College joins with the Webinar Vet for new series to help understand sleep and anxiety

The RCVS Mind Matters Initiative and the Webinar Vet have teamed up again to deliver a new series of webinars, this time to help veterinary professionals understand sleep and worry less about it, and feel less tired and anxious about the effect sleep problems may have on their lives.

The six ‘Choosing and Understanding Sleep’ webinars, which start on 7 June 2017 and take place between 8pm and 9pm every Wednesday evening until 12 July, are presented by mental health and wellbeing consultant Dr Mike Scanlan.

He comments: “The Mental Health Foundation points out that we spend approximately a third of our lives asleep. Sleep is an essential and involuntary process, without which we cannot function effectively. It is as important to our bodies as eating, drinking and breathing, and is vital for maintaining good mental and physical health. Sleeping helps to repair and restore our brains, not just our bodies. Very often, however, it is, paradoxically our own over-preoccupation with sleep that is at the route of many people’s problems. The Choosing and Understanding Sleep series aims to help people gain a more mindful stance to sleep.”

The overall objectives of the webinar series will be to understand more about sleep processes, to learn about the paradoxical sleep effect, to understand the importance of sleep hygiene and patterns, to learn to defuse thinking and to understand more about the ‘double-edged sword’ of sleep control.

Lizzie Lockett, Director of Mind Matters, comments: “Like many busy professionals, veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses worry about the impact of sleep on their working life – whether they are getting enough of it and whether lack of sleep might affect their competence at work and their ability to deal with the stressors of daily life. This course will help members of the veterinary team be less anxious about sleep and feel more relaxed and content, and therefore function better in all aspects of their life – it will be particularly useful for those who are regularly on call or working shift patterns.”

A ticket for the whole of the series costs £35 plus VAT for individuals and £175 plus VAT for a practice ticket which is valid for up to 10 people.

To register for the series visit the Webinar Vet's sign-up page. Those who miss a session will be able to listen again via the Webinar Vet website.