Health Blog

By Joanna Hogan, Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist for Anxiety, Depression and Insomnia.

Our CBT for Insomnia specialist, Joanna Hogan MBABCP has a weekly clinic at Springbank.  Joanna works in private practice helping clients with anxiety, depression, OCD, trauma and insomnia and she works the NHS London Sleep Unit with clients with sleep issues and nightmares.

Sleep is as crucial to our health as nutrition and exercise but falling asleep, staying asleep, and getting enough sleep can feel like a struggle.  Sleep issues have become even more prevalent since the pandemic.  Unfortunately, unlike the other challenges we can be faced with, the harder we try to sleep well, the less well we are likely to sleep.  

Recently published surveys (Jahrami et al, 2021 and Perez-Carbonell et al, 2020, Zubair et al, 2020)  found that six out of ten people reported their sleep as getting worse since the first lockdown in March 2020.  50% said their sleep had been more disturbed than usual. Two in five said they’d slept fewer hours per night than usual.  Two in five also reported more vivid dreams than usual. Three in ten said they had slept longer but felt less well rested.  

These changes are largely attributed to the psychological impact of the pandemic on sleep, in particular the increase in stress, anxiety and low mood.  In addition to COVID-19-related worries, there have also been relationship worries, loneliness, financial worries or work-related stress. In addition, huge changes in our usual routines have affected our sleep as well as our diet, alcohol intake and activity levels which may also reduce the amount and quality of sleep we get. 

So how do we improve our sleep?  Joanna recommends the following tips for improving sleep during lockdown and as we come out of it.  

• Try and keep to a schedule
• Get natural daylight, particularly in the morning
• Take regular brief breaks from work or study to help reduce stress
• Try and keep bed only for sleep and intimacy rather than for study, work or screen-use
• Reduce or limit negative news intake
• Exercise regularly 
• Have a wind-down, with dimmed lights and no screens before you get into bed.

For those who are struggling to improve their sleep CBT for Insomnia with a qualified BABCP-accredited therapist is the gold-standard treatment with success rates of over 80%.  CBT for Insomnia looks at the behaviours and thoughts that get in the way of us having a good night’s sleep and helps us to address these.  

If you would like to get help for your sleep you can talk to your G.P. to ask for an NHS referral or contact Joanna Hogan at Springbank Clinic or through her website joannahogancbt.co.uk, info@joannahogancbt.co.uk or call 07739 385220.