Escape the nightmare of lying awake for hours on end

I was so tired all the time and couldn’t concentrate.

LYING in bed wide awake while the rest of the world snoozes soundly is a nightmare experienced by us all. For some, it is a fleeting inconvenience soon put right by a few early nights or a lazy weekend.

But for a huge and everincreasing number of others, insomnia has become an exhausting way of life.

Now, an estimated 15% of people limp through their days tired and muddle-headed, and spend the hours they should be resting in bed tossing and turning.

Insomnia is a modern epidemic and health services are woefully underequipped to deal with it.

If you’ve tried all the options at the pharmacy, your GP might suggest improving your ‘sleep hygiene’ (the environment in which you’re trying to sleep), by keeping your bedroom dark and quiet, for example – a mere sticking plaster over what is, for many, a gaping wound.

They might also offer a short course of medication, or – if you are very, very lucky – help from a sleep therapist.

That’s my speciality. I’m a psychologist and sleep expert with 18 years’ experience in helping people eradicate insomnia through a specially developed talking therapy.

Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is brilliant, and it works. But there are only a few isolated centres of specialism. This puts it out of reach for most insomniacs.

That is why I have pulled together all the best bits in my latest book, The One-Week Insomnia Cure, which is being serialised today in the Irish Mail on Sunday, and next week in the Irish Daily Mail.

There are many different types of insomnia, all with different causes and exacerbating factors. So the concept of a sleep problem will mean something completely different to any two people.

But by following my advice and using a simple notebook to create a sleep diary – using the fantastic guide you’ll find on Page 66 – you will be provided with a unique, personalised plan.

Whether your insomnia is mild or on the severe end of the spectrum, you will have a very powerful tool that could end years of fatigue and frustration and, without exaggeration, transform your life.

This personalised plan should dramatically improve the quality of your sleep and offer you that holy grail – night after night of deep, refreshing sleep that leaves you happy, healthy and energised all day. For ever.

My course will help you gain a good understanding of your insomnia and provide a huge armoury of tips and tricks to help beat it, culminating in the most powerful tool of all – sleep rescheduling.

Throughout your journey, this diary will be your most important asset.

Keep it by your bed and ensure you fill in the morning section 30 minutes after getting up, and the evening section at the end of the day.

This will give you the information you need to monitor your sleep patterns and highlight any factors that might be stopping you getting a good night’s sleep.

Start the diary today to see the improvements when you start using my sleep advice, which I’ll begin explaining in tomorrow’s paper.

This will also ensure you have at least five days’ worth of information before starting my sleep rescheduling program, which I’ll outline on Friday.

Keep going with your sleep diary for as long as you feel you need.

You’ll find that the more you fill in, the more useful it is.

If you suffer from insomnia, you will probably have found that you dream more than other people, and studies have shown it’s likely that the dreams you remember will be negative or frightening.

Although experts believe dreaming is a perfectly normal part of sleep, waking frequently during the night makes you more likely to notice your dreams.

Also, if insomnia is partly triggered by – or in itself triggers – stress (likely and completely understandable), the elevated levels of stress hormones can increase the number of awakenings.

As our dreams appear to reflect our waking state, negative dreams are more likely to appear during a stressful time.

However, a few preliminary studies have shown you can influence and even change your dreaming patterns and, in turn, help improve the quality of your sleep.

So if you wake up with a vivid dream still in your head, jot it down in your diary.

Then – and this is the crucial bit – think how you would like to change the outcome to make it positive, happy or upbeat.

In the diary, the How I Would Change My Dream section is there for you to re-frame your dream, to help alleviate its negative impact.

So, if you dreamt you were being chased by a monster, give that monster great big clown shoes; if you felt water rising around you, put yourself in a water-tight boat.

Studies have shown that performing this exercise really can lift your mood for the rest of the day, which lowers stress levels and will help you sleep better the following night.

Keep charting dreams in your diary and you should begin to see that you are recalling fewer dreams – and those you do remember will more often have a positive outcome.