Unlock Better Sleep: 4 Powerful Routines to Beat Insomnia
When people can’t fall asleep or they struggle with insomnia, they often look for bedtime routines to help them, and while sleep hygiene can be helpful, it’s kinda like waiting until you retire to plan for retirement, it’s kinda too late at bedtime to really create the optimal sleep situation- so in this video I’m going to share 4 essential routines that can actually help you fall asleep quickly and sleep better.
00:00 Intro
01:10 First Essential Sleep Routine: Sleep Drive
03:25 Second Essential Sleep Routine: Use early morning light (and evening dimness) to help set your circadian rhythm
04:58 Third Essential Sleep Routine: Exercise
5:42 Fourth Essential Sleep Routine: Schedule Worry
08:08 Summary
Click on the link below to access the transcript:
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Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life’s direction.
And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe
If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or your local emergency services.
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Thank you so much for sharing these techniques which are totally doable.
Is this the same for Chronic Fatigue?
That was really good! My husband is a therapist too and has insomnia. His mind is racing. I think he’s not allowing time to worry and think over his day. Even when he gets home he tries to distract himself and then it all comes crashing in when he’s trying to sleep.
What’s sleep? I have chronic insomnia, all my life. I have spina bifida, hydrocephalus with Chiari 2. Im awake for days til I pass out
This is really great, Emma. Thanks! Simple, makes sense, easy to remember.
Excellent tips! I especially love the last one and the exercise one.
Thank you.
This is great information, thank you 🙂
All of this make a lot of sense. However, my problem with falling asleep is that vague feeling of uneasiness and anxiety I can’t quite put my finger on. It isnt so much about specific worries than simply an overwhelming weight of every possible feeling, like a confrontation with existence itself. It can trigger great despair, so i avoid it most nights, cause it can feel like a trip right through hell and I don’t even know what exactly it wants from me, how I can process it or how I can find peace. Most nights I’ll spend on the phone (like from 9pm till 2,3am) to keep it away till I almost pass out from exaustion. I’ve tried some different things, company, no company before, reading, sport, journaling… all helps to a certain degree but never really makes it go away.
Can anyone relate?
Thank you so much for this video.
Can you please make a video about sleep deprived teens over Governer School success? How import is one over another?
Thank you so much
this makes so much sense!
Just wanted to share that I’ve been setting my alarm to get me up at the same time every day for the past week, and it is helping me sleep better at night. Thanks for the advice x
More cbti techniques pleaseeeeeee
Thank you ❤
What to do when we have rotating shifts?
What about over sleeping? I sleep to avoid and I stay in bed a lot.
Partly why I don’t get up at the same time in the am’s is that I don’t know what I’m doing with my life atm. (No job. No routine). Help!!!
So I’ve implemented a couple of these steps in the past few days. Getting up at the same time eveyday, no lights 90 minutes before bed and I read in that time with a warm light. I’m still waking up too early and find it hard to fall back to sleep for some reason. I was drinking a lot of alcohol in the past 4 years and I managed to stop to try out this sleep routine thinking that it was just alcohol that was keeping me up at night forcing me to wake up because it increased my heartrate and gave me headaches. But I’m still waking up too early and I’m not sure why because this wasn’t my normal sleeping patterns before I started drinking. It could be that I was habituated to bad sleep in the past few years so it would take some time for my body to adjust. I don’t know. But I think the quality of my sleep is somewhat better than before.
Something else that helps me is having the right room temperature. If I’m too warm I cannot fall asleep, and lately I’ve only been using a light blanket and covering just half of my body leaving my legs and half my torso exposed.
I don’t have much issue with worry at night despite my anxiety problems. Exercising every day will be challenging to try to implement. I’ve never had a consistent exercise routine, and the best I’ve done was a few months at the gym last year. I wanted to try out doing yoga consistently and get athletic from it.
Being able to sleep in on weekends is crucial for me. During my work week I have to get up at 4:00 a.m. There’s no way I want to do that on the weekends, too. Since I have difficulty sleeping during the week due to having a high stress job, I need the catch up sleep on the weekend so I can function
what if I worry throughout the day and still be unable to sleep at night
Thank you for these really helpful tips! 😴
Love Emma’s examples and tips! 🙏🏻
❤❤❤
0:38 Wake up at the same time every day.
3:28 You need early light disposure, also, don’t get exposed to blue light 90 mins before sleep
5:00 Make some exercise every day (walking, dancing etc)
7:20 schedule your worries
I’m a crisis and trauma counselor and you are MY favorite counselor! I’m living in GA and my immediate family is in Asheville and I wondered if you thought about a video to help people in crisis moments like what western NC is going through? Both how to cope when you’re too far away to help and how to cope when you’re in the thick of it.❤
Awesome!! I always get excited when I find a new tip. Thank you so much for the help!!
Thank you so much!!
Scheduling worry is extremely practical advice!!thanks!! Will do from tonight😊
Can you make a video on how to deal with ocd, and schizophrenia? I have it and your videos help me a lot, and I enjoy them. Can you also make videos onI psychosis, bipolar, and generalized anxiety disorder?
I struggle to sleep in my bed and almost always sleep on my couch. I want to be able to sleep in my own bed.
I love your videos so much. Can you do one on self-pity and how to stop it? plz
Can you make a video on how to deal with ocd, and schizophrenia? I have it and your videos help me a lot, and I enjoy them. Can you also make videos onI psychosis, bipolar, and generalized anxiety disorder?
Happy World Mental Health Day🧠💕
Excellent tips and very nicely done short video. I’m sharing it with friends, family and co-workers. Thank you, Emma!
I’m tired of having so many surgeries😢😢😢😢😢 it’s been all downhill for the last 15 years maybe I’m wrong but I’m just tired of this shit😢😢
My problem is that i work in the morning and the evening, with afternoon free. So in the evening i have to fight melatonin to concentrate, so when i come home i’m super awake and cannot sleep🙈
If I wake up at 7 every day, I’ll be sick very quickly. My deepest sleep cycle is from 5-8am. I was born for second shift. And I need at least 9.5 hours of sleep per night. For extra stressful days, I need 10 hours to recouperate. I’ve always slept best if I exercise right before bed; it was my go-to anger management when I was in my 20s and shut off any over thinking. I haven’t done this in awhile, I realize. I’ll have to see if resuming that works now, for anxiety.
How do people with ocd deal with the worry you talked about in the last one
If you’re struggling with insomnia here’s a natural remedy that I found effective for me and may help
Smash bananas with nutmeg and cinnamon you can add yogurt if u want too
Hope you’ll find peaceful night sleep
This intriguing video serves as a poignant reminder of the heartache I’ve been enduring since my 7 year relationship came to an end 3 months ago. My cherished partner, the love of my life, made the difficult decision to part ways, leaving me consumed by thoughts of him. Despite my earnest attempts to win him back, I find myself facing frustration and an overwhelming sense of emptiness, unable to envision a life without his presence. Despite my efforts to move on, I’m compelled to confess my lingering feelings and longing for him here.
This video made me feel hopeful to fix my sleep issues. Thank you!
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I sleep two times a day. Once at night, and once early morning. I wake up at 9am after my second 5 hour sleep. Followed by a morning routine. Water, brush teeth, make bed,
Do these tips apply for waking during the night? I have no issues falling asleep but I wake every night around 2 or 3 and, then I’m exhausted the next day
I am suffering from lack of sleep and I didn’t sleep last night at all and I had to wake up at 6 😢😢
ughhh how I WISH I KNEW THIS SOONER. My productivity levels and my general life quality has diminished because of this !!! THANK U
At 75 I find old ( 40s- 50s ) black and white movies very relaxing….wonderful
soothing distraction….they tend to move slowing with wonderful slower
soothing toned dialogue. the dialogue and theme follow a slower moving plot
For me these are like bedtime stories for adults ( some kids like the ones appropriate for kids. The music is generally lovely orchestral themes w/o
intense loud chords…I think the black/ white photography is key
jmho 💗
Best advice, thankyou
Thank you for helping us all and telling us useful tips.