{"id":79,"date":"2020-05-03T19:55:43","date_gmt":"2020-05-03T19:55:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.howtocureinsomnia.com\/?p=79"},"modified":"2020-05-03T19:55:43","modified_gmt":"2020-05-03T19:55:43","slug":"help-falling-asleep-with-self-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/help-falling-asleep-with-self-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Help Falling Asleep With Self-Therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"Help Falling Asleep With Self-Therapy (ST Method)\" width=\"840\" height=\"473\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7wgKmil7Vsc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So what happens during sleep, anyway?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What exactly is the brain doing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are literally thousands of medical professionals and neuro-scientists that have been working on the answer to this question for a very long time. And they know many, many things about the process of sleep and what\u2019s going on\u2026 but no one really understands exactly what the brain is doing and why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s like asking \u201cHow exactly is our experience of consciousness formed?\u201d There\u2019s no complete answer to that. In fact, I\u2019ve heard some of the greatest thinkers say that we won\u2019t fully understand the human brain for at least another hundred years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The good news is, we don\u2019t need to know anything about what happens during sleep to know how to improve it. In fact, since sleep happens when you\u2019re unconscious, would it matter if you knew how to do it better? Probably not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whatever our brain is up to when we\u2019re asleep, we do know the key ingredient to making it work \u2013 slow brainwave speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many sleep centers around the world that have monitored literally thousands of patients, and there is absolutely no question that for sleep to happen, the your mind must slow down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s similar to freezing water to make ice. If we lived in a time before it was understood how ice is created from lower temperatures, we\u2019d still know the simple fact that the colder the air is, the faster the water turns to ice. With sleep, we know that the easier our brainwaves slow down, and the slower they stay, the more our brain can do it\u2019s thing at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem chronic insomniacs face \u2013 especially those who can\u2019t fall asleep or get back to sleep \u2013 is that whenever we try to fall asleep, we actually prevent sleep from happening. Since we\u2019re trying to achieve a result, our brain speeds up the way it does to help us achieve anything we normally do throughout the day. Think about trying to hit a deadline at work or school, or having an important event coming up in the next hour. Whenever we get serious about achieving a result, our brain speeds up. The problem is, sleep works in the exact opposite way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The big mistake that stops insomnia remedies from working effectively is the same thing \u2013 you\u2019re still trying to achieve sleep, and so your brain will still speed up to assist you, especially if it&#8217;s important. Even if you\u2019re using a relaxation technique to achieve sleep, your brainwave speed increases, and the reason that brainwave speed increases is that you\u2019re trying to achieve a result. So, it stands to reason, if you approach anything with the idea that it\u2019s going to create a result, you\u2019re only going to speed up the brain even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is why the self-therapeutic method is so different. Think about that word, \u201ctherapy\u201d by the definition that\u2019s about relieving tension and rehabilitation. As in the sentence \u201cRelaxing on a tropical beach is therapeutic.\u201d In this definition, it\u2019s not about the result, it\u2019s about the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Being self-therapeutic is not simply \u201ca technique\u201d for slowing down brainwave speed. It\u2019s a whole approach that makes ANYTHING you do operate in such a way that brainwave speed slows down. Self-therapy needs to be viewed as more of a \u201cway of being\u201d or like an environment that you operate inside of. It\u2019s a set of qualities that shape your environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That being said, we\u2019re looking at a set of qualities here, so let\u2019s not get carried away. I need to make sure you\u2019re aware, in case you\u2019re new to my content, that I am not a therapist or a qualified physician in any way and this content shouldn\u2019t be looked at as medical advice, treatment, or therapy. If you want to use anything I\u2019m saying here that way, you should consult a professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Okay, so imagine your sleep as it currently is as being like a greenhouse that\u2019s setup for a very arid desert environment. Now let\u2019s say you want to grow some humid jungle plants. In this example, the plants are analogous to the techniques you\u2019ve tried with sleep. Imagine the plants aren\u2019t growing well, so you get new plants, and those don\u2019t grow well either, no matter how well you plant them or how many different species of jungle plants you try, nothing survives. Do you think you\u2019re ever going to find \u201cjust the right\u201d species? I suppose it may be possible, but that\u2019s hardly the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The plants themselves may be what you want to grow, but they\u2019ll only grow once you get the water and humidity right, and you can think of the water and humidity as self-therapy. Water is essential for life, but it is not life itself, and in the same way, self-therapy is essential for creating slow brainwaves, but it is not a sleep technique itself\u2026 it\u2019s something you have to set and monitor closely as you use your sleep techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It follows, then, that the first step to creating easy, deep sleep is to create a therapeutic environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To achieve this, we\u2019ll start by examining how it works. The way a therapeutic environment creates slow brainwaves for sleep is by giving you a sense of feeling protected and safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you think about the roots of humanity and sleep, this makes a lot more sense. For instance, ten thousand years ago, if you felt alone, trapped, or helpless, it most likely meant that you were in physical danger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you fell asleep, a predator could ambush you without any resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It improved your odds of survival if you needed to feel safe to fall asleep\u2026 but the unconscious mind doesn\u2019t instinctively understand physical safety\u2026 it only understands the feelings of comfort that come with it. Your unconscious mind also doesn\u2019t understand that your house protects you, because ten thousand years ago, mankind lived in tribes of usually around 50-150 people, so your unconscious mind felt safe when you were most connected with others. When you feel alone and abandoned, sleep is light, because back then it meant that you were unprotected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So to fall asleep safely, you had to feel safe and sound and connected with others, not agitated and alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Times have changed, but we haven\u2019t, so it makes sense that today, if you can start feeling secure and comfortable, you\u2019ll fall asleep much faster and more deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For example, if you were to take a pill with a normal, judgmental spirit, you would wonder if it\u2019s working, worry or think too much, and otherwise counteract the effects of the pill by speeding up your brainwaves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But if you took a pill and then cultivated a therapeutic attitude, you would forget about the pill, and just focus on compassion and comfort, allowing your brainwaves to slow down and the effects of the pill to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The point of view is that of a healer, a listener, a comforter. It\u2019s being your own best friend. Someone who accepts your flaws, who understands you can\u2019t always be perfect. It might not be about protection per se, but those qualities are the same as ones in the people who protected your ancestors ten thousand years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To use the self-therapeutic method, you\u2019ll want to approach yourself, little by little, as a listener to your own mind. To be your own friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sleep professional Dr. Haug talks about this methodology in his book, \u201cI Want to Sleep \u2013 Unlearning Insomnia\u201d He says\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cContrary to popular belief, therapy has often little to do with finding answers and even less with analyzing unconscious causalities. It has more to do with the primeval relief of finding oneself no longer alone&#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We need someone to talk to help let go of our fears.  \u201c&#8230;Listening to the plea of your sleep-deprived, tired self and saying: I am right here, what can I do for you? Lightens the scariness of being alone as well. And that is something you can do for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cFinding something or someone to love almost invariably alleviates insomnia: Feeling abandoned, trapped, and alone almost always brings it on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before you can start using sleep techniques in a therapeutic way, you must first become therapeutic. You\u2019ll need to discover what it\u2019s like to be this way, and get into it to discover it for yourself. There\u2019s a lot of material out there for doing this and I talk about it in my videos, but a good place to start would be to read up on self-compassion or to actually get coaching from a real therapist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s very important because becoming more therapeutic with yourself, in general, will also deeply improves the quality of your sleep. It\u2019s not just about making sleep happen \u2013 it\u2019s about getting brainwave speed to stay slow and relaxed throughout the night, to prevent something called fragmented sleep, which is the real cause of all sleep problems. For more on that, watch my video on \u201cThe Downward Spiral of Insomnia.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By using techniques in a therapeutic manner, you\u2019ll stop judging how well your doing, you\u2019ll take it easy, and you\u2019ll disconnect from the result and instead start practicing the technique just for the experience and habitual thinking that it develops. In other words, you\u2019ll stop trying to fall asleep and focus on building skills that make sleep happen. Since the secret to falling asleep is in trying to stay awake, it turns out this approach actually works better for putting yourself to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are confused by that last line \u2013 that the secret to falling asleep is in trying to stay awake \u2013 then there\u2019s another piece of the puzzle you\u2019re missing. I cover this in my video \u201cWhat\u2019s the BEST Cure for Insomnia?\u201d, which I\u2019ll link you to.&nbsp; If you have issues falling asleep or falling back to sleep, this concept is absolutely critical and so I highly recommend checking this out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As it turns out, the self-therapeutic method isn\u2019t just about creating slower brainwaves \u2013 it is also a fundamental element required to make sleep less important \u2013 and one way or another, you must learn how to create slow brainwaves to create easy, deep, refreshing sleep.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So what happens during sleep, anyway? What exactly is the brain doing? There are literally thousands of medical professionals and neuro-scientists that have been working on the answer to this question for a very long time. And they know many, many things about the process <span class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"more-link btn btn-transparent\" href=\"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/help-falling-asleep-with-self-therapy\/\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,8],"tags":[9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,20,21,22,23,24,26,27,28,29,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/howtocureinsomnia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}