This pandemic period has seen an unfortunate increase in the number of people seeking therapy. Most of them complain that they sleep less as compared to pre-Covid days. Worrying about the unprecedented imbalance and inconsistency in our lives has contributed to disrupted or fragmented sleep.
What’s been going on?
· Anxious thoughts
When we’re faced with a deadly virus, it’s not hard to imagine that we’re constantly worried about paying bills, making ends meet, and of course, not catching the virus ourselves. When these thoughts keep looming, it’s hard to get the peace our minds need to get to sleep or to get quality sleep.
· Feeling uncertain of the future
All the changes that have happened of late makes one wonder what life has in store. Often this revolves around the basics of our safety and health, security in our jobs and assuredness/surety in our relationships and peace of mind. When things we value are being threatened, we tend to keep wondering what it is we can do, even when the control no longer rests in our hands.
· Feeling like you have nobody
Feeling physically or emotionally alone makes us feel like we’re the only ones experiencing hardships or that no one understands what we’re going through. Such thoughts would often plague us at night when there’s nothing else to distract us. Seeing pictures of friends groups or looking back at our own may cause longing and desire, adding to our sleeplessness.
· Time is a blur
Daily routines have gone for a toss off late. When schedules are mixed up, we get accustomed to not having an order in the things we do. This would lead to us pushing our normal bedtimes up from 11 pm to 1 am because it’s like we’re on one long holiday. Changes in our sleep timings creates confusion, and long-term inconsistency would cause low-quality sleep and risk of high blood pressure, lethargy and changes in mood and motivation.
· You don’t want to get out of bed
Everything that we need seems to be reduced to having a device and somewhere we can plop ourselves onto. Work, shows, information can all be accessed from the comfort of our bedrooms and as a result, gets in the way of us moving or exercising. Not tiring ourselves out physically would lead to lethargy, poor health and staying awake at night as we still have energy to be expended.