Anger Management Poor Self-Care: Sleep

If I had a magic wand and I had one wish for all of my anger management clients, it wold be that they got eight restful hours of sleep a night. That would be it. i really believe that a good night’s sleep would salve a huge percentage of anger problems just like that. This has also confirmed to be true by our sexual addiction counselors that work with men and women that struggle with that addiction.

Some day i am going to do a study where one group of anger management clients goes through therapy and another group of clients gets no therapy but gets 8 hours of sleep every night. Then I will measure their progress on controlling their anger. It would not surprise me at all if the sleep group saw more improvement than the therapy group. Sleep is that important. Sleep really can be like a magic pill for anger.

That’s because when you are tired it is hard to be patient, and easy to be groggy, sluggish, grumpy, and frustrated. Little things irritate you that wouldn’t normally bother you. Sleep may be the worst culprit in burning your fuse.

I had one client years ago that was a doctor. She was working long shifts of 24 hours in a row in a hospital. When she came home she was exhausted and had very little fuse left. So what did she do? She would regularly get into fights with her husband almost every time she came home. She spent many of her working hours stewing about what was wrong in thee relationship, and so the minute she walked in the door she let him have it. When she learned to get some sleep first before bringing up her concerns, her marital problems cut in half. Seriously. Just by sleeping.

Sleep is more valuable to your anger management than you can imagine. If you are not sleeping enough, make this a priority. If you do it will lengthen your fuse, which will improve your anger management more than you can imagine. I believe that regular sleep alone can add some of your fuse back. If you get an A+ in sleep you may get a whole unit of fuse back.

In fact, the best that you could do for your anger management right not might be to turn off your computer and take a nap.

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Michael Ballard, MA, LPC

Counselor For Anger Management at Front Range Counseling Center

I am an anger management counselor at Front Range Counseling Center, an outpatient clinic in Denver that helps individuals and couples with anger problems. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor in the state of Colorado. I provide counseling services for individuals, couples, and families who struggle with anger. I developed The ASCEND Method® for anger management, and have used this method with men and women, adults, teens, and children. I have also authored various workbooks, training manuals, and articles and has been published in The Washington Post.

Latest posts by Michael Ballard, MA, LPC (see all)

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• Anger Management Poor Self-Care - October 1, 2016