The Mindful Approach To Insomnia

Learn the real definition of insomnia and the most significant tool used in behavioral therapy for insomnia -- the sleep diary. In this lesson, you'll learn a simple way to use a sleep diary if you want to get a better sense of your sleep efficiency baseline. Enjoy Lesson 1!

In this lesson, we begin with a nice relaxing mindful meditation. Next we move onto some clinically recommended healthy sleep habits AKA good sleep hygiene. Enjoy!

First we start off with another guided mindful meditation. Next we cover the "3 P Model" of insomnia, laying out what makes people susceptible insomnia, how it develops, and what tends to make it worse. With a better understanding of this model of insomnia, you'll be more prepared to nip it in the bud if you start sleeping poorly or if you already are.

Once again, we begin by building up our mindfulness practice with a meditation. Then, for further context, and to enrich your understanding, we move on to the 7 foundations of mindfulness. Finally, we wrap up by identifying the important difference between genuine sleepiness, and the state of fatigue.

Today we learn a classic mindful exercise ; the body scan meditation. Then fittingly, we segue into one of the body's main sleep regulators; sleep drive AKA sleep appetite.

Beginning with this new meditation, you'll learn to cultivate mindful awareness of thoughts, as well as some simple recommendations for what to do with thoughts. Next you'll learn about one of the main biological drivers for sleep -- your circadian rhythm.

We begin with a meditation in which you'll practice the mindful act of acceptance. Learning and practicing acceptance can be relaxing and bring about the peace of mind necessary for getting restful sleep. We also learn a very simple, yet powerful technique for managing concerns, worries, problems, etc.

Returning to the breathing space meditation, we start off with something familiar. It's useful to practice the same form of meditation a few times so it becomes less effortful and more second-nature. After the meditation, we move on to a term called sleep efficiency which is really the most important 'personal stat' to keep track of if you're concerned about your sleep.

We skip the mindful meditation for good reasons in this lesson. Instead you'll learn how to override your stress response at the physical level and induce a relaxing state. Then, we cover today's insomnia topic -- sleep consolidation which is, getting one long, uninterrupted block of sleep.

In this final lesson of the course, we start with one last mindful meditation. Next we cover some of the most important concepts, theories, and techniques covered in this ten day course. We wrap with some advice for how to use your new skillset to manage or prevent insomnia.