As a sleep specialist in the NHS I often get presented with lots of different types of supposed sleep cures that can fix insomnia. But do these work? The reality is that they don’t work. The reason is that insomnia is a pattern of behaviour that happens over time. No amount of things that we…
As a sleep expert what do I see is the worst thing for insomnia? I think the worst thing is when we lie in bed willing ourselves to sleep, and frustrated with ourselves when we can’t. It doesn’t work… You will never be able to will yourself to sleep, but what you are doing is…
Different types of sleep cures for insomnia is a thing I get present often as an NHS sleep clinician. And the reality is that they don’t work. Insomnia is a pattern of behaviour that happens over time. No amount of things that we do, like lotions or techniques from the internet, are going to suddenly…
As a sleep expert what do I see is the worst thing for insomnia? I think the worst thing is when we lie in bed willing ourselves to sleep, and frustrated with ourselves when we can’t. It doesn’t work. You will never be able to will yourself to sleep… What you are doing is increasing…
As a sleep specialist I often get referrals from neurologists such as Dr Guy Leschziner, a sleep medicine neurologist, with people who have been prescribed sleeping medications. Sleeping medications can actually be quite helpful in the short term. They can help alleviate some of the symptoms of insomnia such as anxiety… But at the end…
I think one of the saddest things to hear as a sleep clinician is when people come to me and tell me that they feel they are forgetting how to sleep. That they don’t get sleepy, they’ve forgotten how it feels… and that’s quite a scary feeling. It’s an horrible fear to have, and actually…
As a sleep clinician I regularly get asked about relaxation techniques and why these are not working. People often say: “I’m trying everything that I can to sleep and it’s not working”.or“I’m doing everything… Relaxing, I’ve gone through loads of mindfulness, I’m like a zen-like Buddha and super chill during the day”, And yet, they…
In my clinics, my patients often talk about their insomnia as a problem. I prefer to see insomnia as a pattern… A pattern is something that happens over time, and is built over time. And we can potentially break it and change it. When we talk about a problem we assume something’s wrong with our…
What’s that one piece of advice — as a sleep expert — that I would give to everyone, regardless of whether you’re suffering from insomnia or whether you are a good sleeper? If you just want to get more out of your sleep… Wake up at the same time every day. How is that going…
I’m an NHS sleep clinician and if you are looking to find the right sleep therapy this is what I would recommend for successful treatment: We use something called cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia or CBT-i for short. There are many different ways to get CBT-i, for example: We can read it in a book;…