Blog

Insomnia Remedies: Wu Wei and Sleep – We can not make ourselves sleep. As with most things in life, things simply happen of their own accord. Remember the Taoist concept of Wu Wei? https://www.mindfulexposurebooks.com/applying-wu-wei/ “Spring comes and grass grows by itself”. We can set the occasion for sleep by laying down in a warm and comfortable bed, closing our eyes, minimizing external distractions, and so on. Sleep will come. However, as indicated in earlier posts, for each of us a some point in life, physical (medical), behavioral, psychological and emotional factors can arise that can undermine sleep. Usually, these factors are transient. If sleep issues become chronic we need to closely examine our life and lifestyle to see what is creating a shift in our life balance. But one factor almost always arises for those with transient or chronic sleep disruption: One starts trying to sleep. Once that happens, lets face it….yore screwed. The more you try to sleep, the more it will evade you, since effort produces tension and arousal, which is the very antithesis of sleep.

mindful sleep

So in the last post, I presented stimulus control https://www.mindfulexposurebooks.com/sleep-hygiene/, which is a very effective procedure to break the conditi0ned connection between the bed and arousal and which helps to break the cycle of trying to sleep. While effective, my own experience working with sleep disorders ( close to thirty years worth!) indicates that only a minority of patients are able to put this into practice. Many are afraid to get out of bed if they are not sleeping for fear of missing the chance that they might sleep. Many, are simply too tired to get out of bed as strange as that might sound. Many others, simply have no other quiet place to go to relax outside of their bedroom.

Another wonderful approach has been set forward by the famous psychiatrist, Dr. Victor Frankl, author of the oft quoted book, “Man’s Search For Meaning”. He derived some interesting approaches to therapy and life as a result of his harrowing experiences as a Jewish prisoner in Nazi concentration camps. Frankl recognizes that our attempts to control a fear or undesirable behavior will often have the unintended consequence of fueling the very  fear or behavior we are trying to control. So, in the case of sleep, he suggests that it is one’s “hyperintention” to sleep that contributes to one’s inability to sleep. Thus he suggests a technique which he terms Paradoxical Intention in which one would set the occasion for sleep as one normally would, but actually resolve not to sleep, thereby removing the pressure to sleep. Wonderful advice, however again, in my experience few are able to implement it since they are afraid to not sleep by practicing the intention of not sleeping.

Many, many people are what I term “sleep phobics”. Or perhaps more accurately non-sleep phobics. They are so afraid of not sleeping that they actually experience fear of sleep itself and the cues associated with it. So, how do we deal with fear, anxiety and phobias? The answer is very clear, we face the fear and the cues that can serve to elicit them. So using Flooding or Implosion therapies https://www.mindfulexposurebooks.com/fear-exposure-implosion-therapy/, one can be directed to imagine the common fears that they are doomed to not sleep forever and ever. As result, they become functionally disabled, fail at work or other duties, lose their job, other calimatous consequences and ultimately disappointing and failing loved ones and therefore resulting in abandonment and rejection. This, I realizes sounds extremely dramatic but actually it is these or similar fears that lie at the heart of our anxieties regarding sleep. Thus, it is critical to embrace these fears to be relinquished by their grasp.

Also, as we are are in bed to sleep, I instruct my patients to practice mindfulness….to be fully present with whatever they are thinking or feeling. Simply watching, without any attempts at control or directing one’s thoughts, images etc. If one is experiencing fear or frustration about not sleeping,then simply pay attention to that. Fully. This takes us out of a stance of control and when that happens, then we are flowing with, rather than against our experience and sleep is more likely to occur. I still ask people to attempt to follow stimulus control procedures and get out of bed if not asleep within 20 minutes or so.

So this concludes the series of posts on sleep. Hopefully, you now have a fuller understanding of how the principle of Wu Wei can actually be applied. Sleep just happens to be sensitive to any issues of control. Thus by learning to Lose Control and just be, we can very possibly achieve better sleep. And when we sleep better, we achieve greater health and balance.

Please post comments!!!!