![]() ![]() Learn to welcome the negative thoughts, but remain relaxed. Stay relaxed in the face of sleeplessness He tries to increase a client’s willingness to be awake: “If you teach people to give themselves permission that it’s ok to be awake, then you create the mental and physical landscape from which sleep can emerge.” 4. “One of the biggest things that causes people to remain awake at night is their struggle to get to sleep,” says Guy. Some of Guy’s clients have opted for “Head of Drama” or “Death Star”! Guy calls his “The Circus” because it can feel like everything piling in at once. If it’s not just one anxious thought that’s bothering you, but what feels like thousands, try giving that worrisome part of your brain an amusing name. ACT “transforms the wakefulness and the thoughts and the fear into something that’s not so fearful, which ultimately creates this space from which sleep can emerge.”ĪCT encourages playfulness – a really powerful way to overcome fear. Whereas Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is about working hard to suppress those negative thoughts, Guy encourages insomnia sufferers to “meet and greet” them at the door, because by “playing with them you diffuse their power.” By welcoming your fight and flight response you can actually disarm it, so that going to bed doesn’t feel like going into battle. What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?Īcceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, is about altering the way someone relates to their insomnia and the array of unwanted symptoms it brings: the racing mind, panic and anxiety. It’s the same with sleeplessness – the sufferer recognises it as something “dangerous” and becomes conditioned to react with this same survival response, making sleep impossible. But once bitten, twice shy! The next time they crossed paths with the animal the amygdala part of the brain would be conditioned to start a “fight or flight” response: releasing adrenaline and causing the heart to race. Our cave-dwelling ancestors might not have realised that a sabre-toothed tiger was dangerous the first time they stumbled across one. In evolutionary terms, this response makes sense. “They’re feeling anxious – almost as if they’re about to start the race.” In fact, all they’re doing is putting their head on the pillow. “When the seed of doubt is given room to grow, the result is bad night after bad night – and the brain begins to connect these occasions with insomnia.” The night before an event, these athletes are hyper-aroused rather than relaxed. Guy has worked with sportspeople who, as a major sporting event approaches, have been terrified that sleep will give them the slip. Knowing we need sleep can cause insomnia to rear its ugly head. In fact, “Every aspect of your short and long-term health and performance is underpinned by sleep.” But knowing sleep is crucial can pile on the pressure ![]() Sleep also plays an important role in maintaining our weight by managing our appetite hormones. Every aspect of your short and long-term health and performance is underpinned by sleep. ![]()
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