Sleep Scheduling: A Game Changer for Full Rest

Few things are more frustrating than not getting enough restful and restorative sleep. Even when you’re exhausted, you toss and turn all night and your fatigue follows you into the next day. 

Americans are no strangers to poor sleep — one in three don’t get enough sleep on a regular basis and 50-70 million people in the United States have a sleep disorder.

Good sleep is essential for wellness, physically and mentally. As mental health specialists, our team at Point of View Mental Health in Scottsdale, Arizona, understands all too well how sleep issues like insomnia can negatively impact your state of mind, and we’re here to help.

In the following, we review how you can improve your quality of life and mental wellness through sleep scheduling, as well as ways we can help you get the restorative sleep you need.

When sleep is hard to come by

We mentioned that tens of millions of Americans have a sleep disorder and, far and away, the most common type is insomnia — some 30% of adults have symptoms of insomnia. 

In brief terms, insomnia is the inability to fall asleep and/or stay asleep. Some people can’t fall asleep when they get into bed, while others with insomnia can fall asleep easily enough, but they wake in the night and can’t get back to sleep.

No matter how your insomnia affects you, you’re not getting the 7-9 hours of sleep you need each night, impacting your life in big and small ways.

The importance of keeping a sleep schedule

One of the best ways to address your insomnia is to create — and stick to — a sleep schedule. The human body is very much in tune with the 24-hour cycle and the chemicals and hormones in your body respond to different prompts, such as darkness and light.

In fact, there’s a name for this — circadian rhythm. According to the National Institute of Health, circadian rhythms are, “The physical, mental, and behavioral changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle.”

Daylight and dark impact your bodily processes, but circadian rhythms are also influenced by diet, stress, physical activity, environment, and temperature. 

With sleep scheduling, the goal is to establish a solid circadian rhythm that emphasizes good sleep. The keys to sleep scheduling include:

• Going to bed at the same time each night
• Getting up at the same time each morning
• Establishing a pre-sleep ritual that signals your body it’s time to wind down

Not only are these steps important, but you need to prioritize them. Life can very much get in the way of schedules, and you might be kept up late with a sick child or have to wake earlier than normal for a flight. These events are normal and you need to flow with them, but the rest of the time you should stick to your sleep schedule.

By establishing a routine that places sleep at the center, your body will adapt to the schedule and start anticipating when it’s time to go to sleep and wake up — no alarms needed.

Beyond sleep scheduling

If you have insomnia, sleep scheduling is one important piece of the puzzle, but there are more. Setting up a sleep schedule can take time and practice, but we can help set you up for success through our treatment options, which might include one or more of the following:

• Light therapy
• Cognitive behavioral therapy
• Stimulus control therapy
• Prescription sleep medications

We also provide relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing exercises, body scanning, and progressive muscle relaxation.

Between our treatments and your sleep scheduling, we feel confident you’ll be able to wake each morning well-rested and ready to take on the day.

To get on the road to better quality sleep, call our office at 520-999-9114 or connect with us online. We also offer telemedicine services throughout the state of Arizona.