Sleep thoughts

Your thoughts may often interfere with your sleep by protracting you into so-called “cycle of worry” and as a result stop you from falling asleep and resting properly.

CYCLE OF WORRY

THOUGHT: Negative Thought Leads to….

FEELING: Worry: Body and Mind are “ACTIVATED”

BEHAVIOUR: Scanning body, environment, and thoughts

THOUGHT… And the cycle continues.

When Body and Mind are activated senses “zoom-in” and so often detect small, unrelated things as threats.

How to break a Cycle of Worry

Imagine, you wake up at 3 am and you think “I won’t be able to function tomorrow”.

You need to challenge that thought!!!

·       What is the evidence that supports this idea?

·       What is the evidence against this idea?

·       Is there an alternative explanation?

·       What is the worst that could happen?

·       Could I live through it?

·       What is the best that could happen?

·       What is the most realistic outcome?

·       What would I tell______(a friend) if he she were in the same situation?

·       How would someone else interpret the same situation?

What alternative thought could you have?

Situation	Automatic Thoughts	Feelings	Alternative Thoughts	Feelings
Awake in bed in the middle of the night	“I won’t be able to function tomorrow”.	Anxious 80%	“I did not sleep so well one night last week but I could still function. I may not be sleeping, but I am resting”.	Anxious 25%

By finding and Alternative Thought, Worry and Anxious feelings are reduced and the cycle is weakened or broken so sleep will come more easily.

Other ways to stop a “Racing Mind”

·       Allow thoughts to come and go e.g. train passing through a station (pink bunny exercise)

·       Concentration on something pleasurable and/or boring e.g. counting sheep

·       Think of something that will take your attention

3 BIG FACTORS that make it difficult to judge how much sleep you’ve had:

1.     “Sleep Inertia”- 3-20 minutes after waking we’re still “half-asleep”, dazed, “out-of-it”

2.     “Sleep Onset” is a bit of mystery time! Even with hi-tech machines, we can’t know exactly when sleep starts.

3.     “Worry” – research shows that when we worry – and our mind races – time seems to pass more quickly. So 30 minutes trying to get to sleep may seem like and hour!

Thinking about your sleep problem

Research has found that almost everyone

·       Underestimates how much sleep they get

·       Overestimates the time it takes them to go to sleep

Your beliefs and attitudes about sleep are important

Some things you can do

1.     Widen the Goal Posts e.g. don’t have fixed rules about sleep

2.     Recognise that not feeling completely rested some days is normal, EVEN AFTER a good night’s sleep

3.     Recognise that there are more things within your control such as:

·       Irregular sleep schedule

·       Daytime napping

·       Spending too much time in bed

DO NOT

·    Exaggerate the seriousness as this can lead to more worry, e.g. “I look ten years older after no sleep last night”

·       Let your world revolve around sleep

·       Cancel activities as that gives you more time to worry about the upcoming night

DO

·       Get on with things normal even if you have had a bad night sleep

·       Even if you don’t sleep, enjoy rest and relaxation, as these can be helpful

·       Accept that sleep problems are not dangerous

Good luck! Stay calm and sleep well…

© King’s College London

Dr. Anastasia Burelomova

Trainee Counseling Psychologist

Reach Your Goals!

As we progress forward in life and think about the things we don’t like and fantasize about the things we do like. We form imaginary situations and fantasies that are linked to celebrity photoshopped pictures and movie scenes. We follow fantasies that lead us astray and away from our goals thus rendering us always unsatisfied and on the yo yo of up and down.

Through time we loose our objectives and look externally for satisfaction, we start to blame external circumstances for our unhappiness. What is worse we blame ourselves we are not disciplined enough, not good enough, and another battle of build your self esteem, leadership skills, I will talk more gently, I will be more submissive etc starts internally... The truth is your strengths are what you need to reach your goal your purpose in life. 

Your weaknesses/shortcomings are the challenges that will further motivate you and make you fail in order to reach your destination. Your shortcomings are the tool to perfect your journey in this life and make it worthwhile.

The weaknesses you condemn are not really an issue as they appear as indicators that  you are not following your path, you are truly unhappy and that is why weaknesses/ bad habits increase in number and in nature.

The weaknesses that you do posses that need to be overcome only show up at work, they are the things that you feel if you just push a little harder you will get to your objective, those are the real challenges that need to be overcome.

For example: You want to become a famous singer but have stage fear. This fear is what you need to push against this will make you work harder in order to cover your fear. If you want to be a singer to be famous and have a nice car and be like Beyonce you will most likely have stage fear, voice problems, trembling, and you will be tone deaf and the list will grow

Identify your objective:

“If following our objective was easy we will all be living happy fulfilled lives” Noon

• What you thought you wanted to be when you grow up
• What are the things you liked to study at school
• Area of your life that you are struggling with
• What you most talk about
• The types of movies you mostly watch
• Your resolutions what direction do they take you
• Hobby, what are you known for

If we carefully observe the answers to these we will see a very distinct pattern. The weakness that you are facing is the area that you need to invest your time in. By investing your time in an area that you are struggling with you will find your true weaknesses and opportunities for growth. By slow introspection and empowering the area of our life that needs work we will see doors that open leading us to our goal.

By Jana Sharaf

Public affairs, Philosopher, and Founder of "NOON EVE"

Zimbardo

“People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts, no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel.”  Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted by psychologist professor Philip Zimbardo and colleagues. Aimed to investigate the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations in a simulated prison environment. The experiment was supposed to last two weeks but was ended abruptly just six days later, after a string of mental breakdowns, an outbreak of sadism and a hunger strike.

The research team placed newspaper advertisements in the Palo Alto Times and The Stanford Daily offering $15/day to male college students for a study on the psychology of imprisonment: 24 students, predominantly white, middle-class, were chosen: 12 to role play prisoners and 12 to role play guards. These students had no prior record of criminal arrests, medical conditions, or psychological disorders.

The local Palo Alto police department conducted surprise arrests at the home of “prisoners”. Students were handcuffed, searched, read their rights, and driven in a squad car to the police station for booking and fingerprinting and were charged with robbery.

The guards were given only a brief orientation telling them to maintain law and order, avoid physical violence, and prevent prisoner escapes. They were provided with wooden batons in order to establish their status, clothing similar to that of an actual prison guard and mirrored sunglasses to prevent eye contact.  Prisoners wore uncomfortable ill-fitting smocks and stocking caps, as well as a chain around one ankle. Guards were instructed to call prisoners by their assigned numbers, sewn on their uniforms, instead of by name.

As mentioned by Prof Zimbardo, "the first day they came there it was a little prison set up in a basement with fake cell doors and by the second day it was a real prison created in the minds of each prisoner, each guard and also of the staff". The simulation became so real, and the guards became so abusive, that the experiment had to be shut down after only 6 days rather than the two weeks planned. "Suddenly, the whole dynamic changed as they believed they were dealing with dangerous prisoners, and at that point it was no longer an experiment," said Prof Zimbardo.

Abusive guard behavior appears to have been triggered by features of the situation rather than by the personality of guards. Zimbardo argued that both prisoner and guards had internalized their roles. None of them were forced to behave in certain ways and were free to withdraw from the experiment at any time. However, none of the guards left the experiment earlier, while half of the prisoners were released early due to severe emotional or cognitive reactions.

Results of the experiment suggest that the situation, rather than individual personalities, caused the participant’s behavior.

"The study is the classic demonstration o

f the power of situations and systems to overwhelm good intentions of participants and transform ordinary, normal young men into sadistic guards or for those playing prisoners to have emotional breakdowns," said Prof Zimbardo.

Zimbardo offers psychological interpretation of how ordinary people sometimes commit unexpected acts and what are the possible ways of preventing it. He argues that moral behavior can be cultivated in early life by rewarding positive behavior.

He highlights some ideas that we can bring into our own lives and those of our children.

He also gives a set of general advice of how to become more influence savvy.

If we consider some of these general psychological principles, we can accentuate the good and eliminate the negatives in our lives.  At the end of the day, regardless of our ethnical, social or religious background, “Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is” (Albert Camus).

Dr. Anastasia Burelomova
Counseling Psychologist