Voiceover: Welcome to sleep talk. The podcast about all things sleep
Voiceover: brought to you by sleephub.com.au. Here are your hosts Dr.
Voiceover: David Cunnington and Dr. Moira Junge.
Dr Moira Junge: So welcome to this special episode of the Sleep Talk podcast.
Dr Moira Junge: Welcome Moira.
Dr Moira Junge: Hello Dave. A really good idea to just have this quick one off episode to
Dr Moira Junge: get some messages out there about those that aren't sleeping
Dr Moira Junge: well which is probably the most of the world at
Dr Moira Junge: the moment.
Dr David Cunnington: So the circumstances we find ourselves in are unfortunate but
Dr David Cunnington: we thought it was important to try and give people
Dr David Cunnington: some strategies to help with sleep during these difficult times.
Dr David Cunnington: One of the key points we wanted to emphasize is
Dr David Cunnington: that our daytime lives are markedly different. It's been totally
Dr David Cunnington: thrown upside down in what we're allowed to do during
Dr David Cunnington: the day. So really we should expect that nighttime and
Dr David Cunnington: sleep is also going to be different. It's a very
Dr David Cunnington: stressful time. So it's also important to make sure we
Dr David Cunnington: look after ourselves both physically and mentally. We've experienced this
Dr David Cunnington: personally over the last week feeling anxious and finding sleep's
Dr David Cunnington: changed but have been able to manage our symptoms. I've
Dr David Cunnington: been waking up a bit earlier. It's a natural tendency
Dr David Cunnington: of mine anyway but it does get earlier again when
Dr David Cunnington: I'm a bit stressed or anxious. Cycling's my thing. If I'm
Dr David Cunnington: feeling a bit stressed or anxious spending some time on
Dr David Cunnington: a bike and fortunately I've got an indoor bike set
Dr David Cunnington: up so I can do that whilst maintaining social distancing.
Dr David Cunnington: It's been helpful. So although I've been waking early I've been
Dr David Cunnington: fitting in a cycling session before work and I found
Dr David Cunnington: that pretty helpful. I've also selected a couple of books
Dr David Cunnington: to read that deliberately aren't work or virus related. What about
Dr David Cunnington: you Moira?
Dr Moira Junge: It's a devastating time. There's the worry about the virus.
Dr Moira Junge: There's also that fear of keeping yourself safe and your
Dr Moira Junge: family safe. Am I being cautious enough? Those sorts of fears.
Dr Moira Junge: But of course there's the worry and the sadness about
Dr Moira Junge: the deadly economic and social consequences. The change is so rapid.
Dr Moira Junge: There's so much uncertainty. So I haven't actually been sleeping
Dr Moira Junge: very well. In the first maybe say a week ago and
Dr Moira Junge: I've managed to get things back on track.
Dr David Cunnington: So what did you do?
Dr Moira Junge: Isn't it great that a physician, not that I'm a physician,
Dr Moira Junge: but physician heal thyself. I actually just had to take
Dr Moira Junge: my medicine and put into practice the CBT-I principles that
Dr Moira Junge: I've taught for many many many years now. We've actually
Dr Moira Junge: just developed a new Sleep Health Foundation fact sheet that's
Dr Moira Junge: available now. We'll put the link to that in our
Dr Moira Junge: show notes that outlines basically what I did. Do you want me to tell you what I did?
Dr David Cunnington: Absolutely.
Dr Moira Junge: One of the most important things for me was to
Dr Moira Junge: limit my media exposure because I'm just devouring the media exposure about COVID-19.
Dr Moira Junge: Because as a business owner, as a parent, as a
Dr Moira Junge: concerned citizen, I really want to be up to date
Dr Moira Junge: but I realize that I have to really limit that
Dr Moira Junge: and only go to the official sites. So I actually
Dr Moira Junge: recommend the www.health.gov.au because the rest of the media reports
Dr Moira Junge: are just too conflicting. Have you noticed, it's just too conflicting and there's just too
Dr Moira Junge: much uncertainty. So for me I just have to go
Dr Moira Junge: with what the actual requirements and guidelines are right now today.
Dr Moira Junge: The other thing I found really important that I've taught
Dr Moira Junge: all my life and realize how much I needed to
Dr Moira Junge: do it myself is unwinding. So spending that time relaxing
Dr Moira Junge: doing other things other than looking at COVID-19 reports. Also
Dr Moira Junge: I thought was super important to keep up my fitness
Dr Moira Junge: and I've got my whole family onto that too that
Dr Moira Junge: we are really clear about our exercise every day and
Dr Moira Junge: eating sensibly. There's nothing open anyway so there's no need
Dr Moira Junge: to be drinking too much, so we're actually just really really
Dr Moira Junge: white hot onto the three pillars of health of exercise,
Dr Moira Junge: our diet our sleep. Just prioritizing those three things to
Dr Moira Junge: keep our immune system healthy but also to keep our mental
Dr Moira Junge: health functioning well because there's a lot of angst in
Dr Moira Junge: our household like around the world. I also have really
Dr Moira Junge: got into making myself remind myself of the importance of
Dr Moira Junge: meditation and I can't stress that enough. To me it's
Dr Moira Junge: like the insulin for the diabetic at this time. I
Dr Moira Junge: just have to fall back and lean into my meditation
Dr Moira Junge: to actually make sure that I keep my levels of
Dr Moira Junge: hyper arousal reasonable and make sure that I don't go
Dr Moira Junge: over that threshold to sleep poorly. I really need my
Dr Moira Junge: sleep more than ever.
Dr David Cunnington: It's a really good point about the meditation and I've
Dr David Cunnington: been a bit more proactive about that as well because
Dr David Cunnington: often if people aren't sleeping well they'll conceptualize it as
Dr David Cunnington: 'the answer is I'm going to fix this by doing
Dr David Cunnington: something about sleep' but in stressful times like this the
Dr David Cunnington: answer is more about self care and managing worries during
Dr David Cunnington: the day. So really important to be proactive about managing
Dr David Cunnington: worries throughout the day and there's a lot to worry about.
Dr David Cunnington: People are also going to sleep shorter because that's actually
Dr David Cunnington: pretty common when we're uncertain of things for adrenaline levels
Dr David Cunnington: to be higher.
Dr Moira Junge: Bed restriction and sleep restriction are core components of CBT-I that we've talked
Dr Moira Junge: about a lot. I made sure that I practice it myself.
Dr Moira Junge: I had to be realistic about just staying up as
Dr Moira Junge: late as possible with my unwinding period mind you and in
Dr Moira Junge: dim light to make sure that I could actually have
Dr Moira Junge: that higher level of sleep pressure to make sure I
Dr Moira Junge: could initiate and then maintain my sleep better. And if I wasn't
Dr Moira Junge: sleeping well that I did go to another room, waited to be
Dr Moira Junge: tired and sleepy. Did some reading. All the stuff I've taught.
Dr Moira Junge: So glad I actually know how to do this stuff. It turned back
Dr Moira Junge: very quickly within a matter of just a day or two.
Dr David Cunnington: And that's what the research shows. Those two techniques sleep
Dr David Cunnington: restriction stimulus control are really powerful strategies for getting sleep back
Dr David Cunnington: on track by changing behavior around sleep.
Dr Moira Junge: It really helps build that empathy as well. You really
Dr Moira Junge: need to understand how bad it can be for people
Dr Moira Junge: and just to really understand t his is the strategy
Dr Moira Junge: I'm going to do. It's so important when you are
Dr Moira Junge: out of the bed waiting to be sleepy and tired that you are in dim light and you
Dr Moira Junge: don't monitor the clock. It's very important. Just do not
Dr Moira Junge: even buy into what time it might be and what
Dr Moira Junge: you what you are missing or calculating all that sort of stuff. The final
Dr Moira Junge: point I wanted to make was that it's really important
Dr Moira Junge: to manage your fatigue. Even I didn't get much sleep it
Dr Moira Junge: doesn't mean that it is the end of the world or mean I wouldn't be able to function well the next day.
Dr Moira Junge: I've been making the use of having little naps if
Dr Moira Junge: I needed to and even though I had a coffee,
Dr Moira Junge: actually having appropriately timed caffeine to help manage my sleepiness
Dr Moira Junge: and my energy levels. So that was really important. I
Dr Moira Junge: also have been right on to following my psychological society's
Dr Moira Junge: fact sheets on things like how to manage distress in
Dr Moira Junge: the time of coronavirus and also Beyond Blue which is our
Dr Moira Junge: leading national advocate on mental health. They've got good resources on mental health and we'll put
Dr Moira Junge: both those resources in the show notes.
Dr David Cunnington: Thanks for that discussion Moira. Just to try and tie
Dr David Cunnington: things together. The key points for people who are having
Dr David Cunnington: trouble with sleep for me is expect sleep to be
Dr David Cunnington: different. Our day times are very different. This is a very
Dr David Cunnington: uncertain time and we're all going to be feeling somewhat anxious.
Dr David Cunnington: So in those circumstances expect sleep to be shorter, to
Dr David Cunnington: be waking more, for sleep to be lighter and change
Dr David Cunnington: your behavior accordingly maybe by going to bed later. Not
Dr David Cunnington: be so concerned if you wait during the night and
Dr David Cunnington: if you do wait during the night don't be afraid
Dr David Cunnington: of getting up doing something else until you feel sleepy
Dr David Cunnington: before you go back to bed. What about for you Moira?
Dr Moira Junge: I think the overall management of your self care, your
Dr Moira Junge: stress management is really important and I think that the
Dr Moira Junge: keeping the three pillars in check making sure you do
Dr Moira Junge: have plenty of exercise and that you're eating well and
Dr Moira Junge: that you are prioritizing sleep at least allowing time for
Dr Moira Junge: sleep and rest in this sort of uncertain time. I
Dr Moira Junge: think these are the key things that will help bring
Dr Moira Junge: people back on track to actually just improve their sleep.
Dr David Cunnington: If you are having trouble with sleep despite accessing the
Dr David Cunnington: good resources like the Sleep Health Foundation fact sheet that
Dr David Cunnington: we'll link to, remember that healthcare providers are still working
Dr David Cunnington: during this time and are available. Providers like myself and
Dr David Cunnington: Moira have worked very hard to shift our consultation services
Dr David Cunnington: online so that we're available for people throughout this period,
Dr David Cunnington: which is going to be a challenging period and cause
Dr David Cunnington: changes with sleep for many people. Thanks very much for
Dr David Cunnington: your insights Moira and for contributing to this episode.
Dr Moira Junge: Thank you very much Dave. Thanks for organizing it so
Dr Moira Junge: promptly and I just want to say just best wishes
Dr Moira Junge: to everyone.
Dr David Cunnington: Thanks a lot.
Voiceover: This podcast is not intended as a substitute for your
Voiceover: own independent health professionals advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek
Voiceover: the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider
Voiceover: within your country or place of residency with any questions
Voiceover: you may have regarding a medical condition.