5 Fresh Tips to Develop Helpful Sleep Habits and Prevent Insomnia with Psychologist Robert Yeilding
Learning how to develop helpful sleep habits and prevent insomnia can be overwhelming, but you’re not alone! Check out these 5 Fresh Tips to help you develop helpful sleep habits and prevent insomnia with psychologist Robert Yeilding.
YCBT Services is a private practice specializing in the provision of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). YCBT Services utilizes the scientific effectiveness of CBT, as well as the wisdom and practice of mindfulness and compassion to help alleviate suffering.
YCBT Services is a practice dedicated to compassion focused CBT. The provision of individualized and effective therapy, as well as the dissemination of knowledge and resources for evidence-based services is at the core of my practice. I specialize in helping with anxiety, stress, and insomnia, and thoroughly enjoy developing an individual relationship with my clients and helping them develop the right skills to accomplish their goals. We will work together to bring greater ease, confidence, and freedom to your life!
You can learn more about Robert Yeilding on his Fresh Starts profile.
5 Fresh Tips to help you develop helpful sleep habits:
During times of increased stress or emotional upheaval, it is normal to have periods of altered sleep in life. Following these tips can help you prevent such times from developing into a chronic or long-term insomnia problem and maintaining helpful overall sleep habits. Tip number one is to maintain a consistent sleep schedule of the time you go to bed and get out of bed in the morning. This can become challenging when stress or a life situation throws off your sleep, and you may want to over-compensate by going to bed much earlier than usual for yourself, or lay in bed much later in the morning just to try and catch up on rest. These unhelpful habits can over-extend what's called your "sleep opportunity," and can disrupt your sleep routine further. Do your best to set a schedule and stick to it, even if some nights are harder than others to get the sleep you would ideally want.
The second tip is to not fear or fight being awake at night. Often times people have negative or anxious thoughts in reaction to sleep difficulty. For example, they might think "If I don't sleep now, then tomorrow will be horrible," or "I won't be able to get through the day." Such thoughts can escalate your focus on being awake, activate your nervous system, and result in too much "sleep effort," or focusing on forcing sleep to come, which ultimately will backfire. Focus instead of accepting being awake for what it is in the present moment, decatastrophize negative thoughts about the future, and trying to do something relaxing and enjoyable instead.
The third tip is to do your best to limit your activity and time in bed as close as possible to just sleeping. This means that activating activities such as scrolling on your phone, gaming, etc. should be avoided while in bed. Additionally, if you find yourself unable to sleep after 20-30 minutes, or feeling particularly awake or anxious in the bed, it is bed to get up and spend time doing a relaxing activity in another room. Then, return to the bed when you feel sleepy again. The helps to strengthen your association between your bed and bedroom and sleep.
Tip number four focuses on waking up in the morning. As you get our of bed following your sleep schedule, begin the day by hydrating and getting a healthy amount of exposure to bright sunlight outside. Ideally you can pair this with an enjoyable activity to help ease yourself into the day.
Additionally, tip number 5 is to exercise regularly - ideally 30-60 minutes of cardio exercise 5 days a week for a deeper sleep at night. My personal recommendation would be up to an hour of swimming each day in an outdoor pool to help with deep and consistent sleep.