Chapters (4)

How to Fall Asleep Faster: CBT-Insomnia Treatment

Therapy in a Nutshell · 4:08

In this practice

Key teachings

Chronic insomnia is often caused by associating the bed with wakefulness and worry.
CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia) uses stimulus control to retrain the brain for better sleep.
The bed should be exclusively for sleep; if unable to sleep, leave the bed.

Ideal for

Individuals struggling with chronic insomnia.
Anyone looking for evidence-based strategies to improve sleep quality.
Those experiencing anxiety or frustration due to sleeplessness.

Lesson

Instructions

Struggling with insomnia? Learn CBT-I techniques to fall asleep faster, improve sleep quality, and overcome insomnia naturally with expert guidance. You'll get instant access to all 10 life-changing courses, live weekly Q&As, and a supportive community for just $27/month. Learn how to manage anxiety, process trauma, regulate emotions, and build lasting resilience so that you can live a deeply rich and meaningful life!

If you were to ask someone, “What’s causing your insomnia?” they might say something like: “my stress, anxiety, my brain won’t shut off”, maybe they think it’s their cat waking them up or they drank too much coffee or they watched a scary movie before bed. And granted, all of these things can mess with your sleep for a night or two, or more, but they aren’t the thing that causes chronic insomnia. In most cases chronic insomnia is caused by 1 bad habit where you accidentally trained your brain not to sleep. Staying in bed awake. This is the worst thing you can do for your insomnia. And it’s the key to one of the most effective treatments for insomnia, CBT-I, an evidence based treatment for insomnia that has shown up to 80% effectiveness at relieving insomnia. You see, when you lie in bed awake, maybe you went to bed too early, or you’re trying to force yourself to sleep, and worrying about all the things - what you said that day…what’s going to happen with your job…whether that one guy likes you…or any number of other things, you’re basically training your brain that the bed is the place for worrying and lying there awake. So one aspect of the most effective treatment for insomnia is, if you can’t sleep, get out of bed. If you can’t sleep, and it’s been more than 15 minutes, get out of bed, do something that’s not too stimulating, and when you start to feel drowsy, go lay back down. Now I know this sounds miserable. You probably think “I’m going to be so tired” this will just make it worse! And yes, that’s true, you may be more tired in the short term. But, within a week or so, it’s most likely going to improve sleep efficiency, the percentage of time that you spend in bed actually sleeping.

So as you retrain your brain, you’ll fall asleep faster, you’ll stay asleep longer, and you’ll spend less time lying awake getting angry that you’re not sleeping. Again, this is a core principle of CBT-I, it literally rewires the brain to sleep better. They have imaging studies showing that after CBT-I, people have improved cognitive functioning, decreased stress, and improved memory. And most importantly, you sleep better.

00:00 Intro 00:48 The Bad Habit 01:28 The Paired Association 02:03 Getting Out of Bed

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In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life's direction. And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love

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Steps

Stimulus Control: If you can't sleep within 15 minutes, get out of bed.
Non-stimulating activities: Engage in quiet, non-arousing activities when out of bed.
Return to bed only when feeling drowsy to reinforce the sleep-bed association.

Benefits

Improved sleep efficiency (percentage of time in bed actually sleeping).
Fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
Decreased stress and anxiety related to sleep.
Improved cognitive functioning and memory.

Transcript

Hi, everyone. I'm Emma McAdam. I'm a licensed
marriage and family therapist, and I make   mental-health education videos. If you were to
ask someone, "What's causing your insomnia?"   they might say something like, "Oh, my stress,
my anxiety, my brain won't shut off." Maybe   they think it's their cat waking them up or they
drank too much coffee or watched a scary movie   before bed. And granted, all of these things
can mess with your sleep for a night or two   or or more, but they aren't the thing that
causes chronic insomnia. So in most cases,   chronic insomnia is caused by one bad habit where
you accidentally trained your brain not to sleep.   The bad habit is staying in bed awake. This is
the worst thing you can do for your insomnia,   and it's key to one of the most effective
treatments for insomnia, CBTI, an evidence-based   treatment for insomnia that has shown up to 80%
effectiveness at relieving insomnia. You see,   when you lie in bed awake - maybe you went to bed
too early or you're trying to force yourself to   sleep - and you're worrying about all the things
you know what you said that day and what's going   to happen with your job and whether that one guy
likes you or any of any number of other things,   you're basically training your brain that the bed
is the place for worrying and lying there awake.   This is a paired association. It's like Pavlov's
dogs - they learned to salivate when the bell   rang, even when there wasn't any food around.
When you lay in bed awake, your brain learns   that the bed is the place for worrying, for
thinking, for watching shows, for doing homework,   whatever it is that you're doing. You lay down in
bed, and and your brain thinks, "Oh, I know this   place. This is the thinking place." So without
realizing it you trigger that worry reaction, and   then it takes hours to fall asleep. So one aspect
of the most effective treatment for insomnia is   if you can't sleep, get out of bed. If you can't
sleep and it's ben more than 15 minutes, get out   of bed. Do something that's not too stimulating,
and then when you start to feel drowsy,   go lay back down. Now, I know this sounds
miserable. You're probably thinking, "Oh,   I'm just gonna be so tired, and this will just
make it worse." And yes, that's true. You may be   more tired in the short term. But within a week
or so it's most likely going to improve your   sleep efficiency. So that's the percentage of time
that you spend in bed actually sleeping. So just   remember this, right? Get up, hang out, try again.
Right? Get up, go sit quietly in another room,   hang out, do nothing or, you know, read a soothing
book. If you lay there for more than 15 minutes,   get back up, hang out, and then try again when
you feel sleepy. Now, while this feels miserable,   it works really well. You may feel sleep-deprived
for a couple of days, but in the long run it's   very effective at treating insomnia. Getting out
of bed does two things, right? It retrains your   brain that the bed is for sleeping and not other
stuff, and then it also builds up like this sleep   pressure basically, that tired feeling, so that
when you do lay down you've got more internal   drive to sleep and you fall asleep faster. And
again, that retrains your brain that the bed is   for sleeping. So as you retrain your brain, you'll
fall asleep faster, you'll stay asleep longer,   and you'll spend less time lying awake getting
angry that you're not sleeping. And again, this is   a core principle of CBTI: it literally rewires the
brain to sleep better. They have imaging studies   showing that after CBTI, people have improved
cognitive functioning, decreased stress, and   improved memory. And most importantly, you sleep
better. Okay. Thanks for watching, and take care.

Practice summary

Level: all levels
Duration: 3 minutes
Equipment: none
Target areas: sleep patternscognitive associations with sleepmental well beingbrain retraining
Energy: calming

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