Sleep and Mental Wellness, PLLC
Individual Therapy
Mental Health and Sleep Wellness
Sleep Wellness 101
Identify What You Are Having Issues With
Below are descriptions of the various dimensions of sleep health according to Dr. Daniel Buysee
Regularity
Do you go to bed and get out of bed at about the same time (within one hour) every day?
Timing
What time are you going to bed and waking up? The timing is related to your natural circadian rhythm and issues with this aspect can lessen your sleep health.
Satisfied
Are you satisfied with your sleep?
Efficiency
How long does it take you to fall asleep? Do you feel like you were in bed for 8 hours but didn't sleep all 8 hours? This speaks to your efficiency.
Alertness
Do you stay awake all day without dozing
Duration
How many hours do you sleep while asleep? Is it 6 or is it more like 10 hours.
OR Is It Something More Serious
Sleep Apnea
There are various screening tools used by sleep medicine to help guide which conditions a person MAY have. These should be interpreted by a board-certified sleep physician.
Other Sleep Disorders
While out of scope of Sleep and Mental Wellness, there are many other sleep disorders such as narcolepsy, idiopathic hypersomnia. There are over 80 sleep disorders.
Insomnia
Insomnia is the number one sleep disorder and is underdiagnosed. The gold standard treatment is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.
You may have received this diagnosis from a sleep doctor or feel like you meet the criteria.
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Chronic Health
Healthy sleep supports good health. We can't take for granted how poor sleep and our health status are connected even from a poor night of sleep. We experience challenges in sleeping at different times throughout our lives and support is rarely offered from our primary care providers. You must gain the information to empower yourself.
Importance of the 24 hour cycle of sleep and Hormones
When we experience poor sleep, many things are disrupted
At Sleep and Mental Wellness we are paying attention to the science of sleep and highlighting important information. This study from the International Journal of Molecular Sciences published in 2025 discussed the process which occurs over the 24 hour period of sleep and wakefulness. It highlighted hormones important for growth, food intake, stress, and sleep. The diagram to the right describes how growth hormone peaks during sleep; melatonin peaks in the middle of the night, and cortisol peaks in the early morning. When we think about our food intake and the hormones that control our food intake, insulin, ghrelin and leptin are involved. Insulin decreases during the night and rises during meal times. Ghrelin (hunger hormone) stimulates appetite and peaks before meals. Leptin (satiety hormone) peaks at night and is lowest in the afternoon.
The hormone noradrenaline activates the fight or flight response. When you think about stress having disrupted sleep can change how this hormone is secreted thought the day.​​​​
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Juliana N, Maluin SM, Effendy NM, Abu IF, Azmani S. Cortisol Detection Methods and the Hormone’s Role in Evaluating Circadian Rhythm Disruption. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2025; 26(18):9141. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26189141
