{"id":21076,"date":"2019-07-11T07:28:30","date_gmt":"2019-07-11T03:28:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/?p=21076"},"modified":"2019-07-11T07:28:30","modified_gmt":"2019-07-11T03:28:30","slug":"sleep-app-robbed-rest-psychologist-dr-harry-horgan-answers-readers-questions-gulf-news-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/sleep-app-robbed-rest-psychologist-dr-harry-horgan-answers-readers-questions-gulf-news-article\/","title":{"rendered":"‘A sleep app has robbed me of rest’ Psychologist Dr. Harry Horgan Answers Readers Questions – Gulf News Article"},"content":{"rendered":"

‘Hi, Sleep has never been a problem for me \u2013 usually I fall asleep a few minutes after I get into bed. But since I downloaded a sleep-tracking app, I\u2019ve been unable to get a good night\u2019s rest. I thought maybe I was anxious because of the app, but even after deleting it, my issue persists. I\u2019m not under any unusual stress but still it\u2019s bothering me. Can you recommend something that may help?’ -From a reader who wishes to remain anonymous.<\/em><\/p>\n

Answered by Dr Harry Horgan, Clinical Psychologist, German Neuroscience Center<\/h2>\n

Dear Reader, I am sorry to hear that sleep has been a problem for you recently. It is difficult to overstate the importance of adequate sleep for our physical and mental health.<\/p>\n

When sleep difficulties arise, particularly problems with getting to sleep, it is always a good idea to review our ‘sleep hygiene’; a term that covers implementing good sleep habits.<\/p>\n

What are good sleep habits?<\/h2>\n

\u2022 A regular sleeping time;<\/p>\n

\u2022 Avoiding daytime napping;<\/p>\n

\u2022 Restricting caffeine consumption for at least 6 hours before sleep;<\/p>\n

\u2022 Avoiding large meals or vigorous exercise one hour before sleeping; and<\/p>\n

\u2022 Ensuring a dark, quiet room with a comfortable temperature.<\/p>\n

With your case specifically, I wonder whether the disruption of your usual sleep pattern with a sleep-tracking app might an unhelpful ‘conditioned response’. Behavioural psychology shows us that we can develop associations between experiences and environments that can help or hinder us.<\/p>\n

It is very common for people who experience insomnia to understandably associate their bed with frustration and anxiety.<\/p>\n

A useful way of correcting this association is to keep the bedroom only for the final stage of our getting-to-sleep-routine. This can be achieved by waiting until we are feeling very sleepy before getting into bed e.g. by reading a book in the living room until we reach this point. Then retiring to bed immediately.<\/p>\n

If sleep does not come within 20 minutes, return to the living room and try again. Over a period of days and weeks, we can more firmly establish the association between sleepiness and our bed.<\/p>\n

The full original article was published in Gulf News<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Hi, Sleep has never been a problem for me \u2013 usually I fall asleep a few minutes after I get into bed. But since I downloaded a sleep-tracking app, I\u2019ve been unable to get a good night\u2019s rest. I thought maybe I was anxious because of the app, but even after deleting it, my issue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}