In Lorraine, free workshops are offered to seniors to help them understand their sleep, which is sometimes disturbed, and to adopt the right behaviors to sleep better. Organized by the Mutualité Française, this cycle of 5 workshops organized in partnership with town halls, is a huge hit.
A calm, dark and cool environment
Around the long oval table in the meeting room of Diebling town hall, around fifteen faces are turned towards Mathilde Bauwens, the facilitator of the sleep workshop for seniors. “There I have a small image which shows the conditions of the room“, she explains, pointing to the video projector screen, on which a character is displayed in a virtual room that is too hot, too lit and too noisy, “Are there things that don't seem appropriate at all?“
“Light and temperature!“, loose, confident, a lady with short white hair.”In fact, the recommended temperature is between 16 and 19 degrees“, she replies. Beyond these relatively obvious elements such as the bad influence of screens on sleep, the project manager at the Mutualité Française gives ideas that surprise the assembly: it is recommended to get up when you wakes up in the middle of the night and avoids reading in bed.
“Find the cause of insomnia”
Many in the room experience insomnia on a daily basis. “ I took Valerian granules, it helped me a lot, but not anymore », confides the lady with short hair. Sleep disorders are precisely on the program of this first workshop, according to Mathilde Bauwens: “ the important thing is to find the cause of this insomnia which does not happen by chance. Try different things before being prescribed sleeping pills ».
The role of sport, stress and emotion management will, for example, be addressed during the cycle and exercises with a sophrologist are also planned. “ We explain to them that sleep changes with age, there is less deep sleep and more wakefulness, so understanding, knowing that these people are not the only ones in this situation, relieves them. », souffle Mathilde Bauwens en fin d'atelier.
Work on your anxiety
« There are a lot of worries, anxiety, stress, concerns even for retired people », she adds. This is precisely the case for Yasmine, in her sixties. She's been sleeping for years: “I can't sleep without taking medicine“, she blurted, resigned, “I've tried everything, in pharmacies, I always do a little sport, yoga… I think I'm insomniac“.
She believes that her difficulties are linked to her anxiety: “there is anxious ground, a lot of buried anxiety“. Despite everything, she will follow the next four workshops because she has “not lost hope”.
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