You Are Getting Sleepy: Lifestyle-Based Solutions for Insomnia

by Paul Glovinsky PhD, Arthur Spielman PhD

Overview

For readers enticed by Arianna Huffington's The Sleep Revolution but looking for the medical evidence to support its claims, two doctors have incorporated the latest research into a guide designed to help insomniacs get sleepy.

"For insomniacs who don't want a cosmetic solution, this guide digs deeper, and is likely to get better, more permanent results." —Kirkus Reviews on The Insomnia Answer

Good sleep is an elusive goal: the harder you try to fall asleep, the less likely you are to be successful. Insomnia is stoked by different habits, schedules, stresses, beliefs, and even personality types—but there is no single pill or therapy to reverse it. Sleep cannot be forced—ultimately, it must come to you.

While insomnia treatments can set the stage, the best thing a person can do to ready themselves for sleep is “getting sleepy.” This practical, easy-to-follow guide written by two founding experts in behavioral sleep medicine will help you achieve one of the most important parts of staying healthy: a good night's rest. Taking into account the particular challenges that stand in your way to better sleep, Glovinsky and Spielman:

- Discuss changes you can make to your daily routines to induce sleepiness
- Walk you through applying standard cognitive behavioral treatments
- Introduce new, promising interventions for managing anxiety, depression, an out-of-sync biological clock, dependence on medication, and more

True sleepiness is the only reliable portal to sleep. You Are Getting Sleepy will guide you there.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781682308226
Publisher:	Diversion Books
Publication date:	07/18/2017
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Drs. Paul Glovinsky are Arthur Spielman are recognized experts in Cognitive Behavioral Treatment for Insomnia, the field in which they collaborated for more than thirty-five years, co-authoring The Insomnia Answer in 2006. Dr. Glovinsky is Clinical Director of the St. Peter’s Sleep Center in Albany, New York. Before his passing, Dr. Spielman was the Associate Director for the Center for Sleep Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical Center and Professor in the Experimental Cognition Program of the City University of New York.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Getting Sleepy is the Way to Sleep ix

Chapter 1 You are Trying Too Hard to Sleep: Aiming for Sleepiness Instead 1

Sleep Hygiene Recommendations 5

Stimulus Control Instructions 8

Sleep Restriction Therapy 15

Cognitive Therapy for Insomnia 21

While You Are Awake 28

Chapter 2 Are You Too Hyper to Sleep? 37

Arousal vs. Hyperarousal 38

Hyperarousal Triggers 39

Trait Hyperarousal 41

Posttraumatic Hyperarousal 42

Getting Sleepy after the Evening Shift 43

Staying Sleepy is the Problem after a Night Shift 44

Hyperaroused by Choice 46

Riding the Wave of Alertness 48

Some Relaxation is Better than None 51

Exercise and Hyperarousal 53

Hyperarousal and PTSD 54

Chapter 3 Are You Fatigued Instead of Sleepy? 60

Fatigue and Sleepiness are Not the Same Thing 60

Sleepiness at Night Reflects Your Waking Hours 62

Daytime Fatigue May Reflect How Well You Slept 64

Fatigue Will Not Get You to Sleep 67

Learning How to Rest 69

Chapter 4 Are You Too Depressed to Sleep? 80

Depression and Sleep are Interdependent 81

Drugs Can Help, but So Can You 84

What Has Depression Changed about You? 86

Guarding against Failure 96

Guarding against Success 97

What's the Point of Getting Out of Bed? 99

Keep Track of Your Progress 101

Lighten Up 103

Self-Medication in Insomnia and Depression 107

Rethink Your Way to Sleep 109

Chapter 5 Are You Too Anxious to Sleep? 116

State vs. Trait Anxiety 117

Is It Okay to Sleep? 118

From Vigilance to Hypervigilance 119

Threatening Things, Threatening Thoughts 120

The Threat of Sleeplessness 122

Erring on the Side of Safety 123

Am I Asleep Yet? 124

Three Ways to Sleep When Anxious 126

Don't Take Your Anxiety to Bed 131

Meditation 133

Sleep Restriction Therapy 134

Can't Read, Can't Sleep 135

When Lullabies Fail, Learn a New Song 137

Chapter 6 Are You Too Out of Sync to Sleep? 142

Living with Wayward Clocks 149

Is it You, or Your Clock? 152

What Does the Clock Really Time? 154

Life Out of Sync 156

Social Rhythms are Shifted, Too 159

Chronotherapy: The First Treatment for Delayed Sleep/Wake Phase Disorder 160

What about Jet Therapy? 162

What Else Changes When We Change Places? 164

Start Where You Are, and Shift Slowly 166

Use Bright Light to Push Sleep Away 168

Remove Bright Light (or at least Blue Light) When It's Working against You 171

Use Melatonin to Pull Sleep Closer 172

Waking Life Pushes and Pulls at Sleep Too 175

Chapter 7 Are You Too Dependent on Medication for Sleep? 179

Does Sleep Come from You or the Pill? 181

Pharmacological Activity of Sleeping Pills 184

Psychological Activity of Sleeping Pills 185

Give Yourself Some Credit 187

When Sleeping Pills Let You Down 189

When Do Sleep Aids Make Sense? 192

What Kind of Sleep Aid Should You Use? 195

What's Your Exit Strategy? 195

Taking the Pill: Timing is Key 196

Sleeping Pills: Other Timing Considerations 198

How Do You Use Sleeping Pills? 200

Two New Ways to Get Off Sleeping Pills 203

Afterword 209

Acknowledgments 213

Additional Resources 215

Editorial Reviews

06/05/2017
Glovinsky and Spielman address readers suffering from insomnia with an informed and straightforward approach. Early on, they observe that people with sleep problems are often “trying too hard to sleep” and offer a seemingly simple alternative: “Stop trying to sleep.” The authors invite readers to skip around the book’s contents in search of personally relevant information and pose questions to pinpoint each reader’s specific problem, e.g., “Are you fatigued instead of sleepy?” and “Are you too depressed to sleep?” Their suggested remedies include “learning how to rest” and having only “limited daylight exposure.” Each chapter closes, usefully, with a summary of information shared. Medication is a frequent topic and the book treats it delicately, discussing when to use sleep aids, when it’s likely you’re getting sleep cues from a pill and not yourself, and forming an “exit strategy.” Glovinsky and Spielman are straightforward in their encouragement, insisting that “your sleep may be temperamental, but it is not broken,” even if it takes weeks or months to improve. In the many steps they recommend, they lead readers toward the belief that “you have sleep in you” and that you can “stop seeking sleep elsewhere,” a powerful message for insomniacs. Agent: Kerry Sparks, Levine Greenberg Rostan. (July)

Publishers Weekly

"For insomniacs who don't want a cosmetic solution, this guide digs deeper, and is likely to get better, more permanent results." —Kirkus Reviews for The Insomnia Answer

From the Publisher

07/01/2017
In a world where daily physical labor is increasingly rare, insomnia is rife. This title posits that, in order to sleep, you must get sleepy, and details ways to encourage sleepiness when you want it (and not when you don't). Some suggestions are familiar: don't exercise near bedtime; no caffeine after 3 p.m.; no liquor after dinner; no TV or computers in the hour before bedtime; use your bed only for sex and sleeping; etc. But the authors also go more deeply into cognitive behavioral techniques, discussing ways to adjust your internal clock, relaxation exercises, and the effects of pharmacological sleep aids. There is less emphasis on what, specifically, to do to promote sleepiness and more on the ways and whys that each strategy works or fails. Overall, this is an exhaustive study of our psychology and its physical responses, but it offers no quick fix, because there isn't one. VERDICT At times the writing is too technical for most lay readers. A more readable choice is W. Chris Winter's The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep is Broken and How to Fix It.—Susan B. Hagloch, formerly with Tuscarawas Cty. P.L., New Philadelphia, OH

Library Journal