start with, and we explain why under ‘Healing Your Brain.’ These are:-

1. Eating for nutrition
2. Using supplements
3. Clearing toxins
4. Detoxing your body and brain

To get the most out of any change doing many things together works best.

Start with your bedroom:-

1. Declutter, use ‘black-out’ blinds, make sure the room isn’t too warm or too cold
2. Speak to your spouse about noise and lights. You need to agree that your sleep is vitally important. If you can’t reach amicable agreements, you may need to consider other changes, such as temporarily sleeping in separate rooms, or using a sleep mask and earplugs
3. Don’t watch the tv in bed or use any other screens for two hours before sleeping
4. Use guided meditations designed to help you sleep or soothing music
5. Give some thought to using pure and natural essential oils