Training Your Body to Get a Good Night's Sleep

Aug. 21, 2005 — -- Large numbers of Americans suffer from insomnia, and many either wake up tired or pop sleeping pills to help combat the problem.

But there may be an alternative solution that, in the long term, actually works better than sleeping pills.

A study out last year showed that cognitive behavioral therapy -- a sort of talk therapy that actually trains your body how to prepare for sleep and stay asleep -- is as effective, or may be more effective than sleeping pills.

Just what is this therapy, and how does it work? Sleep expert Dr. Paul Glovinsky, a clinical psychologist, joined ABC's "Good Morning America Weekend Edition" with tips for sleeping through the night, not the day.

Therapies

Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Cognitive behavior therapy teaches a patient to recognize and change patterns of thought and behavior that contribute to sleep problems. "It makes people feel like they can do something about their insomnia," Glovinsky said. A lot of people feel helpless tossing and turning, so they turn to a pill, which may or may not work. "This is something people can do themselves to take back their sleep," Glovinsky said. For example, a patient will be told to go to bed at a later time, because getting six hours of sleep out of six-and-a-half hours in bed is more beneficial than that same person getting the same sleep spread out over nine hours in bed.

Relaxation Therapy

Relaxation therapy focuses on relaxing the muscles, and it teaches people to identify the times of day and night when they're stressed and tight. "Believe it or not, you can really go through the day without realizing how tense you are, so we teach people how to relax," Glovinsky said.

Sleeping Tips

Sleep Hygiene

"Your night of sleep is determined before you get into bed," Glovinsky said. You can't be tense all day, and drink coffee, and then expect to fall into a deep sleep immediately. Work out these issues during the day before you turn the lights out. Basically, prepare yourself in advance for sleep.

Keep a Sleep Journal

Keeping tabs on your sleeping time may reveal more than you think. "Everybody thinks their sleep is totally haphazard, and there's no rhyme or reason," Glovinsky said. "But if you step back and log for a week, you start to see some patterns." Perhaps you sleep better in the morning, or you can fall asleep right away but wake up four hours later. Once you figure out a pattern, you will know how to avoid endless tossing and turning.

Exercise or Take a Bath

Exercise or take a hot bath three or four hours before night time. "The point is to raise the body temperature before bed time," Glovinksy said. Hitting the right timing is the secret to clocking in solid hours of sleep, so heating up the body in a "wave of activity" will allow the body to wind down slowly but surely a couple of hours later. In other words, jolt the system a couple of hours before bedtime to ensure that you catch the "ZZZ wave" later.

Plan Worry Time

"Instead of laying in bed and worrying, sit in a chair before going to bed and worry then," Glovinsky said. Get your to-do list on paper so your mind is clear and you're not doing a mental checklist of errands in bed.

Find the Right Bedtime

Train your body with a regular sleep schedule. "You have to find the right bedtime and stick to it," Glovinsky said. Yo-yo sleep schedules can be the doom for getting quality pillow time. On the weekend, if you want to sleep in, sleep an extra hour, not three extra hours.

Control Light Exposure

If you feel like you are sleeping too late in the day, let the sun shine in and wake you up -- so that you push your sleep cycle earlier. If you're going to bed too early, get bright light exposure in the evening so you mentally trick your body clock to fall asleep later.