A Plan for Better Sleep – Things You Did Not Know About Sleep – part 2
Forming part of a series of posts for your information if you have problems in sleeping, can’t sleep, sleeplessness, being awake during the night, difficulty in getting to sleep, awaking too early, having a busy mind, insomnia - for whatever the many myriad of reasons for sleep dysfunction.
Sleep Restriction
Dominik Diamond, an insomniac and writer, journalist says he spends ‘lonely hours staring into darkness with snatches of sleep‘. A popular sentiment of insomniacs.
Insomniacs need to implement Sleep Restriction, this being the amount of time they spend in bed trying to catch up on sleep.
Try this out for yourself. Plan a 4 week programme where you spend only 6 hours in bed. For instance: going to bed at 2am and rise at 8am. Even if you are still asleep still rise at the designated time. Stay awake when not in the bedroom eg reading a suitable book pre bedtime.
The aim of the programme is that the person is SO tired that their existing disruptive sleep pattern is broken. As the programme works you will sleep in more continuous blocks. You will start to feel the positive effects of sleep, such as being happier and more cheerful.
Dominik said after following this sleep programme “My entire association with sleep has been completely reinvented and completely changed, it is not something I feel fear or anxiety over, I embrace something I look forward to and I love that feeling. I’ve never had it before.”
The Key to success:
1. stay in the bedroom only to sleep
2. get up at the same time each day.
Source: Linzi Martin notes taken from the BBC1 programme, 10 Things You Did Not Know About Sleep, aired 2 September 2010, presenter Kate Silverton
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