The Three Essential Pillars To A Great Nights Sleep

The 3 Essential Pillars To A Great Nights Sleep

Hi, Dr. Bernard Kim, here to talk to you today about three pillars of treating sleep. I’m writing to you from Pondworks Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Austin, Texas.

In particular, we’re going to talk about the three pillars of getting a great night’s sleep. Biology, Psychology, and the last one are Social, and with that, I tag in behavioral because they go hand in hand.

Get A Good Nights Sleep

Biology Pillar And How It Affects How Well You Get Sleepy

So let’s get started. The first of the three pillars of treating sleep is biology. This first pillar I’m going to look at is the biology of sleep. I’m going to mention a few short things, and then we’ll move on. It has to do with psychiatry’s medical side and looking at the different interventions we could do. 

For instance, we can tackle sleep directly through a medication called a hypnotic. Those usually help you fall asleep a little bit easier to keep you from waking up during the night. Each of them has their plus and their minus side often grogginess the next day. Being groggy is something likely that one might have to deal with while taking this type of medication.

One other aspect of treating the biology pillar of sleep is if there’s something else going on, what if there’s some depression or anxiety? If you’re having those issues, if we tackle the sleep directly, it could help. 

But it might not. 

So we look at those particular issues and think about whether a medication would be appropriate to address a more specific mood or anxiety. 

Psychology Pillar Of Getting To Bed – Sleepiness And Insomnia

Now let’s move on to the next pillar, which is psychology. I’ve talked a little bit about this before. The most straightforward approach targeted directly at the symptoms is something called cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. 

I recommend this pretty much across the boards to engage with a therapist throughout a formal 12 to 16 sessions. I almost always incorporate parts of CBTI in my general visits with folks. 

Another part that we have to take a closer look at is what stresses are in our lives? Maybe these aren’t directly related to sleep symptoms, but they can affect them. Just like with the biology pillar and medications that we investigate, stress also takes center stage here.

So sometimes I’ll recommend general psychotherapy as well.

How The Social Behavior Pillar Will Effect Your Sleep and Bedtime

Now we’re down to the last pillar, which is the behavior or social pillar. I put these two together because of how we manage our social lives and social engagements. These lead to the actions and behaviors that we engage with, and some of those behaviors can be counterproductive for sleep. 

For instance, if you tackle large work projects or a deeply emotional conversation with a family or friend late in the evening. It’s going to be hard to fall asleep. Social media can also play a role in riling up your emotions that interfere with getting a good night’s sleep. With examples such as these and many more, these become part of working with me here at Pondworks. And in other cases, perhaps with a CBTI informed therapist. 

So that should sum up the three pillars of treating sleep. As always we at Pondworks are here to help you. If you are having an issue with sleeping, reach out to us. We are HIPAA compliant with telemedicine and video chatting and we can work with you anywhere in the USA now. We can serve people locally as well, in the Austin areas, as well as San Antonio, San Marcos and beyond.

Thank you, and I hope that’s helpful to you, the reader.

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