Welcome to sleep talk. The podcast about all things sleep brought to you by sleephub.com.au. Here are your hosts Dr. David Cunnington and Dr. Moira Junge.
So welcome to this special episode of the Sleep Talk podcast. Welcome Moira. Hello Dave. A really good idea to just have this quick one off episode to get some messages out there about those that aren't sleeping well which is probably the most of the world at the moment.
So the circumstances we find ourselves in are unfortunate but we thought it was important to try and give people some strategies to help with sleep during these difficult times. One of the key points we wanted to emphasize is that our daytime lives are markedly different. It's been totally thrown upside down in what we're allowed to do during the day. So really we should expect that nighttime and sleep is also going to be different. It's a very
stressful time. So it's also important to make sure we look after ourselves both physically and mentally. We've experienced this personally over the last week feeling anxious and finding sleep's changed but have been able to manage our symptoms. I've been waking up a bit earlier. It's a natural tendency of mine anyway but it does get earlier again when
I'm a bit stressed or anxious. Cycling's my thing. If I'm feeling a bit stressed or anxious spending some time on a bike and fortunately I've got an indoor bike set up so I can do that whilst maintaining social distancing. It's been helpful. So although I've been waking early I've been fitting in a cycling session before work and I found that pretty helpful. I've also selected a couple of books to read that deliberately aren't work or virus related. What about you Moira?
It's a devastating time. There's the worry about the virus. There's also that fear of keeping yourself safe and your family safe. Am I being cautious enough? Those sorts of fears. But of course there's the worry and the sadness about the deadly economic and social consequences. The change is so rapid. There's so much uncertainty. So I haven't actually been sleeping very well. In the first maybe say a week ago and I've managed to get things back on track.
So what did you do?
Isn't it great that a physician, not that I'm a physician, but physician heal thyself. I actually just had to take my medicine and put into practice the CBT-I principles that I've taught for many many many years now. We've actually just developed a new Sleep Health Foundation fact sheet that's available now. We'll put the link to that in our show notes that outlines basically what I did. Do you want me to tell you what I did?
Absolutely.
One of the most important things for me was to limit my media exposure because I'm just devouring the media exposure about COVID-19. Because as a business owner, as a parent, as a concerned citizen, I really want to be up to date but I realize that I have to really limit that and only go to the official sites. So I actually recommend the www.health.gov.au because the rest of the media reports are just too conflicting. Have you noticed, it's just too conflicting and there's just too
much uncertainty. So for me I just have to go with what the actual requirements and guidelines are right now today. The other thing I found really important that I've taught all my life and realize how much I needed to do it myself is unwinding. So spending that time relaxing doing other things other than looking at COVID-19 reports. Also I thought was super important to keep up my fitness and I've got my whole family onto that too that we are really clear about our exercise every day and
eating sensibly. There's nothing open anyway so there's no need to be drinking too much, so we're actually just really really white hot onto the three pillars of health of exercise, our diet our sleep. Just prioritizing those three things to keep our immune system healthy but also to keep our mental health functioning well because there's a lot of angst in our household like around the world. I also have really got into making myself remind myself of the importance of
meditation and I can't stress that enough. To me it's like the insulin for the diabetic at this time. I just have to fall back and lean into my meditation to actually make sure that I keep my levels of hyper arousal reasonable and make sure that I don't go over that threshold to sleep poorly. I really need my sleep more than ever.
It's a really good point about the meditation and I've been a bit more proactive about that as well because often if people aren't sleeping well they'll conceptualize it as 'the answer is I'm going to fix this by doing something about sleep' but in stressful times like this the answer is more about self care and managing worries during the day. So really important to be proactive about managing worries throughout the day and there's a lot to worry about.
People are also going to sleep shorter because that's actually pretty common when we're uncertain of things for adrenaline levels to be higher.
Bed restriction and sleep restriction are core components of CBT-I that we've talked about a lot. I made sure that I practice it myself. I had to be realistic about just staying up as late as possible with my unwinding period mind you and in dim light to make sure that I could actually have that higher level of sleep pressure to make sure I could initiate and then maintain my sleep better. And if I wasn't sleeping well that I did go to another room, waited to be
tired and sleepy. Did some reading. All the stuff I've taught. So glad I actually know how to do this stuff. It turned back very quickly within a matter of just a day or two.
And that's what the research shows. Those two techniques sleep restriction stimulus control are really powerful strategies for getting sleep back on track by changing behavior around sleep.
It really helps build that empathy as well. You really need to understand how bad it can be for people and just to really understand t his is the strategy I'm going to do. It's so important when you are out of the bed waiting to be sleepy and tired that you are in dim light and you don't monitor the clock. It's very important. Just do not even buy into what time it might be and what
you what you are missing or calculating all that sort of stuff. The final point I wanted to make was that it's really important to manage your fatigue. Even I didn't get much sleep it doesn't mean that it is the end of the world or mean I wouldn't be able to function well the next day. I've been making the use of having little naps if I needed to and even though I had a coffee, actually having appropriately timed caffeine to help manage my sleepiness
and my energy levels. So that was really important. I also have been right on to following my psychological society's fact sheets on things like how to manage distress in the time of coronavirus and also Beyond Blue which is our leading national advocate on mental health. They've got good resources on mental health and we'll put both those resources in the show notes.
Thanks for that discussion Moira. Just to try and tie things together. The key points for people who are having trouble with sleep for me is expect sleep to be different. Our day times are very different. This is a very uncertain time and we're all going to be feeling somewhat anxious. So in those circumstances expect sleep to be shorter, to be waking more, for sleep to be lighter and change
your behavior accordingly maybe by going to bed later. Not be so concerned if you wait during the night and if you do wait during the night don't be afraid of getting up doing something else until you feel sleepy before you go back to bed. What about for you Moira?
I think the overall management of your self care, your stress management is really important and I think that the keeping the three pillars in check making sure you do have plenty of exercise and that you're eating well and that you are prioritizing sleep at least allowing time for sleep and rest in this sort of uncertain time. I think these are the key things that will help bring people back on track to actually just improve their sleep.
If you are having trouble with sleep despite accessing the good resources like the Sleep Health Foundation fact sheet that we'll link to, remember that healthcare providers are still working during this time and are available. Providers like myself and Moira have worked very hard to shift our consultation services online so that we're available for people throughout this period, which is going to be a challenging period and cause
changes with sleep for many people. Thanks very much for your insights Moira and for contributing to this episode.
Thank you very much Dave. Thanks for organizing it so promptly and I just want to say just best wishes to everyone.
Thanks a lot.
This podcast is not intended as a substitute for your own independent health professionals advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider within your country or place of residency with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.