TRAIL OFF

What to try instead

The two behavioural pieces that do most of the work in CBT-I, the first-line treatment for chronic insomnia. Not ours.

Stimulus control

  1. Bed is for sleep and sex. No reading, scrolling, working or worrying in it.
  2. Get up at the same time every day, weekends included, however the night went.
  3. Awake and annoyed for more than about twenty minutes? Get out of bed. Somewhere dim and dull. Come back when you're sleepy.
  4. No napping while you're doing this.

Sleep restriction

  1. For a week, note roughly how long you actually sleep.
  2. Cut your time in bed to about that average. Never below five and a half hours. Same wake time every day.
  3. It gets worse before it gets better. The first few nights are harder, and that pressure is the point.
  4. Once you're asleep for most of your time in bed, add fifteen minutes. Hold. Repeat.

Don't do sleep restriction alone if you have bipolar disorder, a seizure disorder, untreated sleep apnoea, or a job where being sleepy is dangerous. Do it with a clinician.

Going further

A full CBT-I course — clinician, book, or an app that isn't this one — does more than either piece alone, and it holds after it ends.

Where this came from