Trauma impacts sleep, and sleep (or lack of it) massively impacts our ability to recover from trauma. In addition, good sleep leads to good health in so many other areas of our life, so it’s imperative that we do everything we can to try to improve and maximise our sleep.
That’s what this poster is about – four key areas where we can work on our sleep, in order to give our brain the kind of dream sleep it particularly needs to process traumatic memories.
This is a free downloadable PDF.
Page 1 is a full-colour poster.
Page 2 is a low-ink, print-friendly version.
One of the most debilitating consequences of trauma is disrupted sleep. And ironically – in a vicious cycle kind of a way – sleep is exactly what we need in order to heal from trauma. It’s during the dream phase of sleep that emotions are processed and traumatic memories are stripped of their sting.
But how do we get enough of this type of sleep – which preferentially occurs in the second half of the night – if trauma has disrupted our sleep?
That’s what we look at in depth in our ‘Mental Health and the Body: Treating Trauma’ course, and this is a handout from it.
Resolving sleep issues is far from easy, but even marginal gains, even a little improvement, can make a big difference.