So, if you’re watching this video, chances are you have either issues getting to sleep or staying asleep. And this is an amazing strategy I’m going to be sharing with you today for how do you actually cure insomnia naturally without sleeping pills or melatonin or any other special sleep supplements. So, make sure you get out a notepad and pen because this can be a bit complicated, and I want to make sure that you get all this valuable information.
First, what is the issue with insomnia? Most people don’t realize that the biggest issue for suffering from insomnia is actually spending too much time in bed but not asleep. So, we call that, in SleepScience, sleep efficiency. So, in order to make this strategy work, which is called, sleep restriction or sleep scheduling, you have to determine what your average sleep efficiency is for an entire week.
So, how do you do that? Very simple. You keep a sleep diary, and I’ll put a link to one that you can download in the description below, or you use a sleep app like Sleep Cycle, or you take it to the next level and you use something like an Oura Ring which will actually calculate this for you.
So, once you calculate your average sleep efficiency, and I’ll just break it down real quick, let’s say you’re in bed for eight hours, but you’re only sleeping for six hours, you would just do the math there and figure out what the percentage is, and then you’d figure out what that is for the entire week. Hopefully that wasn’t too confusing.
So, step two, after you figure out your average sleep efficiency for the week, is to set your new bedtime and rise time, or what we call, sleep window. So, if you figured out that your sleep efficiency was six hours, that is going to be your sleep window. So, you’re going to start with that number based off of the average that you calculated.
So, your sleep window, let’s just use six hours, so six hours is the amount of time that you’re allowed in bed. So, maybe it would be 12:00 PM to 6:00 AM, that is your sleep window. So, you’re in bed for six hours no matter what. Whether you’re asleep or you’re not asleep, that is your sleep window.
Now, after you get your sleep window for that first week set, you’re going to start to continue to track your sleep efficiency, and you’re going to modify it. So, in week two, if your sleep efficiency is 90% or better, what you’re going to do is, you’re going to add 15 minutes to your sleep window.
So, again, using the example of six hours as your sleep window, now, after that second week, if your sleep efficiency is 90% or better, you’re going to add 15 minutes, so now your sleep window time in bed would be six hours and 15 minutes allowed in bed. Now, if, that second week, your sleep efficiency is 85 to 90%, you’re going to stay the same, so you’re going to be six hours in bed for that week.
If it’s below 85%, you’re actually going to subtract 15 minutes. So, let’s say your sleep window you determined based off of your sleep efficiency is six hours, and that next week, after calculating your sleep efficiency again, it’s below 85% for the average, you’re actually going to spend only five hours and 45 minutes in bed.
So, again, the whole premise of this strategy, this technique, is actually to consolidate your sleep time. And as you do this over a course of a couple of weeks, and usually that’s what it takes, and it takes real commitment to commit to this, but if you’re really committed to solving your insomnia naturally, this is the best strategy, hands down.
So, you follow this week in and week out, and as you continue to focus on minimizing your time in bed, what’s going to happen is, your sleep quality, the time that you’re spending in bed is going to get better, your deep sleep’s going to improve, and you’re eventually going to be cured of your insomnia.
So, again, you can follow this until you feel rested. So, sometimes this could take up to six weeks, sometimes people feel better in as little as three weeks. And I highly recommend tracking your sleep, because we can’t measure what we don’t track. So, using the Oura Ring makes this super simple and effective to follow. I know it was a bit, maybe, confusing here in how I explained it. Hopefully you understand the strategy.
Okay, so just to summarize what I just shared with you, this technique is called, sleep restriction or sleep scheduling. And essentially, again, just to bring it all roundabout, really simplify it, what we’re doing here is we are consolidating the amount of time you spend in bed to increase the quality of your sleep. So, again, if you’re spending eight hours in bed but you’re only spending six hours of that time asleep, your sleep efficiency is really poor. So, the whole goal of this strategy is to increase your sleep efficiency.
And you can make it like a game. So, every week you’re tracking, and again, we can’t measure what we don’t track, but when you track this and you’re tracking your sleep efficiency and you’re actually adjusting your sleep schedule based off of your sleep efficiency, you’re actually able to get deeper quality sleep and feel more rested, and this will solve your insomnia. Thanks for joining me on this video. Until next week, live passionately on purpose.