The importance of sleep in mental health and practices for dealing with it.

Sleep is considered a "natural" human mechanism of rest and although it is not only helpful but also necessary, there are not a few people who find it difficult to sleep or have developed some sleep disorder, such as insomnia.

Percentages of people who resort to some medicinal aid to be able to sleep are constantly increasing and unproductive sleep, beyond the social dimensions it can have, increases road accidents and affects the psychosomatic health and well-being of the individual to the greatest extent.

 Sleep helps the development of the brain and by extension other physical and mental functions, such as hormones, cognitive functions, regulation of emotions. Thus, lack of sleep has been research related to many physical and mental disorders, either as a cause of their occurrence, or as part of their symptomatology. Some of them are obesity, diabetes, dementia, depression, anxiety, heart disease and attention deficit disorder, the inability to concentrate. In addition, lack of sleep, since the nervous system is not rested, can cause behavioral changes, such as angry outbursts, social isolation and decreased productivity.

The demanding rhythms of everyday life, the exhausting schedules or on the contrary, the excessively sedentary life, the unbalanced diet, the excessive use of social media and mobile phones, the multiple social roles and obligations, lead to a disruption of the circadian rhythm and subsequently of the same of sleep. One way to fix this would be to retrain your circadian "clock". It is more difficult to impose on the body what time it will sleep, but you can impose on it the time you will wake it up. Listening to some relaxing music or melody, a hot or cold bath before the desired bedtime. Dim lighting, such as avoiding the cell phone screen, are just some sleep-enhancing practices.

However, I must and it is important to clarify that the above tactics alone are not a cure for insomnia or other related disorders. Therefore, if there is a significant impairment of the person's functionality, a feeling of discomfort from a prolonged lack of sleep, it is important that the person is helped and relieved, to turn to a competent treating physician, such as a psychiatrist and alongside a psychologist or psychotherapist who will face its causes comprehensively and in depth.