Sleep researcher shares keys to catching zees
TORONTO — For those who face difficulties with falling asleep or catching quality zees, the path toward a good night’s rest begins long before their head hits the pillow.
A Ryerson University researcher has co-written a new book to help those with insomnia put persistent problems with restless nights and sleep deprivation to bed.
It’s not having one bad night that makes insomnia a lingering issue, but how people respond to their challenges by perhaps taking a sleeping pill, having a glass of wine or ramping up their caffeine intake, noted Colleen Carney, co-author of Goodnight Mind (Raincoast Books).
“Your body would just recover, it would reset itself. But people become quite anxious about it, and this is actually what causes chronic insomnia,” said Carney, associate professor and director of the Sleep and Depression Laboratory at Ryerson.
“It’s what we do in order to cope with the problem that actually causes a chronic problem,” she added.
Carney’s lab offers free cognitive behavioural therapy as part of its research program, and draws on techniques used to treat insomnia patients in Goodnight Mind. Cognitive behavioural therapy is a form of psychotherapy or psychological treatment designed to help individuals recognize the connection between specific thoughts, conditions or symptoms and the effect their thinking has on emotions and behaviour.
Carney collaborated on the book with Rachel Manber, director of the Insomnia and Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at Stanford University. They outline relaxation techniques to help settle the body, such as belly breathing, yoga, meditation and listening to soothing sounds. The strategies all feed into the book’s main goal: helping people quiet their minds by addressing noisy thoughts that may interfere with sleep.