Sleep Courses & Sleep Therapy Essex

Sleep is an invaluable part of our daily lives. It’s how you give your mind and body much needed rest, and is vital in promoting good health.

Getting quality, consistent sleep affects practically every part of your body, from the wellbeing of your heart and the way your body processes food, to your focus and memory. 

Beyond the physical attributes, there is also a close link between the quality of the sleep you get and your mental health.

Without a sustainable sleeping pattern, you might begin to experience low mood, and react to stressors and emotions in unhelpful ways. This can heighten feelings of stress and anxiety.

But mental health conditions are not just the byproduct of poor sleep. These negative thoughts and feelings can also make it harder for you to drift off and stay asleep too.

Getting the right amount of sleep is important. For the most part, the average adult needs between 7 and 9 hours of rest, though this can vary depending on your age, health and personal circumstances.

For example, if you were an active person who worked a physically demanding job, you might require more rest than others. Similarly, if you have an underlying health problem, such as diabetes, you could benefit from longer periods of sleep.

As well as getting the right amount of sleep, it is just as important to get high-quality rest.

Although sleep is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle, as few as 20% of people in the UK get the amount they need.

If this is a reality for you, and you regularly find yourself waking in the middle of the night, lying awake in bed, or feeling tired upon waking, this could be a sign that you have insomnia.

Short-term insomnia

If your sleep issues have lasted less than 3 months, this is referred to as short-term insomnia. Typically brought about due to a significant life change, such as the loss of a loved one or the end of a relationship, short-term insomnia tends to fade over time.

Chronic insomnia

If you have struggled getting regular sleep for more than 3 months, you may have chronic insomnia. This type of sleep disorder is harder to overcome, and characterised by frequent, relentless episodes of poor sleep that can endure for days, weeks or months at a time.

While these are the two most common ways to describe insomnia, healthcare professionals may refer to your condition as:

• Sleep onset insomnia – when you have trouble initially dozing off
• Sleep maintenance insomnia – when you find it hard to stay asleep
• Early morning awakening insomnia – when you wake up long before you need to be
• Comorbid insomnia – when your condition is thought to be triggered by something like stress or a long-term health problem

Insomnia affects as many as 1 in 3 people in the UK, and can impact people at any age. Multiple factors can contribute to the development of this and other sleep disorders, including:

• Feelings of stress and anxiety
• Long-term conditions, like sleep apnoea
• An uncomfortable sleep environment
• Medication that has rest-altering side effects
• Unsociable working hours
• Alcohol or caffeine consumption
• Bed sharing with a partner
• An inconsistent sleep schedule
• Frequent and persistent nightmares

Sleep is core to healthy living. If you aren’t getting the right amount of quality rest, you could be at risk of developing long-term medical conditions, such as:

• Strokes
• Seizures
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Heart disease

Sleep deprivation can also cause unhelpful thoughts and feelings to bubble up, leading to anxiety disorders and depression. This can have a very real impact on your life:

• Concentrating at work when you’re tired can become a challenge
• Taking on feedback from colleagues might cause friction if you are irritable
• A lack of energy could cause you to avoid socialising with friends and family
• Tiredness might affect your judgement and lead you to make poor decisions

Everybody has difficulties getting to sleep from time to time. Maybe a late night out with friends has left you excited and unable to drift off. Or perhaps a stressful day at work has given you racing thoughts you’re struggling to silence.

It is only when poor sleep becomes a regular occurrence in your life and affects your overall health and wellbeing that it could be viewed as an ongoing problem. To determine if sleep treatment could benefit you, consider:

• Do you have issues falling asleep regularly?
• Do you experience prolonged episodes of poor rest?
• Do you find yourself waking up more than once every night?
• Do you rise earlier than you need to and struggle to fall back asleep?
• Do you rarely feel refreshed upon waking?
• Do you find it hard to nap during the day, even if you’re tired?
• Do you often feel agitated and unable to focus?

Everybody experiences sleep differently. But if one or more of these signs are true for you and causing your quality of life to suffer, it might be time to reach out and get the help you need.

Tackling sleep issues takes time, especially if this has been something you have lived with for a while. If you’re keen to get started on your journey to a better night’s rest as soon as possible, you can make helpful changes to your lifestyle right away.

These small adjustments could have noticeable improvements to your bedtime routine – but they are not effective for everyone. If you’re looking for more structured support with your sleep disorder, therapy might be a better fit for you.

Sleep therapy is a specific course of treatment that focuses on improving the quality and duration of your sleep.

Through dedicated sessions, you will speak with a qualified therapist to gain a deeper understanding of your condition and the reasons behind your difficulty sleeping.

From here, you will work with your clinician to develop coping techniques that work for you, walking away from your course of treatment equipped with the skills to address sleep difficulties and other sleep issues for the rest of your life.

At Therapy For You, some of our talking therapies may incorporate elements of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – a practical approach that helps you break the negative cycles that form between your thoughts, feelings and behaviours in small, manageable steps.

This type of therapy is proven to be very effective, as 80% of users who undergo CBT courses for these problems see improvements in their sleep patterns – drifting off faster, spending more time resting, or waking up fewer times in the night.

Using tried-and-tested techniques to help you rest better can put you on the path to a happier, focused and more fulfilling life.

Address underlying issues

Unlike sleep medication, talking therapy hones in on your underlying issues and gets to the root of your symptoms. As a result, this approach is usually highly productive, encouraging healthy, lasting sleep habits that benefit your wellbeing.

Improve your mental health

The relationship between physical wellness, mental wellness and sleep is strong. By promoting healthy rest through therapy, you take steps to prevent stress and anxiety from taking over your life and exacerbating your sleep issues further.

Learn lifelong coping techniques

Humans are creatures of habit, and it can be easy to fall back into old habits, even after years of positive progress. That’s why sleep therapy is so powerful – by developing coping skills, you can address episodes of sleeplessness long after your course of treatment has finished.

Improve your quality of life

Sleep disorders can get in the way of your career and your relationships with others. By targeting the fundamental causes of your problems, this treatment enables you to enjoy a better overall quality of life.

As the local provider of NHS Talking Therapies for North East and South East Essex, we provide numerous ways for you to access sleep therapy, including online and remote treatment options.

If you believe this would benefit you, please try our video therapy or online typed counselling via ieso. Alternatively, if you want to access remote treatment but prefer not to be online, you can also talk to our NHS therapists on the phone.

There is no set time frame for our sleep therapy. Everyone’s experience with rest issues is different, which is why we work with you to tailor your treatment for the most effective results.

You might see improvements after just a couple of weeks, or it may require 16-18 sessions or more to make a meaningful difference to your quality of sleep. Whatever you need, we work with you to accomplish it.

Sleep therapy and self-help resources are common ways you might go about getting the help you need to address insomnia and other sleep disorders. But there are key differences between each type of treatment.

Therapy sessions often involve a period of waiting before you can get started. Self-help resources, on the other hand, can usually be started immediately.

However, therapy takes an individual approach to your treatment, where you talk with a therapist and develop strategies specific to you. This differs from self-help resources, which tend to offer up more general advice for a wider audience.

Finally, therapy is a guided process, led by a qualified clinician, with milestones baked into your program. By contrast, self-help resources are guided by you – nobody else is there to motivate your improvement or measure your progress.

This is all to say that therapy and self-help resources have their own set of benefits. For the best results, you should consider implementing both on your journey to a better night’s sleep.

Poor sleep can have a severe, long-term impact on both your physical and mental health, as well as your work life, home life and relationships. If sleeplessness is a constant hurdle for you, Therapy For You is here to help.

As your local NHS Talking Therapies provider for North East and South East Essex, we can offer support to help you through insomnia and other sleep disorders. Together, we will help you better understand your condition, and develop lasting strategies that aid your sleep now and in the future.

• One-to-one NHS mental health treatments
• Therapy in groups
• Online typed therapy through ieso
• Video calls
• Phone therapy

For more information on the help we can provide, get in touch with one of our qualified therapists today.