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Summary: Guest: Dr. James Alexander, author of Getting the Z’s You Want: Sleep Sense in the 21st Century:
- Alexander tells about his teenage trauma which lead to sleep problems.
- The BRAC (Basic Rest Activity Cycle) and how to use it to get to sleep.
- Why Dr. Alexander has an aversion to the term “sleep hygiene.”
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – What it is and how to use EFT for insomnia and EFT for sleeping in great detail.
- “Real-Time” Emotional Freedom Training or EFT for sleep at night and EFT tapping for insomnia or EFT tapping for sleep.
- What Dr. Alexander would put in a 30 second YouTube video.
- His recommendation for something you can do today, to sleep better tonight so you feel and function better tomorrow.
Note: We encourage you to listen to the podcast with a portable device (via a podcast app is best) rather than sitting in front of the computer.
Links mentioned in the show:
Dr. James Alexander’s website: www.drjamesalexander-psychologist.com
LinkedIn:
Book: ‘Getting the Z’s You Want: Sleep Sense in the 21st Century https://drjamespsychologist-com.webs.com/apps/webstore/products/show/7342820 – OR – https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Zs-You-Want-Sleep-sense/dp/154476989X/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dr-James-Alexander-323849141056608/
Show notes with approximate time they occur in the episode:
(Note: For your convenience, the following is paraphrasing from the interview, not exact quotes. For exact wording, listen to that part of the episode)
Introduction (the host, from the audio):
So far on the podcast we have covered a wide range of sleep advice such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia and sleeping pills. But this represents a small slice of the methods used in different cultures to cure sleeping ills.
Humans have a natural suspicion of ideas from other cultures as they seem strange and we can’t make sense of them within our frames of reference. But if we can bridge that gap we may benefit immensely. A good example is meditation. When I was growing up, it was foreign and shunned. Now it is mainstream, helps millions and is widely viewed as beneficial.
Today we are going to discuss BRAC, EFT (EFT for insomnia and EFT for sleeing) and EMDR. Haven’t heard of them? Well neither had I until I read Dr. James Alexander’s book: Getting the Z’s You Want: Sleep-sense in the 21st Century. Dr. Alexander has a gift for taking ideas from another culture and making sense of them in our western understanding of things. If you have been frustrated with traditional approaches, or want to take your sleep to a new level, this episode is for you.
And although we might not be familiar with these techniques, they are backed by the World Health Organization and have peer reviewed studies including the gold standard – double blind studies – to support their effectiveness.
Dr. James Alexander is an Australian psychologist, author of two books and self-professed occasional poor sleeper. He joins us from New South Wales in Australia.
Interview:
2:40 – Dr. James Anderson tells about his sleep struggles. He was nearly killed in a car accident as an 18 year old. His recollection is that his sleep became difficult after that experience. As an adult sleep has been a challenge, sometimes he gets on top of the challenge, sometimes it is difficult. So he has had to explore options to improve his quality of sleep.
3:40 – What sleep strategies work for him? There are many factors that influence sleep. It’s rare that only one solution works, so he has a suite of interventions. It includes Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT (EFT tapping for insomnia and EFT tapping for sleep), which involves tapping on a accupuncture points. Also there is the need to address trauma in a person’s life, and also alternative solutions such as herbal remedies or homeopathic remedies.
5:40 – What is the BRAC cycle. BRAC stands for Basic Rest Activity Cycle. It could also be referred to as the brain rest activity cycle since it refers to the brain. When our brain is active we are utilizing sodium and potassium ions. These ions can become exhausted. Then the brain needs to take a rest. Then the brain becomes deactivated to a certain extent and we become day-dreamy or tired. During that time the sodium and potassium ions are becoming replenished. The cycle is 80 to 120 minutes with an average of 90 minutes. So the cycle is resting for a while and replenishing the sodium and potassium ions, and then swinging back up into an activation level where we are quite alert.
7:50 – How can the BRAC cycle can be used to get to sleep? If we try to get to sleep when we are in the cycle where we are on the upswing of activation, we will have trouble falling asleep. But in the last 20 minutes when the brain is becoming quite deactivated, is the time that’s most conducive for falling asleep. We’ve all had times during the day when we have been in a boring situation and we struggle with staying awake. Likely at that time our brain is cycling down at the deactivation level. So if we are aware of the timing of the BRAC, then we can coordinate the downward cycle with the time that we go to bed. If we try to fall asleep at the wrong time of the cycle, you can feed into a feeling of anxiousness or frustration around getting to sleep.
10:30 – Dr. Alexander tells why he has an aversion to the term “sleep hygiene”. The term hygiene is borrowed from terminology in the physical health area such as medicine. It is a problem in that issues with living become medicalized. He is cautious about the over medicalization of ordinary problems with living. And the problems are not contextualized, meaning that we don’t deal with the problem in their context. Such as what is going on in our lives now, and our history of emotional and psychological events such as traumas. So it tends to happen when you medicalize an issue is it often leads to a pharmaceutical solution. His observation and reading of the research shows that pharmaceutical solutions to sleep problems often cause as many problems as they solve. He also recognizes that sometimes sleep problems do have a medical foundation and need to be taken care of through medicine. But more often than not he does not think that most sleep problems have a medical cause.
13:10 – Emotional Freedom technique, or EFT. EFT is a psychological process that takes advantage of acupuncture points. But no needles are involved, we simply rub or tap the acupuncture or acupressure points. It came about from an American psychologist whose name is Roger Callahan. So he combined exposure therapy with the acupuncture points using acupressure. So it combines Western psychology in the form of exposure therapy with Eastern methods of acupuncture points. It involves identifying an emotional, behavioral, or health issue, and then tapping the acupressure points while you repeat phrases about the issue. It includes EFT for insomnia, EFT for sleeping, EFT tapping for insomnia and EFT tapping for sleep.
15:00 – How do you perform EFT? The first step of of EFT is to establish the target for change, the thought our reaction that were trying to correct. We construct the phrase about the issue we are wanting to address. So in terms of sleep issues, EFT is very effective for sleep issues, we need to identify clearly the issue we are trying to correct. So the issue could be problems falling asleep, problems staying asleep, or problems waking up too early and not being able to get back to sleep. From that we create a set up phrase,. The standard formula for the setup phrase is even though I – – -, I deeply and completely accept myself. So for instance, if my difficulty was falling asleep, I would say “Even though I find it very difficult to fall asleep, I deeply and completely accept myself.” So if that problem is real to me, then likely I will have anxiety or other strong emotions around that issue. So rather than bedtime being a relaxing release into sleep, it can become a time of anxiety and frustration. So particular emotional centers in the brain are being activated. While we are repeating that phrase, we are also tapping on a acupressure point such as at the karate chop position, which is on the side of the hand where you would strike something if you were doing a karate chop. So in terms of the process, it is exposing us to the anxiety that we feel around that particular issue. It includes EFT for insomnia, EFT for sleeping, EFT tapping for insomnia and EFT tapping for sleep.
19:40 – Dr. Alexander talks about how to create an effective set up phrase. It is a case of homing in on the particular sleep issue that you have. They are not positive affirmations.
20:40 – Dr. Alexander talks about how Acupressure affects our brains. Any sensation on the skin has to be made sense of by the brain. When we stimulate the skin, we stimulate the brain. There is about an 80% correlation between the meridian lines of energy in Chinese medicine and acupuncture points, and physical channels of connective tissue in the body. So this demonstrates that there is or maybe a physiological correlation between the meridian lines and physical attributes of the body.
23:40 How does the combination of repeating the target phrase and tapping the acupressure points modify our brain? This is why we are making statements about the issue we want to change, and not positive affirmations. We repeat the reminder phrase, which is the part of the setup phrase where we filled in the blank. So for instance, the reminder phrase might be I may have the difficulty falling asleep. When we make a statement that is true for us and contains emotional power, then the emotional parts of her brain become activated. So the limbic system in the brain, which is the emotional system, becomes are highly activated, with fear or anxiety or anger, strong emotional negative reactions and emotions. So when we repeat the setup phrase, we turn the amygdala on. As we repeat the reminder phrase, we are tapping on many different acupressure points. So we are stimulating our neural cortex and our sensory cortex. So while we are activating our emotional brain, we are also activating our sense sensory brain. So these are areas away from the emotional brain that have nothing to do with the emotion. So this allows some of the neural activity in the emotional brain to be drained way into the other parts of the end on emotional brain.
A useful analogy is a dirt road with a heavy rain that cuts a channel across the road at the lowest point. If we try to fix the channel by filling it with gravel, the next time it rains the erosion will occur again and the channel will simply reform. So what we need to do is take a pick or shovel and dig feather drains that divert the main flow of water away from the channel. We can then fill up the channel and the feather drains will draw the water away. So with the EFT, we are creating neural pathways that take a main emotional are energy away. This dissipates the anxiety that we might feel around sleep issues.
32:30 – Dr. Alexander talks about the evidence of efficacy for EFT. Since Dr. Callahan created the thought field theory, an EFT procedure, there has been quite a lot of research in a variety of different situations. From anxiety, to trauma, to other emotional issues. An example is a video that he saw of a war vet from the Vietnam War, who had never had a good night’s sleep since he had left Vietnam 35 or 40 years before. He had tried many different therapeutic interventions but none had really helped. In the video an EFT specialist used a EFT technique for trauma, and he then had his first good night sleep that he’d had in 35 or 40 years. There have been double-blind control research studies as well.
35:00 – How to use EFT for sleep. It begins with the set-up phrase, you can do it prior to going to bed for the night. He finds it helpful to insert the word may, rather than stating that he will have a particular problem. So for instance he might say “Even though I may wake up too often tonight, I deeply and completely accept myself.” He does this while tapping on the karate chop point. You then tap on your eyebrow closest to the center of your head, tapping about 7 times while repeating the reminder phrase, which would be “May wake up too often tonight.” Then to the side of the eye by the rim of the bony socket, then under the eye on the rim of the bony socket, then on the upper lip below the nose, which is a spot that he accidentally omitted in his book, each time tapping 7 times while repeating the reminder phrase. Then below the bottom lip, then under your arm about in line with your nipples, then an inch below the nipple. Then if you put your two hands together has in a prayer position, and slowly roll your thumbs together until the thumbnails touch, the next spot is the outer corner of the thumbnail. Again you continue to repeat the reminder phrase while you’re tapping 7 times. The next spot is on the pointer finger at the same position on the nail is on the thumb, then the middle finger, at the same spot on the little finger. And then you go back to the karate chop point.
39:10 – The next part of the procedure is called a Gamut procedure. Make a fist with your hand and feel for the space between the knuckles of your small finger and your ring finger, and go back a little bit from the knuckles you will find a small dip or indentation between the tendons. That is called the Gamut point. The procedure now is to tap the Gamut point about seven times still repeating the reminder phrase and at the same time doing the following procedures: Close Your Eyes, Open Your Eyes,, look down to the right with your eyes keeping your head still, looking down to the left, roll your eyes in a big circle in one direction, roll your eyes in the opposite direction,. While you are doing each of these motions, you are tapping seven times and repeating the reminder phrase. Now you hum a tune that you knew when you were five years old or younger, and has pleasant memories associated with it. A common tune used is happy birthday. But a favorite nursery tune would work well too. Hum this tune for 5 seconds. Hama. Then count quickly from 1 to 7, and then go back to humming again. Now you go back to tapping on the eyebrow and continuing until you get to the karate chop position. Now you have completed the whole procedure. It sounds complex but once you get used to it you can do it in under 2 minutes. At first you may need a written procedure, but after a couple of days you will have it memorized.
42:30 – Dennis shares his experience with EFT, emotional Freedom technique. For sleep.
47:40 – Dr. Alexander Comments on Dennis’s experience with EFT. Every few months Dr. Alexander goes through a time when he is not able to sleep very well. Then he starts to become more anxious about sleeping. Then he will remember to do his EFT. It is rarely a one-off success experience. It usually takes a few nights before he’s back to his normal sleep regime. He has other aids to employ to improve your sleep in the book, and he recommends that you try them all and try them in different combinations. Find the combination that works best for you. He has some relaxing music with sounds of nature which she uses. EFT is one helpful contributor to getting a good sleep.
52:50 – Dr. Alexander discusses real-time EFT, emotional Freedom technique. So at the time at night that you are experiencing the emotional issue, you are in the experience or in real time. Going through the physical actions of EFT tends to be too stimulating and wakes him up. Also it would likely disturb his wife. So he finds that doing the EFT procedure in his imagination is quite effective. EFT is a procedure that you need to think about, but it’s not particularly interesting or stimulating. It is not arousing. It helps to absorb some of the excess mental electro activity in the brain. So he imagines himself tapping the acupressure points while saying the phrase. He does not include the Gamut procedure as rolling his eyes would tend to be too stimulating. He cycles through the process and finds that he gets to back to sleep more quickly.
1:00:00 – Dr. Alexander tells What he would put in a YouTube video. He sees society turning more and more to medicine as a means of solving the problems of living. You are medicalizing the problems, and calling them disorders as somehow akin to medical disorders, and this takes the problem outside the context that the experience or problem began. And this leads to medical fixes to non medical problems.
1:02:00 – One thing you could do today to help you sleep better tonight so you can feel and function better tomorrow. Try not to worry too much about sleep. Studies show that the more we focus on the lack of sleep, the more we suffer from the consequences of lack of sleep. Whether we believe that we got enough sleep or not, is more important on how we function the next day than how much sleep we actually got. Don’t catastrophize our lack of sleep. Anything we can do to reduce our anxiety around sleep will be helpful.
1:04:00 – Dr. Alexander Gives his website and the resources he has available.
Summary: (by the host)
And now a summary of the key points Dr. James Alexander made today.
The first is: How we medicalize life’s issues in society today. If our sleep is broken, then fix it with a pill. This is a temporary solution with side effects. But as we learn over and over again on the podcast, a single symptom such as insomnia can have many causes, some medical, many not medical. If we can see our sleep issues in relationship to our whole selves, then we have a good chance at finding the underlying causes and improving our sleep and our lives.
The second is that there are other reliable, proven techniques that are outside our awareness to help with sleep. Emotional Freedom Training or EFT is one of these. Dr. Alexander explains other methods in his book.
The third, buried in the conversation, is that many issues are caused by a trauma which we experienced at some point in our life. If part of the underlying issue is trauma, then no fix will really work until the trauma is dealt with. Dr. Alexander thinks that trauma is often an underlying and hidden issue for many of us.
As usual, you can find detailed show notes about the interview with Dr. James Alexander along with all the links at sleep-to-healthy-dot-com.
This concludes our episode for today.
If you found this episode helpful, you might also want to listen to episode 9 with Michael Schwartz where he covers Intensive Sleep Retaining, which is another non-traditional but effective solution for getting to sleep quickly.
Thank you for being with me today. I encourage you to let your friends know about the podcast and I look forward to you joining me on the next episode of Sleep to Healthy.
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