


Having a plan about who will get your toddler a drink of water in the middle of the night or when the electronics need to be turned off is essential. It’s important to get clear on the strategies you are going to try. Pregnant women often share their beds with partners, other children and even pets. Insomnia in pregnancy is treatableĬhanging sleep habits can be hard, so draw on your social support. If you’re in your bed and not sleeping for more than 15 minutes at any point in the night, get up and do something boring until you feel sleepy. Remember, you can just as easily scroll Instagram from your couch. So, things not associated with sleep (worrying, phones, tablets) should be scrubbed from your bedroom. Unfortunately, the bed can become ground zero for a thousand other activities ranging from reading your iPhone, replaying yesterday’s arguments or worrying about tomorrow’s meetings. Get the electronics out of the bed! (Unsplash/Victoria Heath), CC BY It all depends on what we actually do when we get into bed. We can teach them to sleep when we get into bed, or we can teach them to do other things - like worry.

Use your bed only for sleepĪnd then brace yourself - one of the key reasons sleep therapy works can be one of the hardest to do. The point of tracking is to notice patterns so that you can begin to use what you learn to adjust your behaviours to improve sleep. Start by keeping a record of your sleep using a paper sleep-journal or an app. We know from weight-loss and smoking-cessation research that simply keeping track of a behaviour leads humans to adjust it. Your sleep and wake cycles are controlled by hormones and those particular hormones love a good routine.īy setting your wake-up time to be around the same every morning you are helping to your body re-establish better sleep.Īnother method of improving sleep is tracking it. Your body will get used to waking up and falling asleep at a certain time - making mornings much easier. Maintaining your standard wake time can serve as a hard reset of your biological rhythms. This suggestion is particularly true for setting a regular wake-up time, as there is no reason to crawl into bed if you don’t feel sleepy. One of the most common, and effective, sleep hygiene strategies is to set a regular sleep schedule. And many of them have the added benefit of equipping you with tools that will also help your children sleep well as they grow older. Many of the sleep practises involved in this therapy are quite simple and you can implement them at home by yourself today. There are comprehensive books and resources available about using CBT-I, for those who would like to learn more. Unlike with medications, sleep problems typically don’t return when the therapy is complete. Within four to five weeks of participating in therapy, most people experience the benefits of treatment. CBT-I helps to address the underlying causes of sleep problems with habits and thoughts that lead to deeper sleep.ĬBT-I is delivered either in person, in a group or over the internet. This is a structured program that helps to replace unhelpful thoughts and behaviours that cause insomnia or worsen sleep problems. With a sleep plan, the whole family can help Mom beat insomnia.
