Status Updates From The Sleep Book: How to Slee...

Actually a very practical book. I like the gentle, iterative approach to addressing insomnia. And the view he espouses that there are different categories of insomnia and you can get increasingly restful sleep without having cured your insomnia completely. Definitely a much more helpful perspective than the black-and-white one I have foolishly had for a long time - that I either get good sleep or I don't.

Like many have shared, it’s a bit repetitive. Nevertheless, that seemed to have been a considered decision, given the target audience of this book (people often sidelined from sleep by their intractably unhelpful thoughts). We need the reinforcement of a new way to view our sleep-related thoughts.

I see a parallel with Internal Family Systems where the person (suffering) lovingly holds space for unwanted internal experiences (or “parts”) in order to resolve them. “Parts” must not feel you want to get rid of them for their true resolution. Similarly, you must shift from seeing barriers to sleep as “barriers”. It’s the problem-solving approach you take to unwanted feelings or events that make them a bigger prob.