In opposition to “good stress”, or eustress, which is exhilarating and occurs in response to short-term challenging events over which we may master or leave a sense of accomplishment, distress is “bad stress” which occurs over more prolonged events where we have little control and are draining, exhausting, and/or dangerous. The pharmaceutical drugs such as the z-drugs used to promote sleep in insomniacs not only can be habit-forming, increase mortality chances and mental issues such as depression, but do not produce the naturalistic sleep or sleep architecture needed for the full health necessities of sleep. A great deal can be said about the negative effects of sleep-deprivation of which include mental deficits and disorders such as increased incidents and severity of depression, addiction, anxiety, attention and learning difficulties, and physical ailments such as obesity, heart disease, and even cancer. This has been estimated to cost Americans reaching near half a trillion dollars per year in reduced productivity and work hours (10 million hours lost), not including medical and other costs. In the United States, an estimated 110,000 vehicular crashes and 6500 deaths are attributable to sleep-related fatigue with well over 70 million Americans suffering from chronic to occasional insomnia which significantly interferes with daily life. We argue for spatially based mental imagery in the form of nighttime-sky imagery to attenuate such pathology by breaking one away from a vicious cycle of stimulation and distress and discuss neuropsychological bases for its potential treatment mechanisms which include the autonomic nervous system and a phenomenal foundation of conscious cognition. Hyper-arousal is characterized in part by a vicious cycle of chronic physiological and emotional stimulation/distress. This perspective on the pathology of insomnia and distress is founded in prevailing “dysevolution” and hyper-arousal theories. Via our perspective on the modern nature of stress and insomnia, our theoretical perspective on how specific guided mental imagery can be used to treat these ailments, and our review on the current literature on treatment with mental imagery, we hope to stimulate further research into mental health treatment with mental imagery which has traditionally been neglected. We present a viewpoint on a potential adjunctive treatment of distress and insomnia that harnesses specific mental imagery as a component of mind/body relaxation technique. Current pharmaceutical treatments can be addictive, detrimental to health, and in the case of insomnia don’t produce naturalistic sleep. The chances are that either you, or someone very close to you, could directly benefit from this new knowledge, given how prevalent insomnia is.Excessive distress and insomnia are much too common in the modern world and often lead to a myriad of detrimental effects including loss of cognitive ability and even physical ailments such as cancer. “Insomnia is a solvable problem,” says Colin Espie at the University of Oxford. Simply put, we are now in a much better position to work out why someone has trouble sleeping – and the best way to bring them the rest they so desperately seek. This deeper understanding of how the brain can cause this debilitating condition means we have reached a turning point in its treatment. But an explosion in sleep research over the past few years has helped to identify the neurological and mental processes underlying it. Yet, for decades, scientists had struggled to offer a good solution. It is also one that has far-reaching health and economic impacts. That may be a familiar feeling for many: insomnia is a common condition. Parker’s character experienced such angst from her unwanted wakefulness that she considered “busting over the temple with a night-light”. The more you try to create the right conditions for sleep, the more elusive it appears the very desire makes it impossible to achieve. You will almost certainly relate to this frustration if you have ever found it difficult to nod off. “Early to bed, and you’ll wish you were dead. How do people fall asleep? I’m afraid I’ve lost the knack,” muses the unnamed protagonist in Dorothy Parker’s 1933 short story The Little Hours.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |