Anchoring Your Wake-Up Time
When reading about sleep hygiene tips on numerous media sites as well as in many professional guides, the narrative is often slanted to suggest sleep hygiene alone could or should solve your sleep problems.
Among those with very mild sleep troubles who might engage in counterproductive behavior like napping or drinking caffeine late in the day, it’s true that following sleep hygiene steps to alter these behaviors could have a large impact on resolving the issues.
In contrast, those with more moderate sleep issues, particularly for those related to insomnia symptoms such as difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, the sleep hygiene approach often falls short or may actually worsen the sleep symptoms, because the complexity of the condition requires more advanced strategies.
As an example, in my coaching program, I am quick to point out to an insomniac how important it is to consider instructions for cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I), imagery distraction techniques or other tools for quieting the mind BEFORE working on sleep hygiene steps. Indeed, once an insomniac has mastered one of these advanced approaches, he or she will find it much easier to apply many sleep hygiene steps.
Nonetheless, there are always individuals who find themselves “in-between,” that is, they have complex issue but have no access to more sophisticated therapies. Moreover they may have tried sleep hygiene steps and received no benefit or as is often the case sleep symptoms worsened.
For these individuals, the one thing that sometimes proves to be a reliable first-aid step is the anchoring of the morning wake-up time.
By selecting a morning ritual of arising each day at the same time (6, 7, 8 or 9 am or possibly later), some nice biological things happen to your entire wake and sleep circuitry that might just get you over the hump until you can find professional services to provide comprehensive care.
More nuanced factors regarding anchoring of your wake up time will be discussed in future posts. Keep in mind one caveat: if anchoring leads to severe sleep deprivation turning you into a zombie or let’s say an unsafe driver, then this behavioral approach may be a nonstarter.
If you can make do with some degree of sleepiness or fatigue during the daytime hours without safety concerns, then night time sleep may consolidate fairly rapidly by using the anchoring system of a set wake-up time seven days per week.