- Experts reveal spending less time in bed can help cure acute insomnia
- Tactic regularly used by scientists as part of cognitive behavioural therapy
- Attempting to recover lost sleep can actually cause long term health issues
- Chronic insomnia increases the risk of depression and substance abuse
Stephen Matthews For Mailonline
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Choosing to stay awake instead of laying bed attempting to sleep is a tactic used in cognitive behavioural therapy to treat insomnia
For many insomniacs, getting an early night seems like the best thing to do.
But new research suggests it could actually do more harm than good.
Instead, restricting the amount of time spent in bed can help those who have trouble dropping off, scientists have revealed.
And, they warn, attempting to recover lost sleep can insomnia into a chronic condition.
Between 70 and 80 per cent of people can cure their sleeping problems through spending less time in bed, the new research claims.
Choosing to stay awake instead of laying in bed attempting to fall asleep is a tactic used in cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for insomnia.
Just last month the American College of Physicians advised CBT should be used as the first treatment for chronic insomnia, after scientists found it improves the symptoms of the condition without the nasty side effects drugs have.
In the new research, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania evaluated how much time in bed was spent by three groups of sleepers over the course of a year.
The three groups were:
* Good sleepers
* Good sleepers who suffered from acute insomnia and recovered
* Good sleepers who now have chronic insomnia after previously being acute.
Initial results showed 20 per cent of good sleepers suffered from short-term sleeping problems every year, with seven per cent of those going on to develop chronic insomnia.
Nearly half of the good sleepers with sleeping issues experienced persistent but periodic insomnia, while 45 per cent made a recovery.
Between 70 and 80 per cent of people could cure their sleeping problems through spending less time in bed
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HOW TO SLEEP BETTER
Relax before going to bed. Have a warm bath, listen to music or practise meditation or yoga. Use bath salts, or throw in Epsom salts and baking soda – one cup of each. These will relax you and also help remove toxins from your body.
Don’t eat heavy meals close to bedtime. The energy your body will generate to digest the meal will keep you awake. However you can eat a small, low protein, high carbohydrate bedtime snack, such as juice and biscuits, which eaten about an hour before bedtime, can help you fall asleep sooner.
Play some soft, soothing music. Lull yourself to sleep.There are even cassettes and records designed for that very purpose. Some are specially composed music, others simply have sounds of waves rhythmically breaking, or the steady pattern of a heartbeat.
Get up at the same time every day, even on weekends and holidays. Once you’ve awake, get up. Don’t lie in bed thinking about getting up. Just do it.
Dr Michael Perlis, director of the Penn Behavioural Sleep Medicine Programme, said: ‘Those with insomnia typically extend their sleep opportunity.
‘They go to bed early, get out of bed late, and they nap.
‘While this seems a reasonable thing to do, and may well be in the short term, the problem in the longer term is it creates a mismatch between the individual’s current sleep ability [which is low] and their current sleep opportunity [which is vast, as it has been extended] – and this fuels insomnia.’
The findings mirror the behavioural model of insomnia – otherwise known as the 3P model – which blames sleep extension for long-term sleeping problems.
Dr Perlis added: ‘Acute insomnia is likely a natural part of the human condition.
‘If you think about the fight flight response, as a trigger for sleeplessness, this makes sense.
‘That is, it shouldn’t matter that it’s 3 a.m. and you’ve been awake for the last 22 hours, if you’re being threatened and you believe there is a threat to your quality of life or existence, it’s not a good time to sleep.
Chronic insomnia increases the risk of depression as well as diabetes, heart disease and stroke
‘It is understandable that sleeplessness has persisted as an adaptive response to such circumstances.
‘In contrast, it’s hard to imagine how chronic insomnia is anything but bad…and the clinical research data supports this position given chronic insomnia’s association with increased medical and psychiatric morbidity.’
It is estimated that up to 50 per cent of Americans suffer from acute insomnia each year, while 10 per cent experience chronic insomnia lasting longer than three months.
Chronic insomnia increases the risk of depression and substance abuse, as well as making people more likely to suffer from diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
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