One of the most basic (and one of the most successful) of any kind of insomnia management is to change the way that you think about it.
“Cognitive Behaviour Training” (CBT) is just another way of saying this.
It’s all about reprogramming yourself to think and act differently about sleep. CBT is the overall description we use whenever we change things on the psychological level, and don’t rely on drugs or supplements to aid in your sleep.
CBT can include parts or all of:
- Journaling
- Sleep Hygiene
- Relaxation and Meditation
- Feedback (biofeedback)
- Sleep Restriction
- Cognative Therapy
CBT involves a few simple steps that are common among all implementations of any program:
- The most important of them is a good understanding of sleep itself. Read as much as you can about sleep (have a tour around this website, for example).
- The next step is to track your progress by journaling. It’s important to know where you’ve been, where you are now, and what that path looks like. That’s the only way you can measure progress.
- The third activity in our list is simply reprogramming the way you think about sleep. At it’s fundamental level, CBT is about changing your attitude. I’ve written a separate post about this one.
- A very basic technique in solving your sleep issue is through something called Sleep Hygiene. Again, I’ve written extensively about this, and I’d encourage you to start with sleep hygiene as soon as you have your journal in order.
The bottom line with CBT is that, in my experience, it’s the only long-term way to tackle primary insomnia (not secondary insomnia, which has another treatable source). Drugs, herbs, supplements, aromatherapy and potions all mask the real problem – and that lies in your brain. Fix the programming of your brain, and you fix the insomnia.
