FryingMan

After another bad night two nights ago where I was up after about 6 hours of sleep and couldn't get back to sleep, I decided to begin the SCT (Stimulus Control Therapy) option in my "End the Insomnia Struggle" book. It's all about retraining the mind to strongly associate being in bed only with sleeping. It's pretty simple in theory:

1) go to bed only when sleepy (not only fatigued, but actually sleepy, like you can't keep your eyes open or your head is nodding forwards) (an established bedtime is preferred)
2) if at any time your are awake for more than 20 minutes, get out of bed and go to another room and do something boring/relaxing
3) return to bed when you feel sleepy
repeat 2-3 as many times as needed
4) get up at a fixed time every day
5) no naps

Also, do not use the bed and bedroom except for sleep and sex.

This one is tougher since our big screen TV is set up across from the bed. I'm taking a break from in-bed video watching to see if this can fix my middle of the night wakings.

I REALLY REALLY want to train myself to fall asleep much much faster. Like, 5-10 minutes tops. This will help dream practice in the long run. So I'm taking the pain now of this therapy to end the insomnia struggle forever, hopefully!

I had the impression of some dreaming at the beginning of the long awake period at about 4.5 hours of sleep last night. Last night (with the insomnia) there was no recall at all.