|
| Insomnia Information | Q. I have insomnia. Would it help me if I volunteered to be a participant in one of your studies?
A. Taking part in research studies is unlikely to help those with chronic sleep problems (since research studies are designed to address specific issues and not individual problems). So, if you have a sleep problem, you may find some of the advice below helpful.
Q. I think I have insomnia; what should I do?
A. If you feel that your complaint matches the description of insomnia (above), consider seeing you general practitioner (GP) to discuss your sleep.
Try to make it easier for your doctor to help you by being specific about your symptoms and your problem. Make clear whether you have problems getting to sleep or staying asleep, describe the daytime impact of this problem (do you experience fatigue during the day?).
Try to emphasize what you really want from both your sleep (for example, greater predictability, resources to deal with episodes of sleeplessness, etc.) and your doctor (sleeping tablets? Reassurance? an explanation?). You can have a health problem that is causing or aggravating your sleep difficulties; your doctor is the best person to assess this.
If special sleeping tablets are offered, ask your doctor how long these can be prescribed for, and what you do if your sleep problem persists beyond this period. Also obtain information about sleep and insomnia from the many books on this subject available in high-street or online book shops. Finally, you should look at your sleeping habits and consider opportunities to improve your ‘sleep hygiene’.
Q. What is ‘sleep hygiene’, and how does it help?
A. Sleep hygiene simply means living your life in a way that safeguards your sleep. In fact, this means doing those things which promote sleep (like keeping regular bedtimes and maintaining a regular night time routine), and avoiding those things which antagonise sleep (like caffeine consumed too close to bedtime, or exercise taken too late in the evening).
The complete list of recommended “dos” and “don’ts” can be found in some of the better self-help books. Developments in sleep hygiene provide a very useful ‘first step’ when dealing with insomnia and can be particularly helpful when combined with psychological (see below) or pharmacological treatments.
|
|
