Lindsay Browning - Navigating Sleeplessness: How to Sleep Deeper and Better for Longer (A Mental Health Handbook)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Lindsay Browning is a chartered psychologist and associate fellow of the British Psychological Society who runs sleep consultancy and therapy services at her private practice, Trouble Sleeping.

Dr Browning began studying psychology at the University of Leicester, where she obtained a first-class BSc in Psychology. She was then awarded the Wellcome Trust four-year scholarship at the University of Oxford, to study a masters in Neuroscience and a doctorate in Insomnia. During her MSc in Neuroscience, she investigated brain asymmetry in patients with schizophrenia and started to become interested in the field of sleep research. At that time (2002), sleep was still an emerging field of study, where much was not yet understood. Dr Brownings doctoral thesis looked at the relationship between worry, rumination and insomnia.

After graduating in 2006, Dr Browning set up her private practice, Trouble Sleeping, to help people of all ages with their sleeping problems. At that time, there were only a handful of sleep specialists treating insomnia in the UK.

Today, Dr Browning spends her time helping individual clients improve their sleep with cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and also working with companies to offer employee wellbeing programmes. She offers sleep and shift work advice and consultancy to companies and the public sector, including the NHS and the police, as well as charities and other organizations including And So to Bed, to promote healthy sleep and general wellbeing. When she is not working, she enjoys cooking, travel and spending time with her family.

Connect with her online: @DrBrowningSleep

www.troublesleeping.co.uk

First published in Great Britain 2021 by Trigger

Trigger is a trading style of Shaw Callaghan Ltd & Shaw Callaghan 23 USA, INC.

The Foundation Centre

Navigation House, 48 Millgate, Newark

Nottinghamshire NG24 4TS UK

www.triggerpublishing.com

Text Copyright Dr Lindsay Browning 2021

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the publisher

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available upon request from the British Library

eBook ISBN: 9781789562408

Dr Lindsay Browning has asserted her right under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work

Cover design by stevewilliamscreative.com

Typeset and converted to ebook by Lapiz Digital Services

CONTENTS

ABOUT THIS BOOK

Navigating Sleeplessness is part of a Trigger Publishing series of books about managing mental health issues. Although the advice offered in this book is based on scientific principles for the treatment of sleeping problems, it is designed to be accessible to anyone with no prior knowledge of science. This book attempts to pack a plethora of advice and information into a very short space. The advice is intended for anyone struggling with their sleep, to give them clear and easy-to-implement suggestions for how they can improve it.

Although Navigating Sleeplessness is intended to be read in order, with subsequent chapters and exercises building on previous chapters, it is laid out so that you will easily be able to refer back to any sections you want to consult in the future. In addition, you will find several compass points that highlight especially useful or important information throughout, pointing you in the right direction, as it were.

This book will hopefully empower you to take the steps detailed here to prioritize your own sleep and improve your overall wellbeing. At the end of the book you will find signposts to further resources should you need to seek further professional help for your sleep or mental health.

INTRODUCTION: YOURE NOT ALONE

You may be reading this book because you are struggling with your sleep and would like some advice on how to fall asleep faster and stay asleep for longer, or you may be a professional or friend wanting to help someone else with their sleep. This book will offer practical advice on navigating sleeplessness for yourself, or enable you to better help someone else who is struggling with their sleep.

The great thing is that no one is just a poor sleeper. You can change. This book will walk you through a number of different strategies for overcoming your sleeping problems, and give you techniques to stop your poor sleep from making a reappearance later down the road.

Often, people who struggle to sleep at night feel very alone and desperate. They may have tried giving up caffeine, using over-the-counter sleeping medication, going to bed earlier, going to bed later, using sleep apps and/or trying to improve their sleep hygiene but nothing has helped. They may find themselves increasingly anxious as bedtime draws near, even having panic attacks at night. They may also spend their days worrying about how their sleep (or lack thereof) is ruining their life.

This book starts with an examination of the science of sleep. This is important because often, people find that they are worrying about an aspect of their sleep that turns out to be perfectly normal and nothing to worry about. We will then move on to explore why sleep is important and how much sleep you should be aiming to get each night. Next, we will examine what can cause your sleep to start to go wrong, including information about a number of potential medical sleep disorders as well as how stressful life events can disrupt your sleep, causing insomnia. Armed with the knowledge of what your specific sleep issues are, you can start to learn some strategies and techniques to help you fix your sleeping issue. In addition to good sleep hygiene principles, tips for managing nighttime worries and anxieties, this book also provides some relaxation techniques for you to use.

This book should help to give you a clear understanding of why your sleeping problem has developed in the first place and what you can do to stop it. It is a chance to take a good look at your lifestyle and choices to see if there are aspects that are not helping you or are causing you extra stress. You may find that you have developed an issue with sleep due to not taking care of yourself, and this may be an unexpected opportunity your chance to prioritize your wellbeing. Sleeplessness is a sign that something is wrong in your overall health and wellbeing, and this is your opportunity to fix it.

Whether your sleeping problem has only just started, or you have been suffering with insomnia for many years, read on. I am Dr Lindsay Browning, and I am here to help you navigate sleeplessness.

CHAPTER 1

WHAT IS GOOD SLEEP?