To beat insomnia, sleep less | Hacker News Reader

To beat insomnia, sleep less

sleepedy.com

2 pointsrahulshiv9 comments

This might work for some people but for me, if by 1AM, I'm not sleepy and I get out of bed to do something else, there's probably no chance I'll sleep at any reasonable time and then be able to wake up at a time like 7AM. I would in fact probably sleep in that day and ruin my schedule, which could start a negative trend. From my experience, I find that even just lying in bed and resting my eyes even if I can't fully sleep is the best way to go. A few hours of meaningful rest in bed alone with my thoughts is time well spent. 1AM is too late to start "occupying myself until my body is ready to sleep". If I needed to do something like this, I would start a few hours before the time I'd like to sleep. First tiring myself out with a quick workout or something and then taking a cold shower which will make me want to bundle up inside a blanket and get super comfortable.

Yes, working out and showers are definitely good for your sleep.

While it may be hard to wake up at 7, if you could do it, it would generate what we call 'sleep pressure' for the next night. Basically you are tiring your self into sleeping more when you are in bed vs being awake and tossing and turning.

Also when you hop out of bed, do something relaxing like listening to music or reading a book. If you started working it could stimulate your mind and keep you up even longer.

This sounds like complete nonsense, and zero evidence is presented. It's just an ad for some app, as if what people who can't sleep need is to be bothered by their phone. There are myriad causes of insomnia including physical, psychological, environmental, and combinations. Stress and anxiety are the biggest factors for people like me. I sincerely doubt this guy has ever had insomnia from anything other than partying too much. If I followed any of the listed advice I'd be up for a week at a time.

Hey, author here. I did have Insomnia for a few months before coming across Sleep Restriction (the method in question in the article) after some serious life-changing events.

Here is Stanford's guide to sleep restriction: https://stanfordhealthcare.org/medical-treatments/c/cognitiv...

This is an evidence-based method, meaning its been proven clinically to work. I'll make sure to add some citations so it seems more legitimate.

PS: We also have a full guide on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) for which sleep restriction is a subset: http://sleepedy.com/cbt-for-insomnia

Also re: Our app is never supposed to be used at night. It just provides you with the tools (coach, behavioral techniques, sleep schedule) that are consumed during the day.

I'd be happy to set you up with an extended trial (~1 month) and would love to see if our coaches and the above method could help you sleep better.

I am trying to do this a long time. But no success.

I'm very sorry to hear that. If you don't mind me asking, how long did you consistently try it for? and did you see any improvement?

I tried about a month. Don't sleep between 6 am and 10 PM. Very hard to do. And no results. Still keeping whole nights awake.

In that 8 hour window did you go to sleep only when you are sleepy? That is the biggest guiding principle of sleep restriction. You want a fixed wake-up time but NOT a fixed sleep time.

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