Blog posts with the tag "Sleep"

Staff Perspective: The Best and Worst Things in Life Happen at Night

By William Brim  on 28.03.2018 9:00 am
Bill Brim, Psy.D.

My great-grandfather once told me that “The best and worst things in life happen at night.”  I am sure that I had no idea what he was talking about at the time, but I clearly recall spending nights at my great-grandparents’ home in Jackson, Tennessee as a young boy and watching my great-grandfather pace the house at night and asking him why he always seemed to be awake.  My great-grandfather William Alfred Key enlisted in the U.S. Army underage to fight in the final months of World War I and in 1940 was commissioned as an engineering officer in the beginning of World War II.  He was later the State Commander of the Tennessee Veterans of Foreign Wars.  Papa was my first hero and I am pretty sure he never slept. 

Staff Perspective: The Protective Value of REM Sleep

By Christopher Adams  on 25.10.2017 1:40 pm
Chris Adams

We all know the benefits of a good night’s sleep. Most of us feel better, physically and emotionally with some solid sleep the night before. A recent study suggests that rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep may be even more important than that. It may function as a protective factor, reducing fear-related activity in the brain. This reduction in fear may help prevent the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Staff Perspective: Lessons Learned from Examining Sleep Functioning of At-Home Partners Over the Course of Military Deployment

By Timothy Rogers  on 23.08.2017 10:50 am
Timothy Rogers, Ph.D.

Miller et al. (2017) conducted a study on the sleep functioning of at-home partners from the Readiness and Resilience in National Guard Soldiers (RINGS-2) project. The RINGS-2 project is a prospective longitudinal study of National Guard soldiers deployed to Iraq/Kuwait in 2011-2012. This is an important study because despite existing literature indicating deployments having negative effects on the health of military spouses, there has been limited research focused specifically on sleep functioning changes across the deployment cycle.

Staff Perspective: Cracking the Code of Sleep Log Scoring

By Diana Dolan  on 16.08.2017 11:34 am

Providers of behavioral treatment of sleep disorders, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) or Brief Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (BBTI), need to score sleep logs efficiently and accurately to implement strategies. Moreover, we must teach patients how to score their own logs so that they in turn can implement sleep schedule adjustments without our guidance. It’s not surprising, then, that a frequent topic that arises in consultations concerns the use of sleep logs, specifically, learning steps for how to score logs and getting experience doing so.

Staff Perspective: The Problem with Sleep Hygiene

By Diana Dolan  on 01.03.2017 12:09 pm
Diana Dolan, Ph.D., CBSM

SrA Pruitt slumps in the chair in her primary care provider’s exam room.  She’s frustrated she hasn’t slept much in the past five months since her promotion and just wants a magic bullet to help her fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.  She clearly did not expect her provider to ask her to see me; she crosses her arms and says bitterly “…but I’ve already tried all those things that are supposed to make my sleep better.” 

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