– By Dixita Mehta
(Introduction of the Writer)
Imbibed with high values of spirituality since childhood, fuelled by passion for the science of psychology along with expertise and experience in mass education, Dixita Mehta is here to create something of substance for mental health issues.
Since a tender age of 20, she has had an opportunity to work in Baroda Mental Health hospital for more than a year as an assistant psychologist during her graduation. She has worked in the field of psychology in various scenarios which include- political campaigns, schools and colleges mental health facilities, hospitals, NGOs, and corporates as well. She has been observed as an asset to these organisations. She has been trained as a mass educator (in simpler language- public trainer) and is well received by her audience. Her expertise in understanding human nature is appreciable. In her career years, she has been observing, convincing and treating mental health patients at large.
At every stage of life, every organization she worked for, directly/indirectly introduced her to stories and the trauma mental health issues are associated with. The trauma is not only associated to the sufferer, but also to the family and friends. To put it in her words, ‘’mental health issues are more disastrous than any other terminal illness. For example, if you have cancer, you suddenly find people loving and caring more about you, but if you are going through depression or any other mental illness, people tend to distance from you, to that extend that they even despise you.”
She has been a Co-founder to ‘My Zindagi Foundation’ (an organisation working towards mental healthcare for all) and Lighthouse (an organisation supporting active non-profit goals).
Her objective in this series “Give it a thought” remains to make mental health issues more understandable, interesting and scientific. To facilitate the process of converting psychological researches and theories into everyday life uses, both professionally and personally, to promote Individual Social Responsibility (ISR) and create an environment conducive to mental healthcare patients. To ‘actually’ know what our mind is all about. To shatter the myths and reveal the scientific knowledge of workings of our brain and mind.
According to her, work done in psychology field has definitely evolved but there is still so much more to do. Psychological findings are not only for the ones who have severe mental health issues, it can also be used to bring out the best in you! Let us make use of this aspect and lift ourselves towards a better future together.
This column will appear every Saturday..
(Part-1) – Do one favour for your brains, please Sleep well!
It is time I share a secret. ‘Every single day, I go into a state of altered consciousness (for hours at a stretch). My body is not in my control, neither is my mind. I lose command over literally everything that I have been taught or live by. Deep in my mind, I have adventures and experiences which are surreal. It is all blank, but sometimes it is colourful. I must say, it is a rollercoaster. And it is SO REAL. Luckily, I always get back to normal. It happens mostly when the sun goes down. Should I be scared? Should I consult a doctor? I don’t know what is happening with me. I am told that this phenomenon happens to All Living Creatures. And it is supposed to be good for us.’- now let us displace this whole experience with one word- SLEEP.
What if, like all those sci-fi and avenger’s movies- you were bestowed upon a superpower wherein you can regenerate your entire body and mind by just closing those big round eyes and sleep? Once you open your eyes, you are almost brand new, having experienced so much, learnt so much and regenerated so much. Ready for a better start! Well, I have some good news, we all HAVE this superpower.
We are bestowed with so much ‘magic’ without our conscious knowledge. Even nature must be laughing at us, ‘Do they even know, I have given them so many superpowers.’ Nature- you got to change your marketing strategy, make it more dramatic! (Just joking, please don’t).
There are many questions that triggers to me when I think about sleep- What if sleep was actually something that you had to earn? Would we still take it for granted? How much sleep is enough? How would a lifetime of sleeplessness be (a mere 2-3 sleepless nights creates a havoc)? How do we check the quality of our sleep state? Are extensive use of sleeping pills generating a sleep-clutch? What if sleep state is quite similar to the enlighten state everyone is praying about? Are we most connected with ourselves while we are asleep or while we are awake? But the most important question is: how will we consciously change our pattern of behaviours so we can have a better night sleep?
The biggest fear any writer can have is that ‘what if my readers fall asleep while reading my article’. Well, in my case, you are allowed to sleep amidst the reading. I would be more than happy if you do so. It is part of the process, so grab a pillow and relax. What I’m going to talk about is why spending 1/3 of your lifetime in a sleep state is a massive blessing in disguise.
Before going to that, are we aware that we are going through a sleep crisis, worldwide? It is a spectre haunting our world. It is much a bigger problem, with much higher stakes at risk. Sleep is an aspect or phenomenon naturally occurring in all living creatures which is kind-enough to provide us with a time of intense neurological activity, memory consolidation, brain and neurochemical cleansing and cognitive mechanism (so many benefits which cannot be acquired artificially, at a go!). In fact, the quality and quantity of your sleep enhances the quality of every minute we spend with our eyes open. But we live in a world, where sleep deprivation is glamorized and motivated. Sleep deprivation is directly linked with increased risk of diabetes, heart attack (heart is affected by literally everything, no doubt it is so fragile), brain stroke, depression, cancer, Alzheimer’s and obesity (you want to be fit, get enough sleep).
How can you qualify your sleep as a good sleep? One simple method is- measure the quality and productivity of your waking state. Also, Check for the sleep stages. You close your eyes- you are at the doors of your sub consciousness, which lets you enter through door of sleep. There comes 4 stages – each having its own brainwaves, measured by brain electrical activity (we are a live, walking electrical pole, with ‘earth-ing’ system and magnetic influences of the north/south poles)
- Stage one- Transitional sleep (light sleep) wherein you get a taste of what ‘magic’ is about to begin. Your eyes and muscles are still moving, but a wave of relaxation seeps in.
- Stage two- slightly deeper sleep, slowing of eye movement and your core body temperature drops.
- Stage three- slow-wave sleep, wherein your brain creates slow, high-amplitude delta waves (slight deviation from high-frequency beta waves). Well this stage is the most important as it marks our deepest sleep. Eye movement and muscles take a pause. It’s very difficult to wake us up from this state. If at all, someone wakes us up we are startled and groggy. Some people also experience a phenomenon what psychologist calls as disorientation from the outside world (you forget who you are, for a few seconds).
- The fourth/Final stage is of REM sleep- which happens almost one hour after we sleep, it is marked by shallow and quicker breathes. Our brain waves pick up the fast pace, resembling our waking state brain waves, but our muscles are almost paralysed. In this REM sleep we do most of our dream business.
If you value your brains, please get more quality sleep! In the sleep world, both the quantity and quality matters. So what hampers our quality and quantity of sleep? Humans are social animals – we are hard wired to connect to one another. Social distancing and lockdown have been proof enough how much we fear isolation, loneliness and lack of human connectivity. We are in a constant state of hyper anticipation. Another aspect is use of gadgets and technology (social media, movies and shows, work load, studies etc.) prior to sleeping state. We shall discuss about this in the coming article.
There is an Existential Cry for amendment in how we use our sleep superpower. Some sleep less, some sleep more. Some sleep less but quality doesn’t get hampered. Some sleep more but quality lacks. Where is the balance? How to create a balance where we don’t ruin the relationship we have with sleep? How can we optimise sleep psychology to our use and benefits? Rather than it creating slow biological growth rate, hampering our waking state and slowly pushing us in a state of deprived life. One of the root causes of depression and anxiety, which is the ‘so-called-hot-topic’ is the lack of quality sleep.
There are quite a few Global thinker who have talked extensively about sleep, one of my personal favourite remains by Mahatma Gandhi – ‘Each night when I go to sleep, I die. And the next morning, when I wake up, I am born again.’
Let us discuss sleep phenomenon further in the next article. Till then, I hope the article helps you to sleep better.