Posted on 11/06/2007 10:51:30 PM PST by neverdem
Better sleep doesn’t have to come in a pill.
For people with chronic insomnia, studies show that simple behavioral and psychological treatments work just as well, and sometimes better, than popular medications, according to a report in The Journal of Family Practice.
The medical journal Sleep last year reported on five high-quality trials that showed cognitive behavioral therapy helped people suffering from insomnia fall asleep sooner and stay asleep longer. Another American Journal of Psychiatry analysis of 21 studies showed that behavioral treatment helped people fall asleep nearly nine minutes sooner than sleep drugs. In other measures, sleep therapy worked just as well as drugs, but without any side effects.
The behavioral strategies for better sleep are deceptively simple, and that’s one reason why many people don’t believe they can make a difference. One of the most effective methods is stimulus control. This means not watching television, eating or reading in bed. Don’t go to bed until you are sleepy. Get up at the same time every day, and don’t nap during the day. If you are unable to sleep, get out of bed after 15 minutes and do something relaxing, but avoid stimulating activity and thoughts.
So-called sleep hygiene is also part of sleep therapy. This includes regular exercise, adding light-proof blinds to your bedroom to keep it dark and making sure the bed and room temperatures are comfortable. Eat regular meals, don’t go to bed hungry and limit beverages, particularly alcohol and caffeinated drinks, around bedtime.
Finally, don’t try too hard to fall asleep, and turn the clock around so you can’t see it. Watching time pass is one of the worst things to do when you’re trying to fall asleep.
It may be hard to believe, but studies show these simple...
(Excerpt) Read more at well.blogs.nytimes.com ...
PING
TigersEye was already, directly linked to the article on another, earlier thread. TigersEye is on my health & science list. I don’t like to see my posts for news relegated to chat.
Having read the article’s recommendations a couple of times, and the available abstracts, I had second thoughts, so I posted it on “bloggers & personal.”
Is there a connection between pandora pinging me and the thread being relegated to chat? She’s just a FReeper buddy who likes to ping me to things she thinks I might be interested in. Pandora has no idea what ping lists I’m on.
No, the admin mods will take a story posted posted under News/Activism and downgrade it to Chat. It usually kills the thread. It was a health blog from the Times, and I wanted to save it, so I posted under this category. Pandora gets my pings for politics, foreign & military threads that you also get.
I’m very sorry. I knew he would want to see it & have no idea that he is on your ping list. Just remove me to make it easier for you. Thanks ~pandoraou812~
OK. It looked like you were making a connection between the two actions. FWIW I can’t find where you pinged me to this article anywhere on my comments page.
Adding Color Untangles the Brain’s Gray Secrets
I linked you to it with a post/comment on that thread. On second thought, smoking is enough of a problem that I'll post that last link, which goes directly to a printer friendly page.
P.S. If you like the colored neurons in those pics, there are more in the supplemental information pdf.
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