Treatment of Insomnia (tips) Author : Brian Burke, PhD

It’s a precious gem that lights our way through the darkness, a magical journey that each of us undertakes at least once every 24-hour cycle, a nocturnal rebirth – sleep. Sleep has several critical functions that are necessary to sustain life – in fact, without sleep, we would eventually die. Sleep is needed to restore our mind and body to peak health, as well as to consolidate the learning that we have done during the day. Many studies have shown that students remember detailed course material better the next day if they get a good night’s sleep rather than stay up all night trying to “cram” more information into their already bursting brains. Researchers have found that the average human needs an average of 8.29 hours of sleep per night in order to function optimally; college students sleep an average of 6 hours per night. Do the math – most of us are not getting enough sleep, and so we are functioning at less than 100% effectiveness – in terms of our memory capacity, our physical health, and our tolerance for mental effort.

hat follows are a set of instructions to follow for several weeks (at least) if you are experiencing insomnia or not sleeping as well as you would like to. The principle is that you want to train your body/mind to connect your bed with sleep and nothing but. This is based upon a heavily researched behavioral technique called “stimulus control.” Here are Stimulus Control Instructions for Insomnia: