Sleep can recharge and heal a person,but why doesn't this always work when you're depressed or suffer from anxiety?

We all know that when you have the flu or a cold you have the urge to sleep a lot. You can’t keep your eyes open and your body feels heavy. A nice snug blanket or duvet to cover yourself and most of the day is spend on the sofa or in bed. We need a lot more sleep when we suffer from an infection or have a fever. Sleeping does much more than giving us time out from our waking hours.

While you are asleep your immune system functions more effectively than when you are awake. People who are working shifts or junior doctors with long and irregular hours suffer more illness and infection than the general population. The lack of sleep does not only affect their ability to concentrate but also reduces the time to recover from potential infections in a hospital.

Sleep is not only important for healing when a person is physically ill but also when a person is suffering from a mental illness. You might have had times when you felt low and you couldn’t get out of bed. You felt so tired. All you wanted to do was sleep. Obviously too much sleep isn’t good for depression, however the average adult needs about 8 to 9 hours of sleep. Adolescents need a lot more because of their development.

Every night we need two types of sleep, 

• slow wave sleep
• dream sleep

Dream sleep is also called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

During low wave sleep the day to day wear and tear of our bodies tissues is repaired, brain cells are recharged with sugars and the immune system is refreshed.

During the REM sleep our emotional intelligence, thoughts and emotions are healed. REM sleep helps to deactivate stressful thoughts. It is there for understandable that when a person who worries a lot and has difficulties sleeping doesn’t get enough time to recover. They wake up tired and still depressed and or anxious.

As the night goes on we have less slow wave sleep and more REM sleep. When you only sleep a few hours your body and brain doesn’t get enough time to repair, recharge and heal emotionally. The normal sleep pattern is to start the night with sow wave body repair sleep, followed about 90 minutes later with REM sleep for about 10 minutes. As the night goes on we gradually have less slow wave sleep and more REM sleep.

Research has shown that depressed people who worry a lot have their first REM sleep twenty to fifty minutes into the night which can last almost an hour. They can then continue to have longer periods of REM sleep and more and more dreaming until the brain can take no more. They wake up more exhausted than before they went to sleep. No matter how many hours they spend in their bed.

We have an electrical signalling system in our brains, called the orientation response that alerts us to sudden changes in our environment. Under normal circumstances this signal is turned off as soon as we start to dream. This alarm system is not turned off in people who suffer from anxiety. This drains the emotional motivation of a person while they are asleep, leaving little or nothing for their waking hours.

It is essential to have adequate sleep in order to tackle the physical and mental demands of our daily lives and to feel rested and fulfilled in dealing with the emotional features of our lives.   

If you find that you have too much emotional turmoil in your live and feel this is affecting you please go to:

  http://www.kolt.info/

 

Use the time wise while you're unemployed to sharpen, and get new skills for the future.

Are you one of the many people who have been made redundant or have never had the chance to work? The frustration is going to become even bigger as the new generation of school leavers will try to approach the market. They might be lucky getting low paid jobs because of their age and inexperience. Some employers are keen on inexperienced or foreign workers because they don't know what their rights are, or don't know who to approach when in trouble. But many are happy they have a job to send money home where they might only earn € 100 a week. Nevertheless, you who have been applying for each and every job that might possibly suit your skills and experience still sit at home. Many of you might have barely enough money in the bank to keep up with the mortgage or rent payments or are behind in their payments.

I don't have the answers here as how to get out of the downwards financial spiral, but one thing I can advise you if you haven't done so already: set up an standing order with your mortgage lender for an amount you are able to pay each month. You might have to lower the payments, paying something is always better than nothing. And so is it the other way around on the receiving end. Forget about the other payments you need to make, except for the electricity, your car insurance, and perhaps your medical insurance you can pay them via direct debit, so you can't spend that money.

How much are you worth?

If you have been working at a particular job doing a particular thing for which you didn't need a skill, or you did need a special skill it might be that while you are looking for a new job you might lack in certain skills or you need to update them. Now you're unemployed you have plenty of time to re-new those skills and learn new ones. This is a opportunity to create a new life for yourself. That's not easy and can be a daunting task, especially if you have little or no money to spare, but it is worth to check out the possibility of getting an allowance towards the study costs. Don't be fixed on getting a job or doing a course for the sake of it, or a guidance counselor at the job centre who said that was a perfect match for you. You need to want to do it, think about what you want to get out of the job or course and than I mean not only money. Eighty percent of people who are in employment dislike their job. Now is your chance to get something better.To prepare yourself to get something you really want to do. This means you have to put time, (which you have plenty) effort and money into it. When you do get that allowance for that course don't hesitate to do voluntary work  if the field your studying is new to you. Check if you eligible for a grant.



There is SUSI for the Republic of Ireland.  

Use their Eligibility Reckoner to check whether you may be entitled to a grant. SUSI offers funding to eligible students in approved full-time third-level education in Ireland and also, in some cases, funding for students studying outside the State. We offer support to all types of students, from school leavers to mature students returning to education.

Check the UK Government site for funding in the United Kingdom.

I'm not saying get off your backside and find a job, but I'm saying use the time wise while you're unemployed to sharpen, and get new skills for the future. Don't be afraid to look outside of your comfort zone, there might be something out there you've never heard about and for which you can use your long forgotten skills. Or perhaps you have a skill you didn't know about. So have I recently discovered how easy tile setting is.