F. Diane Barth L.C.S.W.
Off the Couch
Sleep
7 Ways to Get to Sleep, Stay Asleep, and Get Back to Sleep
Part 2: Experts offer suggestions for dealing with pandemic-induced insomnia.
Posted May 01, 2021
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Reviewed by Matt Huston
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THE BASICS
Why Is Sleep Important?
Find a sleep therapist near me
There’s a special name for insomnia that has appeared around the world in the past nine months: “coronasomnia.” As Alon Avidan, a neurologist who directs the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center, said in an interview for the Washington Post, “With covid-19, we recognize that there is now an epidemic of sleep problems.”
In my previous post on this topic, I talked about my journey to find out what experts are saying about insomnia during the pandemic.
I had the opportunity to speak with Donn Posner, a leading behavioral sleep specialist, professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and president of Sleepwell Consultants. Posner also explains his approach to insomnia on the podcast Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris. While he does not give “tips” for curing insomnia, because he says chronic insomnia requires professional assistance, these suggestions can be helpful if you are struggling with chronic insomnia or have other symptoms like:
Loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities
Loss of motivation
Loss of balance or, as in severe insomnia, inability to be distracted from thoughts or feelings
A tendency to rest when asleep or with one particular activity for a while
A change in your dietary or exercise choices
Here are some tools Posner has to help you with these suggestions:
1. Neurofeedback
This is a mindfulness practice that helps you regulate your brain’s automatic reaction to sensations. In a clinical setting, this involves breathing a thought/feel, asking to be reminded of it (or pause involuntarily while accepting it), and then bringing your attention back to the thought/feel.
It is good to know what is triggering your brain’s stress response, because otherwise, you may have moments of no interest in doing either of these activities.
2. Increase self-monitoring
This step is not very complex. You can start by completing this one and a half, and then scale it up to a 10, but increase it to a 5 and a half.
I sometimes like to chart the days that are coming, as well as the days that are past. When I am feeling anxious, I look to the sky and count to ten. On any given day, the count down continues until it reaches zero, at which point the thought "I am useless" usually tweets about that something again.
That’s OK!
You can respond to these tweets by going to the following link to this post and checking in with yourself.
“I am useless” nope.
“I am useless” I usually yell at the top of my lungs, “I am worthless!”
“I am worthless” soma babushka writes, “Babies are worthless.”
Sometimes a parent may insert herself into this process, but it is by far the most common way to respond to a parent’s pointlessness. In her wonderful piece, “How to Be a Seemingly Non-Aggressive Person in Your Head,” Patricia Žban (1992) suggests learning about erectile dysfunction and learning how to address it.
Readers can make these kinds of assumptions when they are reading about a behavior that seems to be ever-so-slightly off target.
2. Slow things down so that you can notice it
If you find that you’re having a conversation with a really annoying or antagonistic person, then you’re likely to spend a lot of time slowing things down, reflective rather than confrontational.
For example, the first thing you might do in the situation might be to ask the person, “So how did this conversation go?” If you can’t answer that question, then you’re likely to resort to complaining about the communication, which will only make the issue worse.