THOMAS A. MELLMAN, MD: A person might feel the need to maintain a high level of vigilance. In other words, to be on alarm, to be on guard. And being on guard is basically incompatible with being asleep.
CHARLES F. REYNOLDS, MD: They may wake up at night again preoccupied with the event and having a sense of anxiety or foreboding. Repetitive dreams, often, nightmares can be occasions for sleep loss as well.
ANNOUNCER: In the best of times, poor sleep at night can make life difficult during the day. Those problems only increase when someone is trying to handle a life-altering event.
THOMAS A. MELLMAN, MD: You have kind of a paradoxical mixture of a person who's fatigued because of sleep loss, but at the same time on guard and over-vigilant. That it's more difficult for them to focus and concentrate.
ANNOUNCER: Gaining back quality sleep often means finding ways to put the event in perspective.
THOMAS A. MELLMAN, MD: It's helpful for people to talk about their experiences, and people who find a very difficult time doing that, paradoxically, may be the ones who need to do it the most.
One colleague of mine has found that having people talk about or write about their disturbing recurring dreams-trauma-related dreams. And asking them to alter the ending, usually from a more threatening scenario to one in which they have more control, is also a helpful strategy.
ANNOUNCER: Experts sometimes recommend that a sleep diary could be helpful. This journal is kept by the sleeper and records what they do before bedtime and what happens when they sleep.
