Imagine a country where we no longer have to depend on medication to help manage depression, chronic pain, or insomnia. Lately, I’ve been seeing a trend of studies that are showing how mindfulness is just as effective as side-effect loaded medications. This latest study, conducted by Cynthia Gross, PhD and her colleagues from the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota, has found some inspiring evidence that mindfulness may be just as powerful as the insomnia prescription medication, Lunesta. This randomized, controlled trial was conducted at the University of Minnesota’s health center where 30 adults, diagnosed with insomnia, were…

There have been countless studies on mindfulness with adults, but what about children? Is mindfulness for young kids and adolescents? If so, how do we introduce it and what are some effective ways of teaching it? A literature review about using mindfulness with children, published in Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry by Miles Thompson, DClinPsy and Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert, PhD, DClinPsy from the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath, England looked at these questions and pointed out useful ways to incorporate mindfulness into practice with young people. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Gauntlett-Gilbert had some helpful suggestions for tweaking common…

I know I said I would be reporting more on how REM sleep can help regulate emotions, but when I found this, I knew I had to share it with you. So here it is and we’ll get back to REM sleep a little later. Mindfulness. . .what is it? How does it work? What can it do? These are common questions that I am asked sometimes with suspicion, as mindfulness has become something of an “in thing” without there being lots of explanation of what it is. You may have been asked these same questions by your patients when…

We’ve all heard of ‘restful’ sleep . . . but what about ‘healing’ sleep? Is it possible that dreaming could help reduce the pain of traumatic memories? Researchers at UC Berkeley have found that when dreams occur during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep, our stress responses shut down, and the neurochemicals responsible for stressful feelings stop being released. Not only this, but REM helps reduce the negative effects of difficult memories. “The dream stage of sleep, based on its unique neurochemical composition, provides us with a form of overnight therapy, a soothing balm that removes the sharp…