There are a lot of things one can do to get the best sleep possible. Before anything, it is so essential that people who live with a mental illness comply with the advice their psychiatrist offers them, take their medications as prescribed and avoid drugs and alcohol.
I currently live with Type Two Diabetes and very poor Dental Health. Some may feel these conditions aren’t related to my mental health disorder, but they definitely are. Taking medications caused me to eat much more, do much less, and gain a fair bit of weight. I did manage to lose 60 pounds from my heaviest, but I think I will have to take my diabetes medication for the rest of my life. As far as my teeth go, medications give me a dry mouth and saliva is our first line of defence against tooth decay. Just over 20 years ago, I had all my teeth and no cavities. Then, after an extended psychiatric hospitalization, I ended up losing a number of teeth and having other teeth get cavities, leaving me in a terrible state, directly related to my mental health.
In today’s podcast, I give some of my lived experience with regards to sleeping. I am a firm believer in both mental and physical exercises to get yourself tired enough to sleep properly and easily each night. If you wake up at night, one of the best things that can be done is to get up, warm up some milk with a little sugar to deal with the bitterness, and also eat a banana. Other times, when I didn’t have milk or bananas, I would take a multivitamin and a B complex vitamin which may not have helped me sleep better, but actually helped lower the instances of having disturbing dreams, leading to more quality sleep.
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