Maintaining Your Mental Health

Getting enough sleep is also important for your mental health, because it is nature's own stress-management technique. When you sleep you breathe more deeply and slowly. Your body temperature drops slightly, and your heart rate and blood pressure go down too. Most people have experienced a stressor which seems impossible to handle before we went to sleep only to wake up with a solution. Thus the expression, "sleep on it".

Tips to get the best possible sleep

• Stick to a regular sleep schedule - even on week-ends.
• Relax in the hour or so before going to bed.
  (see Relaxation Techniques)
• Spending 20 minutes in a hot tub may promote sleep.
• Go to bed only if you are sleepy.
• Do not read, watch television, or eat in bed.
• Avoid "trying" to sleep. If you do not feel sleepy, get up and read, watch television, or listen to some relaxing music until you are definitely sleepy and then return to bed. If you still can't sleep, get up again and wait until you are sleepy.
• Sometimes a light bedtime snack can promote sleep, particularly one high in carbohydrates. A glass of warm milk is often effective.
• Avoid food and beverages containing caffeine, and avoid alcohol which can fragment your sleep.
• Sleep in a comfortable environment. Avoid temperature extremes - a bedroom that is too warm or too cold.
• Mask annoying background sound with a "white noise" device, i.e. an electric fan.
• Avoid illuminated bedroom clocks so that you are not always checking the time.