Practical Ways to Help with Male Depression - SLEEP Part 2

In Today's issue we are going to focus again sleep and some of several ways to practically deal with male depression.

#2 Today - SLEEP

SLEEP AND DEPRESSION

Good Day to you...hope you slept well.
Yesterday we looked at sleep and some practical ways to help with the issue of 'Not being able to fall asleep'.

Today we are going to look at 'Waking up frequently during the night.'

Waking up during the night is a common problem when depressed and can be very frustrating. Thankfully, there are some things you can try to limit how often you wake up and make it easier to fall back asleep.

It’s important to keep in mind that as people get older (like me), they tend to wake up more often during the night. So, just because you’re waking up at night doesn’t necessarily mean you have some underlying problem that’s causing it.

Avoid afternoon naps

If you struggle to stay asleep, you should try to avoid taking naps during the day so that you’ll be more tired when night comes around. But — and this is a big “but” — if you need to do something where your or others’ safety will be in danger if you don’t nap (like driving home after work, for instance) take a snooze for no more than 30 minutes. Any longer than that, and you’ll enter deep sleep, which can affect your night time rest.

Limit alcohol consumption

You may think having some booze can help you sleep, but in reality it really wrecks your sleep cycle. You probably be able to fall asleep faster, (or pass out!) but because alcohol interferes with your sleep cycle, you’ll end up waking during the night, (either to use the loo or puke). So you won't get a good nights sleep. 

Limit all drinks before sleep
As I said above, a full bladder makes a restful sleep very difficult. If getting up to go to the loo is a problem, try limiting how much liquid you drink before bed. For some men, drinking anything within an hour or two of bed will always send them to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Try and have a glass of water first thing in the morning so you don’t start off the day dehydrated.

Avoid your phone

I know it's difficult in this 24 hour multi social media age, but, try to avoid looking at your phone before you go to sleep. Do you really need to know that 'Tracy in IT' has had her nails done or the latests slightly racist meme from your right wing friendly nutter? If you just have to check, then try and use the 'night mode' the light emitted is moved to a bluer spectrum which effects your sleep pattern less.

Sleep well tonight.

Tomorrow we'll look at the issue of 'not being able to get out of bed.'

If you need any help or advice don't wait...contact your GP 

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