Stress & Mood
The mental health of men, specifically
Presentation differs, help-seeking is lower, and the suicide statistics are the clearest evidence that something is not working.
Tom Halvorsen
19 articles by Halvorsen
Sleep
Getting to sleep when your mind will not stop
The techniques that work operate by occupying cognitive resources rather than by relaxing you, which is a useful distinction.
Sleep
Sleep and the working week
Most sleep loss in adults is scheduled rather than pathological, and the fixes are structural rather than medical.
Stress & Mood
What exercise does for the mind
The mental health evidence is stronger than the popular version and more specific about what and how much.
Stress & Mood
Rumination, and how to get out of the loop
Going over the past repeatedly feels like understanding and functions as a depressive maintenance mechanism.
Sleep
Waking at three in the morning
Middle-of-the-night waking has specific causes and a specific set of unhelpful responses, most of which people do automatically.
Sleep
What sleep trackers can and cannot tell you
They are reasonably good at one thing, unreliable at another, and capable of causing a specific problem of their own.
Sleep
Sleep across a lifetime
Requirements and architecture change with age in predictable ways, and much of what is treated as decline is normal.
Sleep
Dreams, nightmares and things that happen in the night
Sleepwalking, night terrors and vivid nightmares have distinct mechanisms, and one of them is a warning sign.
Stress & Mood
Worry, and what to do with it
Worry feels like problem-solving and functions as avoidance, which is why more of it never resolves anything.
Sleep
Snoring and sleep apnoea
Most snoring is harmless and some of it is a sign of a condition that is common, serious and substantially undiagnosed.
Sleep
The bedroom itself
Temperature, light and noise have measurable effects on sleep architecture, and most bedrooms get at least one badly wrong.
Stress & Mood
What actually helps low mood
Behaviour changes before feeling does, which is the opposite of how people expect recovery to work.
Sleep
Sleep and alcohol
It is the most widely used sleep aid in the world and one of the least effective, for reasons that are well characterised.
Sleep
Napping, properly
Length and timing determine whether a nap restores you or wrecks the night, and the difference is well characterised.
Stress & Mood
Burnout is not the same as being tired
Burnout has a definition, a set of causes located in the workplace, and a set of responses that a holiday does not include.
Stress & Mood
Anxiety, and what actually reduces it
Avoidance is what maintains anxiety, which is why the effective treatments all involve approaching rather than escaping.
Sleep
Body clocks, light and why you wake at the wrong time
Chronotype is largely biological, and the mismatch between it and working hours has a name and consequences.
Sleep
Insomnia, and why sleep hygiene rarely fixes it
The standard advice is not wrong, it is simply not a treatment — and there is a treatment.