The impact of the past dozen days of Iranian attacks is being felt far beyond drone strikes and falling missile debris, as families and children, in particular, have seen their sleep cycles and routines decimated.
Doctors in Bahrain are recommending that visualisation exercises and family members taking turns to monitor alerts as effective and practical tools to maintain a healthy sleep schedule in these times.
“Living through stressful times like war can really mess with your sleep - your mind keeps racing, and restful nights can seem like a distant dream,” American Mission Hospital clinical psychologist Dr Feba Percy Paul told GulfWeekly.
“Living with danger makes your brain super alert, like a guard dog that barks at every noise even though it may not be a threat anymore. We call it learned helplessness.
“Even when you’re safe, your mind stays on high alert, making it hard to relax.
“It’s normal to feel this way, but it can keep you from catching those much-needed ‘Zzz’s’.
“Your brain is just trying to keep you safe — it’s not that easy but I believe in the power of adaptability our brain has, it has the power to reset and restore.”
Dr Feba has seen an increase in people reporting insomnia since the conflict began, especially children and older folk.
She highlighted bed wetting and worsening eating disorders amongst cases that she saw last week. Another impacted demographic is pregnant women.
“I was with a pregnant woman who was delivering her baby and she asked me, ‘Do you think the baby will make it safely?’ and our friends living closer to danger zones may feel it to the extremes,” Dr Feba added.
Al Hilal Hospital neurologist Dr Roopchand PS has also noted the hypervigilance he is seeing amongst patients, which while useful in survival, can lead to ‘increased secretion of stress related chemicals in the body which in turn can cause gastritis, elevated blood pressure and sugar, and loss of appetite’.
“Apart from insomnia, it can cause irritability, panic attacks, loss of focus and decreased productivity,” he said.
“Physically active people with insomnia also have a higher chance of developing gastrointestinal issues, poorly controlled diabetes and blood pressure problems.”
The impact he has seen has been mainly amongst younger generations and those who had to relocate, and he found it interesting that older Bahraini citizens seemed to be fairly unfazed.
Dr Feba has urged everyone to take their sleep seriously, calling it ‘the secret weapon to help you feel better and stronger’, while also urging organisations to be flexible and adapting work schedules to help employees stay rested so they continue to be productive.
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