DQ NURS 3335 Stress Management Healthy Sleep and Brain Health

DQ NURS 3335 Stress Management Healthy Sleep and Brain Health

DQ NURS 3335 Stress Management Healthy Sleep and Brain Health

After reviewing this week’s readings and media on Stress and Stress Management, take some time to reflect upon the importance of stress management for yourself and your patients. Then, please respond to the following TWO discussion board questions.

Remember to include an APA formatted in-text citation AND corresponding reference from a recent (within last 5 years), professional journal or website (NIH, CDC, etc.). (Failure to include BOTH an in-text citation AND a corresponding reference will result in a significant point deduction. Please contact your coach if you have any questions about this BEFORE submitting your post to the discussion board this week.) You do not need an in-text citation/reference for both questions, but the FIRST question DOES require an in-text citation and reference.

What are some of the benefits of Stress Management? What are some of the obstacles to performing Stress Management strategies? (in-text citation and reference required)

What are some techniques that you have successfully utilized to manage your own stress? How often do you use these techniques? Describe some of the benefits you have experienced. (no reference required)

Long-term brain changes

There is evidence that chronic (persistent) stress may actually rewire your brain, says Dr. Ressler. Scientists have learned that animals that experience prolonged stress have less activity in the parts of their brain that handle higher-order tasks — for example, the prefrontal cortex — and more activity in the primitive parts of their brain that are focused on survival, such as the amygdala. It’s much like what would happen if you exercised one part of your body and not another. The part that was activated more often would become stronger, and the part that got less attention would get weaker, he says. This is what appears to happen in the brain when it is under continuous stress: it essentially builds up the part of the brain designed to handle threats, and the part of the brain tasked with more complex thought takes a back seat.

These brain changes may be reversible in some instances, says Dr. Ressler, but may be more difficult to reverse in others, depending on the type and the duration of the stress. While stressful childhood experiences seem to take more of a toll on the developing brain, some research has found that people who demonstrate resilience in the face of past childhood trauma actually appear to have generated new brain mechanisms to compensate. It’s thought that these new pathways help to overcome stress-related brain changes that formed earlier in life, he says.

Is all stress created equal?

While the effect of stress on the brain is well documented, it’s less clear exactly what type of stress will prove damaging and raise the risk of memory problems later in life. Do brain problems occur when you are under a small amount of stress or only when you experience long-term stress?

“That’s a tough question, because stress is a broad term that is used to describe a lot of different things,” says Dr. Ressler. The stress you might experience before you take a test is likely very different from the stress of being involved in a car accident or from a prolonged illness. “Certainly, more stress is likely worse, and long-term stress is generally worse than short-term stress,” says Dr. Ressler.

But there are additional factors that make stress more harmful, he says. In particular:

• The stress is unpredictable. Animal research shows that animals that could anticipate a stressor — for example, they received a shock after a light turned on — were less stressed than animals that received the same number of shocks randomly. The same is true in humans, says Dr. Ressler. If a person can anticipate stress, it is less damaging than stress that appears to be more random.
• There is no time limit on the stress. If you are stressed about a presentation at work or an upcoming exam, the stress you are experiencing has an end point when you know you will get relief. If the stress has no end point — for example, you are chronically stressed about finances — it may be more challenging to cope with.