5. Recovery Tools - Sleep Consolidation

Put Insomnia to Bed with Sleep Consolidation

Lying awake for hours? Waking up in the night? A technique called "sleep consolidation" can help.

If you're practicing good sleep hygiene and still spending lots of time awake in bed, this technique can help you train your brain to rest. Be sure to check with your doctor first, though, to make sure you're not suffering from a sleep disorder that requires medical treatment.

1. Keep track of your sleep for two weeks. (You'll have to look at a clock a lot for this). Write down how many hours you spend asleep in bed, awake in bed, and awake out of bed. Use a worksheet like the template found at sleepfoundation.org, or an app that measures it for you.
2. After two weeks, add up the time you spend actually sleeping each night, and average it out to find your average total sleep time.
3. For the next two weeks, stay in bed for your average sleep time plus 30 minutes. So if you get 4.5 hours of sleep per night, your allowed time in bed is 5 hours.
4. Set a rising time, and always get up at that time, no matter how much you sleep.
5. Set a bedtime. (Five hours before waking up, in our example) and never go to bed early
6. Do this for two weeks, and then, if you've been able to sleep solidly for most of your allowed time in bed, start going to bed half an hour earlier.

Keep moving your bedtime back by 30 minutes every two weeks until you're getting at least eight hours of sleep per night.

Dim your lights in the evenings to make you sleepy, and turn on lots of bright lights in the morning to help you wake up. Good sleep hygiene is always helpful too. If you still have trouble sleeping, make an appointment with your doctor. Sweet dreams!