{"id":2980,"date":"2018-12-17T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T09:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/?p=2980"},"modified":"2018-12-13T15:26:33","modified_gmt":"2018-12-13T14:26:33","slug":"z-is-for-zzz-sleep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/2018\/12\/17\/z-is-for-zzz-sleep\/","title":{"rendered":"Z is for Zzz (sleep!)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last but not least in our A-Z series of blog posts, guest contributor Professor Alice Gregory [co-head of the Goldsmiths Sleep Lab<\/a>]\u00a0 writes about the importance of sleep.<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

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Putting sleep difficulties as the very last blog of this excellent series chimes well with its history in psychiatry. We\u2019ve known for years that poor sleep co-occurs with a variety of different psychiatric disorders, such as major depressive disorder and certain anxiety disorders. Regardless, sleep in psychiatry has not been given the attention that it deserves.<\/p>\n

\n

“sleep in psychiatry has not been given the attention that it deserves”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For a long time, disturbed sleep in psychiatry was thought of as a lesser problem,\u00a0a symptom of other disorders<\/a>, and not as a disorder in its own right that needed attention and treatment.<\/p>\n

Similarly, although sleeplessness in children is an important issue for a whole family, it is\u00a0so common<\/a>\u00a0that parents have perhaps felt they should \u2018put up or shut up\u2019 \u00a0rather than exploring help that might be available by tapping into valuable healthcare resources.\u00a0There has been a lack of awareness that sleep problems in children are associated with a range of other difficulties in both\u00a0children<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0their parents<\/a>.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We are now clear that problematic sleep deserves attention. We know that rather than being a \u2018secondary complaint\u2019,\u00a0sleep problems can predict and exacerbate other difficulties<\/a>. We know that sleep provides an opportunity for the brain and body to restore themselves, and for\u00a0toxins to be cleaned from the brain<\/a>. Sleep is also important for learning and\u00a0memory<\/a>\u00a0and for\u00a0emotional regulation<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 so sleeplessness in our youth should not be ignored.<\/p>\n

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“We know that rather than being a \u2018secondary complaint\u2019,\u00a0sleep problems can predict and exacerbate other difficulties.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Three cheers then for the new zeitgeist of embracing our slumber. Celebrities such as Ariana Huffington have got on board and have promoted the importance of sleep – reaching global audiences of millions. Scientists too have tried to help – with new articles and\u00a0popular science books<\/a>\u00a0coming out all the time. Online resources are also being developed – with websites available for those suffering from sleeplessness (e.g.\u00a0SLEEPIO<\/a>) or dealing with a child\u2019s (e.g.\u00a0BABYSLEEP<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We have at last woken up to the importance of sleep, but there is more to do. Recent research has supported the idea that addressing sleep problems\u00a0can have positive implications<\/a>\u00a0for numerous other psychiatric disorders and we need to understand how significant this could be. To what extent is dealing with our sleep a panacea? There are also ongoing attempts to try to understand more about why there are\u00a0individual differences in responses to treatments<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 some people will do better than others, following treatment for sleep difficulties. Will this knowledge help us improve treatments for all?<\/p>\n

\n

“We have at last woken up to the importance of sleep, but there is more to do.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We\u2019ve come a long way \u2013 and our sleep is no longer at Z on the list of considerations when it comes to our mental health. As a field and a diverse community of experts and advocates, we look forward to the day it is at A.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last but not least in our A-Z series of blog posts, guest contributor Professor Alice Gregory [co-head of the Goldsmiths Sleep Lab]\u00a0 writes about the importance of sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":2984,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[248],"tags":[249,43,149,78,91],"class_list":["post-2980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-a-z","tag-a-z","tag-mental-health","tag-psychiatry","tag-research","tag-sleep"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2980"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2992,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions\/2992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kcl.ac.uk\/editlab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}