Some people have unrealistic expectations about sleep (like how much sleep people need). It’s normal to have occasional sleep problems. When people get stressed about sleep, it can make sleeping problems worse.
Sometimes people want things to go perfectly during the day and they want their sleep to be perfect, too. It’s important to try not to worry about sleep. Trust that your sleep is well-controlled by your body through sleep pressure, circadian rhythms, chemicals, and hormones. Understand that you'll have poor sleep sometimes. Everyone does. Learn more about
sleep strategies and try to have a good attitude about sleep.
Having beliefs about sleep that aren't realistic might lead to chronic insomnia. Try to change the way you think about sleep and adopt these healthy sleep attitudes:
Keep your expectations about sleep realistic
Don't put pressure on yourself to have a good sleep every night (like getting 8 hours of sleep every night). It isn’t always possible to get 8 hours of sleep, and everyone has mornings when they just don’t have a lot of energy.
Change the way you think about insomnia
It’s easy to blame insomnia on outside things. This might make you feel like you can't control what's causing your insomnia and you might feel like a victim. Decide which of your behaviours might cause insomnia, like napping or spending a lot of time in bed, and realize that you do have control and can act to try to change things.
Don't blame all your mistakes on being sleepy
You might think your insomnia is to blame for everything that goes wrong during your day, like feeling tired or having trouble concentrating. Think about other causes. What else might be affecting your daytime fatigue? Are you worried or distracted about something else? Could that cause low energy?
If you have a poor sleep, don't worry
Don’t panic when you have a poor night’s sleep. Don’t think this means that you'll look and feel badly or that you’ve somehow lost control. Thinking like this can make things worse. Put it in perspective and try not to panic.
Don't put too much focus on sleep
Don’t plan everything around your sleep. Don’t skip work or cancel plans when you have a poor night’s sleep. This will only make you focus more on your poor sleep.
Develop tolerance to losing sleep
Think about going ahead with your daily activities even if you had a poor sleep. This will help you keep a realistic attitude about sleep.
Never force sleep
Forcing sleep isn’t a good plan because you can’t make sleep happen. Doing this will just make you upset. Instead, think positively about sleep and just let it happen. To do this, try some of the strategies you’ve learned in this module.
