5 Sleep Strategies for Multiples
Foreword: I am delighted to welcome Cathy Collyer back with another provocative blog post. Cathy is an occupational therapist who has recently been certified as a sleep coach. She is an active participant in our Dissociative Writers Workshop and the author of Staying in the Room: Managing Medical and Dental Appointments When You Have DID, available on Amazon.com. Her previous blog posts on May 14, 2022 and July 8th, 2021 respectively were entitled “5 Benefits of Aging for Adults With DID” and “Six Easy Ways To Support Your Child Parts In Healthcare Appointments”.
Don’t miss Cathy’s presentation THIS SUNDAY entitled “Going from Wired and Tired to Rested and Restored: Sleep and DID” as part of An Infinite Mind’s Speakers Series. The date is April 16th and the time is 4:00 to 5:30 pm Eastern Time. If you’re having sleep difficulties, this session is for you. To register, click here. ~ Lyn
Guest Blog post by Cathy Collyer
Sleep issues are so common in folks with complex trauma histories that you would think there would be more targeted treatments out there for us. The best resource mentioning DID that I could find was a single book that devoted 8 pages to sleep and DID. So…I became a certified sleep therapist through UC Berkeley’s program that marries CBT-i with neurophysiological sleep science. It is specifically designed for adults with mental health issues.
If you have DID and you want to improve your sleep, there are 3 principles that could help you understand what many of us are dealing with every night (yes; I have struggles with my sleep too!):
The effects of chronic and severe childhood trauma often mean that we need more time, more layered sleep strategies, and more practice than people w/o DID to get the best results. This doesn’t mean we are more damaged; it means that we have more complex needs.
Success in getting better sleep is not all-or-none; incremental progress is STILL progress. Healing in many areas of our lives often resembles a helix, not a straight line. Sleep is no different.
Some of our sleep issues may have NOTHING to do with DID. Absolutely nothing. This can be good news for us, because coming at our sleep problems with more than psychological strategies could be easier than expecting psychotherapy to do all the “heavy lifting”. Insomnias and parasomnias can occur because of aging, illness, shift work, scheduling issues, an unsupportive sleep environment, and medication side effects. And those are just the most common causes!
Here are 5 strategies you can use today to get better sleep:
Use chronotherapy and social rhythm therapy effectively (they work together!!). Nobody with DID needs to ADD to their list of things to do! Sleep strategies that use technology and automatic habits together reduce your mental workload. Get daily exposure to strong early morning light and dim the lights a few hours before bedtime. The right light bulbs could change everything! Wake up at the same time every day and have a regular daily routine of meals and exercise. These routines synch your brain and body for optimal sleep and protect your sleep from everyday disruptions.
Respond to any part’s safety fears with action. Some of your system could communicate that they feel unsafe. Show them with your actions that your current home is safe. Not all self-states share their fears openly. Reviewing why your home is safe by using the “meeting room” approach or showing them a mental “video” doesn’t require them to directly communicate with you. Assume somebody inside needs to know why you all are safe now. If safety is a concern, consider using affordable locks and alarms on doors or windows to reassure them and to show that you care.
Explore the contributions of diet, drugs, and screens to sleep problems. Your prescribers have access to information on the sleep side effects of every drug they prescribe. Almost every drug has the potential to damage some part of the sleep cycle in some way. Some can cause new sleep disorders like tooth grinding and sleep terrors. If your prescriber denies that your meds affect your sleep, you need to do your own research. What you eat and when you eat it can play havoc with your sleep. Don’t ask your body to be working when you want it to be sleeping. We all use screens. Be in control of your screens rather than letting them control you without your awareness. Hint: it isn’t just about blue light exposure. The alerting effect of what you read, write, or play and how these images come at your eyes and mind is at least half of the problem.
Optimize your sleep environment. A cool and dark environment, with a comfortable mattress and pillow, makes it easier for your body to sleep. Heat-adjusting bed linens and bedclothes help too. Address ambient noise and interruptions to your sleep by others directly and creatively. The people and pets in your life benefit when your mental and physical health improves!
Plan ahead for setbacks. Life happens; some nights are better than others. Build practical tools to react effectively to setbacks. Return to your regular sleep schedule and daytime routines the very next night to get your circadian rhythms back in synch. Learn how to manage jet lag and shift work. Resist catastrophizing and discounting positives, just like you learned in psychotherapy. Apply those lessons to a healthy approach to inevitable sleep setbacks.
If you have sleep issues and DID, improving your sleep could improve your ability to have the life you deserve. The complexity of addressing sleep problems mirrors the complexity of trauma therapy, so be prepared for the need to be creative and curious, and to use strategies that are adapted for trauma survivors. Sleep is so foundational to mental and physical health that it cannot be ignored if you want to truly thrive!
Social Hangout Next Wednesday April 19
Play games, talk about life, get to know each other, have fun! This is the goal of Social Hangout where you go beyond writing and become friends. JJ’s our facilitator and she’s ready to meet you! Click on the regular DW link located on the calendar for Social Hangout. See you there!
Lyn Speaks (via zoom) and Gabby Sings (in person) at Pennsylvania Retreat
If you are in the neighborhood of Ephrata, Pennsylvania, consider attending the retreat Resistance, Resilience, & Re-emergence: A Retreat for Survivors of Childhood Trauma and their Friends, sponsored by Safe Communities PA, on Saturday, April 22. Lyn will be speaking and facilitating on the topic of resilience, and Gabby will sing songs of resistance. See the flyer below for more information or click here to go to the Safe Communities website.
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You can go to bed without fear; you will lie down and sleep soundly.
~ Proverbs 3:24
Lyn