[Anastasiia]

I hadn’t problem with falling asleep before. But for the last few months I have been going to bed as usual, but I can’t fall asleep, the body wants to sleep and the brain doesn’t seem to understand it. I’ve tried sedatives, but I don’t want to use them often. I’ve heard about special mobile sleep apps, and I want to try it. Please share your experience, does it work? if so, what should I pay attention to? Thank you all in advance for your help.

[Jaran]

Hello @Anastasiia. I’m guessing many of us on this forum can relate to your experiences. And, most of us have tried a lot of things to sleep — bedtime rituals, sleep props, meds, sleep hygiene recommendations, etc…. including mobile sleep apps.

What I’ve learned is that there are things we can do that might help in “allowing” sleep to come, but nothing we can safely do will “make” a person sleep except sleep drive–basically being tired enough. Some people find that sleep apps are relaxing and help them drift off. That’s wonderful! I personally haven’t had good luck with them, in part because I’m so focused on the *intent* of putting me to sleep. Once I get focused on trying to “make” sleep happen, I’m in that spiral of frustration and worry, which causes me to stay awake, which causes more frustration and worry….

The one thing that has helped me is to listen to an audiobook, something I’m interested in but isn’t so suspenseful that I want to stay awake and hear every clue. Right now I’m listening to a memoir. I enjoy it, but don’t feel like I need to catch every word, so if I do happen to drift off, great–the sleep timer will turn it off and I’ll just go back to the last thing I remember the next time I listen. And if I don’t drift off, that’s fine too because I enjoy the audiobook.

That said, I would have never gotten to this point without first faithfully doing the techniques Martin uses in CBTI, one of which is “Stimulus Control”–getting out of bed and doing something when sleep doesn’t come (for me that is to read in another room). And I still turn to this if I start to feel frustrated.

If you haven’t explored CBTI, you might take a look at the Resources Menu at the top of this page. There is a good explanation of CBTI, some great podcasts, and at the bottom is a link for a free 2 week email course from Martin. Highly recommend!
Wishing you the best!

[Chee2308]

Hi Anastasia!
You will continue to have problems as long as you continue pressuring yourself to sleep and deem sleep as something that can be controlled with futile efforts instead of just letting happen. The best you can do for sleep are just things that promote sleep such as having regular bedtimes, getting out of bed at same time everyday, cool dark environment for sleep, enjoying your day etc. The rest is up to your body.

[Author]

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