A technique to calm racing thoughts at bedtime and help you fall asleep.
Give Cognitive Refocusing Therapy a try.
Welcome to My Better Sleep. It’s lovely to have you here.
It has been a busy few weeks, so I will keep today’s Substack short and sweet.
I wrote an article for The Conversation about what people think about when they go to sleep. It was a popular one, with several follow-up interviews on ABC radio around Australia. In particular, there was lots of interest in the technique we discussed to help calm a racing mind at bedtime, so I thought I would share it here as well 😊
To calm racing thoughts at bedtime, you might like to try Cognitive Refocusing Therapy. This technique was developed by Associate Professor Les Gilles in 2012 to help minimize ‘arousing’ or worrying thoughts at bedtime. It is not the first-line treatment for insomnia (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia is), but two small studies have found it to be helpful for improving sleep onset and reducing insomnia severity. It has also been doing the rounds on social media (albeit called “conjuring up fake scenarios at bedtime”), so here are the details on how to try it.
Cognitive Refocusing Therapy
Negative, worrying, or arousing thoughts can interfere with sleep onset. The goal of Cognitive Refocusing Therapy is to give your brain something else to think about whilst not letting it get too stimulated or activated. Here is how to try it:
1) Before bedtime, choose three different categories of thoughts (i.e., topics of thought content to think about) that will maintain your attention at bedtime without being too exciting or stimulating. The goal is to shift your thoughts away from physically or emotionally ‘arousing’ content to more neutral and non-arousing ones. For example, you might like to think about practicing your golf swing, cooking a new dinner recipe, or even redecorating a room in your house. Personally, I like to think about a lovely beach I visited many years ago in Puerto Galera in the Philippines.
2) At bedtime, focus your attention on one of these categories of thoughts (you can also do it if you wake up in the night). If you start to think about other things when practicing this activity, let go of those thoughts, and shift your attention back to your chosen topic.
3) When practicing, if you notice that your thoughts are racing or the content isn’t engaging enough to hold your attention, switch to one of your other chosen topics (that is why we have three options). Although, like anything, you will get better with practice. Practicing with one thought category may help you build an association between this thought category and falling asleep (think Pavlovian conditioning). In my case, walking along my lovely beach scene in my mind = falling asleep.
So let me know what you think. Have you tried Cognitive Refocusing Therapy? Has it helped you to fall asleep? Leave me a comment to share your experience.
P.S. A big thank you to my PhD Supervisor, A/Prof Melinda Jackson, for inviting me to co-write this article for The Conversation!
Have a wonderful week,
Dr Hailey Meaklim
Sleep Psychologist and Researcher
Other news
My Better Sleep News
· We have officially finished the Melbourne Accelerator Program this week and went out with a bang at Demo Day! I have learnt a lot from this program, and it has been so different from my experience in healthcare and research. My ultimate goal is to improve access to evidence-based sleep and insomnia treatments. This program in entrepreneurship has given me many ideas on how we can do it and what barriers we need to overcome.
Sleep media of the week
· Here is the link to our article in The Conversation in case you didn’t click on it earlier😉 What do people think about when they go to sleep?
Sleep research news
· I have just had a paper come back from review at our top journal, SLEEP. It has a few requested revisions, but I am excited to work on these and hopefully share it with you in the coming months! In the mean time, you might like to check out the published randomised controlled trial on Cognitive Refocusing Therapy for Insomnia by Les Gilles
Disclaimer
The sleep tips in this newsletter are for informational and educational purposes only and do not constitute medical or psychological advice. Please consult your healthcare professional for advice on your own specific sleep condition and needs. If you would like to see behavioural sleep medicine provider/sleep psychologist in your local area to help with your sleep, you can find a list of qualified practitioners worldwide here https://www.behavioralsleep.org/index.php/directory/all.
Hi Dr. Meaklin, I love the concept of CRT. I will have to try this one:) How does this technique fit into meditation? I also work with a lot of entrepreneurs and creative? Would you say this is the most effective therapy? Lastly, for someone who sleep, sings in her sleep, what would you recommend I try? I usually meditate before sleep. Side note: I have the comt gene mutation, so I am prone to racing thoughts. Do you address gene mutations?
I recently self-published a book to Amazon called "The Sleep Solution", where I research and explore some of the more recent sleep wellness trends, providing an unbiased view backed by science and studies to see how effective each of them are. Hopefully it helps others get a better sleep.