Developing Sleeping Habits

Undoubtedly, some sleeping problems are pathological in origin but a great many people are not getting the recommended hours of sleep they need because they've developed bad sleep habits. Developing sleeping habits that allow you to have a healthy and restful sleep can be accomplished using a three steps change plan. If you've not reviewed the three-step plan, you can do so now starting with Step 1 - Awareness for a more detailed explanation of the example that follows.

Awareness

• Keep a sleep journal. Note your activities 4 to 6 hours before going to bed.
• In your journal note how many hours of actual sleep you're presently getting. Note when you actually go to bed and when you fall asleep. Approximately how many minutes, hours pass before you fall asleep? Note how many times you wake up during the night. Note the time you wake up in the mornings.
• If you're having trouble falling asleep in bed, note both external and internal stimuli going on at the time. For example: your mental activity - what are your thoughts about?; physical surroundings - what is the condition of bed?, pillows?, room temperature?, light level?, noise level? Are you having any physical aches, pains, sensations?
• In your journal note all the activities you perform while in bed at anytime during the day or night, for example, reading, watching TV, talking on the phone, etc.

Skills

• Analyze the data obtained in the Awareness step above. Note the how, what, when and where of your sleeping problems. For example, how many hours of actual sleep are you getting? Is this because you're tossing and turning too much before falling asleep? If so, then what are you thinking about? Are you just too alert and can't keep your eyes closed?
• Pinpoint the nature of your sleeping problem. Is it because you can't fall asleep? Is it because you wake up too often during the night? Is it because you wake up too early and can't get back to sleep?
• Begin to formulate your goal. Make it manageable - not so hard that you can't reach it within a reasonable amount of time. Make it measurable - how often, how much do you do it now and how much and how often will you do it in the future.
• Focus on the behavior you want to change. Also focus on any events that precede that same behavior. Here you're playing the part of a detective, gathering together the facts, looking for patterns, drawing conclusions. You want to know as much about your target behavior that you can.
• A goal starts with a behavior you want to change. For example, you might say, "get more hours of sleep per night", "go to sleep sooner after going to bed" or "decrease number of sleeping pills per week." Keep in mind that you must be able to measure your goal behaviors. These three goals above can be measured.
• A goal describes the start and end behaviors. What is the behavior now and what will it be in the future. It's best to describe the behavior in terms of the number of times it occurs.
• A goal has a timeline. State when you'll begin changing the behavior and when you will end.
• A goal defines the terms for success. You'll want to decide what result will be considered successful. Again, it's best to define success in terms of number.

Motivation