Sleep Over // Geraldine Pilgrim

Sleep, that final frontier. We can put man on the moon, split the atom and prove that water has memory, and yet we still do not really know why we sleep. What scientists do know is that without proper sleep our cognitive ability is impaired and the middle part of the frontal lobe in our brains is affected as a build-up of proteins occurs.

To believe the media hype we are in the midst of a sleep-loss epidemic, putting us at heightened risk of cancer, dementia, heart disease and weight gain. So as part of Normal? 2018, a sleep-over was held in the auditorium of the Quaterhouse. Not for scientific analysis, just purely to emphasise and highlight the importance of sleep to our mental wellbeing.

Geraldine Pilgrim designed the installation, which looked like a cross between a field hospital and a supersized hostel/hotel room. One of the sleepers disclosed that she dreamt that the pillows came from Premier Inn and the mattresses from Dunelm - strange that we dream of such mundane things! Fourteen sleepers and one male matron hankered down for cocoa or Horlicks, bedtime stories and a recording of the old and soporific version of the shipping news, followed by seven and a half hours of undisturbed rest in comfy beds with Egyptian cotton sheets and super soft pillows. For the insomniacs a room was kitted out with food, drinks and a video diary.

At 8am, piped birdsong filled the auditorium and bodies started to move and then rise from their cotton comfort. Why though, did those who normally wake to sunrise still manage to do so despite the darkened room? At breakfast, Tim Rittman, the in-house neurologist answered questions on sleep matters whilst a delicious breakfast was served. Everyone seemed curious to know if we had slept well but I was more interested to hear how our matron Gary felt, given he had endured the whole night in a darkened room. Coincidentally he spent the night reading about the Normandy Landings as he watched over us in our dystopian hangar style bedroom.

Matthew Walker’s book Why We Sleep tells me that prolonged sleep deprivation can be fatal. In our 24hr society individuals are torn between the necessity to work and battling against their circadian rhythms. What risk is this posing for tomorrow’s generations?

‘To sleep perchance to dream’

If only!

-       Sandra Elkins

Links relevant to this diagnosis:

Why We Sleep - Matthew Walker

The Sleep School

How to Cope with Sleep Problems - Mind

Sleep Tips - BBC News

A New Theory Linking Sleep and Creativity - The Atlantic

Autism Roundtable // Imagining Autism

Finding Your Own Group Of Weird

Prior to the Living with Autism roundtable I had my own pre-conceived ideas about what it meant to be autistic. I bought into the Rain Man ideology and believed that autism was predominantly a male domain, with the notion that to be autistic meant living in an isolated bubble. I thought that certainly within those constraints public speaking would be impossible.

Two women on the panel, Annette and Chloe, were diagnosed as being autistic in their mid and late thirties, but were articulate, confident and gave a clear and coherent insight into their world of autism. They explained how society expected them to conform to a neurotypical model of what it is to be human, and how this leads to a myriad of mental health issues: obsessive behaviour; anxiety and sensory overload. Being female better equipped them to act out the neurotypical role publically but in their private lives they had frequent ‘melt-down’ moments. Listening to their testaments it was apparent that the reason for their late diagnosis was that as women they were able to mask things better than their male counterparts. This theme of ‘masking’ was also explored in a short film by Sharif Persaud, The Mask. 

Chloe showed a list of all the words that have been used by others to represent her, all derogatory and representative of the expectations of a neurotypical ideal. She now has found her ‘own group of weird’ and acknowledges that she is autistic and that is a intrinsic part of her personality. It cannot be removed. The overriding message of the roundtable was one of acceptance and inclusivity. Autism has its own set of rules. As one of the parents on the panel learnt, great minds don’t always think alike and sometimes we just have to learn to play differently and allow everyone to find their own group of weird.

-       Sandra Elkins

Links relevant to this diagnosis:

Imagining Autism - University of Kent

National Autistic Society

Live It Well - Kent County Council

Mental Health Matters

Autism Research Centre

Dementia Friends

At any one time one in fourteen people will develop symptoms of dementia, meaning all of us are likely to at some stage in our lives come into contact with someone affected by it.

Elizabeth Taylor from Dementia Friends enlightened us at Normal? Festival to some of the myths and misconceptions that have built up around dementia, and offered practical advice as to how we might help. Some of her stories of people's experience were unexpected. I for one did not realise that the large black doormats, so prevalent in shops, have sometimes posed a real fear for patients she has worked with: they imagine they will fall into a dark hole! I'm sure many of us remember as a child not walking on the lines of the pavement for that same reason, as in A.A Milnes poem ‘Between the Lines’. Elizabeth describes dementia as a bookcase of the crappy MDF sort, each shelf representing a decade, with the most recent years on top. When someone shakes the bookcase, the most recent books and memories fall first.

People can live well with dementia, so why is it still such a taboo subject? Dementia Friends aims to encourage positive steps, small things that make a huge difference. It reminds me of the words of the poet Rumi - ‘drive slowly, some of us walking alongside are lame’. Often, we cease to see the person and define them by the disease. Elizabeth's example is of Mabel, who loves gardening and has “green fingers” also enjoying baking amazing cakes. So why is it that when people talk of her she is just Mabel with dementia? If we can take one positive from the talk and be a dementia friend it must be ‘Please Don't Label Mabel!’. (SE)

- Sandra Elkins

Links Relevant to This Diagnosis:

Dementia Friends - https://www.dementiafriends.org.uk

Age UK – Help and Support for Dementia

A Walk Through Dementia - http://www.awalkthroughdementia.org

Share the Orange - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9MvEZskR6o

sharetheorange,danceforlife,dontlabelmabel,dementia

Dr Gemma Beckley // Mindfulness

Mindfulness was a three day event led by Dr. Gemma Beckley (clinical psychologist and teacher of mindfulness and Transcendental Meditation) and her father, Colin (a recovering addict and founder of the TM trust). Throughout the weekend they gave brief synopses of mindfulness and T.M, and their positive effects on the brain and general mental wellbeing. MRI scans have shown that regular meditation increases the frontal cortex of the brain; this is the area that contains most of the dopamine sensitive neurons, controlling things like personality, decision making, planning and speech.

We are encouraged to visualise meditation as an ocean. Mindfulness is likened to surfing the waves, learning to cope with the swells of chaos and adversity. Mindfulness is one of the tools used to access TM. TM is like diving down into calm, still waters. We are given a raisin and guided through the process of mindful eating by first examining the fruit using all the senses. In doing so we are able to feast and feel sated by that single piece of fruit. I could see that having a mindful approach to eating might have a positive effect on dieting and obesity. Then we are taught mindful breathing - just breathing in and out, clearing our minds of all other thoughts. It is only about the breath, if the mind gets distracted then you bring it back to the breath. To end our session, we practise some simple yawning and stretching. We are reminded how babies stretch after long periods of sleep, as do animals, and see that this is the body’s way to connect with and reinvigorate the self.

Cynics might have us believe that meditation is ‘wacky’ and possibly dangerous. Only today in the I newspaper Richard Vaughan suggests it ‘can cause damage to children who have existing problems, while the focus on happiness can “pathologise” normal emotions like sadness’. However, during periods of extreme anxiety it is hard to see how focusing on the breath, calmly breathing in and out, clearing the mind of all but the breath, can have a detrimental effect. (SE)

- Sandra Elkins

Links relevant to this diagnosis:

The Brain Made Simple - http://brainmadesimple.com

NHS Mindfulness - http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/Pages/mindfulness.aspx

Mindfulness at the Mental Health Foundation - https://bemindful.co.uk

Transcendental Meditation - http://uk.tm.org/