Forget Sleep Hygiene. Do This To Beat Insomnia!
When it comes to Insomnia, belief is everything (well almost).
I’m going through one of my ‘not-sleeping-as-much-as-normal’ phases. Importantly, it’s not insomnia, although, by many clinical definitions, it is. I generally sleep quite well but often go through these multi-weeks of poor sleep patterns. So today’s question is:
“How come I don’t have ‘insomnia’ if my sleep is poor enough to be insomnia?”
And, more importantly,
“How does this help you?”
I used to have Insomnia. When I went through these phases in my younger years (you know back when I was in my 30’s & 40’s), I sought help & indeed, was told I had Insomnia.
I even had sleeping pills at several stages & worked hard on my sleep hygiene, (I’m not a fan of that phrase but it’s in common use in insomnia circles), learned meditation & relaxation exercises. It was a struggle to stay awake during the day & just as much of a struggle to get to sleep at night.
These days, I just go to bed & get whatever sleep decides to turn up. How much sleep I get doesn’t matter.
Why? Because I don’t have Insomnia.
What The Thinker thinks, The Prover proves
Back when I trained as a Cognitive Hypnotherapist, a phrase kept repeating throughout the course:
“What The Thinker thinks, The Prover proves”
At the time it didn’t make a whole load of sense. But as my training progressed & I began to work one on one with clients, it made became an underlying tenet of therapy.
We have a variety of inner systems lurking in the background of our minds which run our daily lives. We’ve touched on them a time or two in these articles, so you probably know these aspects of our inner selves quite well by now (thanks for reading, by the way).
We have a ‘Thinker’ version of us that tells us stories based on what it believes to be going on. Stories that fit the evidence your mind thinks it’s found that explains the circumstances it finds itself living in.
We also have a ‘Prover’ who’s job is to find things that corroborate the various theories that the Thinker’s come up with.
This why we often come across things that back up our everyday experience & beliefs but don’t notice much that contradicts them.
When you’re unhappy, your Prover notices things that confirm you should be unhappy. Optimists keep seeing opportunities & watch for good outcomes whereas pessimists notice none of those things or simply interpret them as signs of disaster hurtling down the track towards the inevitable crash.
It’s the same with sleep.
Poor sleep can trigger many difficulties with everyday living: fatigue, hypertension, self-stigma, depression, suicidal ideation & anxiety.
Research shows that how much you worry about your sleep is a far better predictor of the severity of these symptoms than how much sleep you actually get.
It really is a case of mind over matter or perhaps more accurately…:
If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter
When it comes to sleep, belief is a powerful thing.
Evidence suggests that if you believe you’re a poor sleeper, you’re more likely to suffer the consequences of poor sleep. This applies even if you’re getting good sleep. In contrast, someone who is not sleeping well but who thinks they are is generally OK!
“We now have consistent findings that it’s the worry about sleep that confers the health risk, not the poor sleep.”
Research now shows that the degree of worry you have about your sleep is a better predictor of insomnia symptoms than measuring how much sleep a person actually gets.
This begs the question.
Is poor sleep actually a problem?
Obviously better sleep is a good thing. But if poor performance, depression, reduced attention, slowed motor control etc. have more to do with your perception of sleep than your actual sleep, does this give the basis for some helpful advice?
Important: If you have sleep problems, do consult your physician. It can help to pinpoint (or rule out) any underlying health problems.
Professor of Psychology, Michael Sateia says:
It seems that thinking of yourself as an insomniac may be a self-fulfilling prophecy. The condition becomes a focus of attention and the sufferer may begin to arrange his/her life around this issue. These negative expectations produce greater anxiety and arousal and, voilà, they don’t sleep well.
All that sleep hygiene malarkey might be missing the mark!
Some people function really well, even though they have clinically poor sleep. Conversely, some people suffer the effects of poor sleep, even though their sleep patterns are normal.
How you think about your sleep is altogether more important than how much sleep you actually get!
This means you can be less concerned with getting a good might’s sleep. So forget all that no-blue-light stuff, (evidence for this is mixed anyway), or having a consistent bedtime routine. Much of the problem boils down to the fact that lack of sleep’s only a problem if you think it’s a problem.
If you don’t care whether you get a good night’s sleep or not then the pressure’s off & you can stop thinking of yourself as a poor sleeper.
This is where I am. I go through periods where I could be classed as having insomnia. (I’m in one of those periods right now).
And yet, I feel fine.
I don’t mind if my sleep isn’t as sound as usual. I know I’ll be able to tackle each day as it comes. Lack of sleep doesn’t affect how well I can do the tasks that matter. I might feel properly tired but I get everything done.
Incidentally, I bet you do too.
After a poor night’s sleep, you know, one of those ones where you’ve got a vital meeting or appraisal or presentation & you spend all night telling yourself you’ve got to get to sleep soon or tomorrow’ll be a disaster…?
Well, you always do well enough, don’t you? When push comes to shove, you dig deep and somehow you do whatever’s needed.
That was probably the most useful piece of advice I was given about sleep.
It doesn't matter if you sleep well or not. You’ll still get through the next day even if you’re dog tired.
So don’t worry about getting to sleep. You can’t control that anyway. Your job is to get physical rest. Sleep is entirely down to your unconscious mind anyway. So stop worrying & let your brain get round to sleeping when it’s ready.
You’ll pretty much always get some sleep. It’s rare to get no sleep at all, even if it’s only micro-sleeps.
What does this mean for you?
Well, for one thing, far from implying that insomnia’s all in the mind, this proves that if you feel you’re suffering from insomnia then you really are. Insomnia is less about how much sleep you get and more about how you feel about the sleep you get.
From a therapy point of view, it’s how you experience it which matters anyway.
If insomnia is more about how you feel about sleep than about sleep itself, then that’s well within your grasp. Find yourself a good therapist or use a powerful sleep mp3.
And above all, if you allow your mind the space to fall asleep when it’s ready, rather than filling it with worry, you’ll get the sleep you need.