End the Insomnia Struggle summary

If you’re like most people with insomnia or other sleep-related issues, you’ve likely asked for help and been met with an endless and diverse list of remedies and advice. This is actually quite normal; the fact is, there’s no hard set of rules for dealing with insomnia.

So, while plenty of people will say, “just cut back on coffee!” or “get more fresh air,” none of these simple approaches will fix all cases of insomnia. After all, every person is unique, and there’s no one-size-fits-all treatment.

As you just learned, if you had to sum up stimulus control therapy in a couple of words, they would be “bed = sleep.” That means your bed is for sleeping and sleeping alone – well, with one important exception: you can use it for sex, too.

But how exactly do you realize this goal of giving your bed such a limited role?

Now you know to get out of bed if you can’t sleep – but it’s also important to stay out of your bed until the urge to sleep really hits. After all, it’s essential to maintain a strong connection between your bed and sleep, and staying away from your mattress when you’re not tired is the only way to do so.

So, if you wake up at night, no matter how many times it happens, you need to follow this same practice. Or, if you get back into bed and, 20 minutes later are still awake, you should get up and return to one of the boring and relaxing activities mentioned in the previous blink.

Each hour, the average human has hundreds, even thousands of thoughts. This is certainly impressive, but when it comes to alleviating insomnia, some thoughts just mess everything up.

That’s where cognitive restructuring or CR comes in. This strategy helps you identify the distorted and unhelpful thoughts that prevent you from sleeping. In this context, a distorted thought is one that has some truth to it but has been altered slightly.

What do you imagine confident sleepers think about when going to bed? Well, they probably don’t think about very much.

However, if you’re the kind of person that is full of worry at bedtime, you might benefit from designated worry time or DWT. This cognitive strategy works to alter not what you worry about, but when and where your worries occur.