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The sleep to healthy website is now a 10 lesson course on curing insomnia.
This course is not a quick fix and it is not easy. The course is based on CBTi or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. CBTi is the first-line insomnia treatment method endorsed by:
- The U.S. National Institute of Health and
- The British Association of Psycho-pharmacology.
- The American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
By the end of the “Cure Insomnia” course, students will have the knowledge and tools they need to cure their insomnia. Not just now, but for a lifetime.
Did I mention that it’s free?
Go to SleepToHealthy.com to get started.
Summary: Host Dennis Trumpy:
- Explains why there will be a break in the podcast.
- His recommendation for something you can do tonight, to sleep better in the days to come so you can feel and function better in the future.
Links mentioned in the show:
Episode14: Sleep Coach with Martin Reed https://sleeptohealthy.com/e14/
Episode 10: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi) with Dr. Stephanie Silberman https://sleeptohealthy.com/e10/
Episode1: “Listen to Sleep” with Drew Ackerman of the Sleep with Me Podcast https://sleeptohealthy.com/e1/
Show notes with approximate time they occur in the episode: (for this short episode, I have not used time stamps)
(Note: For your convenience, the following is paraphrasing from the interview, not exact quotes. For exact wording, listen to that part of the episode)
Today I have some bad news and some good news.
The bad news is that I must take a break from producing podcast episodes for a while. The thought of not posting episodes for a while saddens me. It is similar to the feeling we have when our favorite team loses and no longer qualifies to continue in the playoffs. Or it is like the day after the final performance of a successful play or musical tour. There is a lingering feeling that it stopped too abruptly, too soon.
The good news is that I will be back, stronger than ever.
Although there is no interview today, as a bonus, at the end of this short episode I will explain something you can do tonight, to sleep better in the days to come so you can feel and function better in the future.
Let me explain the pause in the podcast.
This podcast gig is 100% voluntary. I’m semi-retired and the way this works is that I work hard in my business for 5 to 6 months in the summer to pay the bills for the year and fund this podcast. Then I take the remaining 6 to 7 months off to work on my passion – The Sleep to Healthy Podcast.
I started this podcast at the end of my summer season in 2018. I started from scratch with no podcasting experience and no network of sleep experts. I knew it would be an uphill battle, but my goal was to create enough episodes to carry me through the work season of 2019. But I was not able to complete enough episodes.
My summer work takes me out of town, and I often work sunrise to sunset 7 days a week to make that business work, so there just isn’t time to put together podcast episodes.
After my work season last fall, I laboured long days on creating this podcast, usually 7 days a week for several months until I launched the 1st podcast episode at the end of February 2019. It may be hard to believe, but it still it takes me about 25 to 30 hours a week to create a single episode. I will break it down for you in the show notes, but won’t bore you with the details here.
Podcast time:
| Total | 25 |
| Event | Hrs |
| Find a guest | 1.5 |
| Read book & research | 4 |
| Communicate with guest | 1 |
| Create questions – send | 1.5 |
| Interview | 2.5 |
| Listen, make notes | 2 |
| Create show notes page | 1 |
| Create summary, record | 1 |
| Create social feeds | 1.5 |
| Create audio file | 3 |
| Release the podcast | 2 |
| Weekly stats | 1 |
| Search engine optimization | 3 |
It seems like a lot of hours until you realize that I am still learning and that the professional podcasters like NPR and BBC take hundreds of hours per episode plus have a variety of highly trained professionals at their disposal. From that perspective, I am probably doing OK.
Anyway, I simply can’t earn my living and produce a quality podcast at the same time. So I don’t plan to produce any new episodes for a few months. If I find the time, I will produce an episode or two, but no promises.
The good news is that The Sleep to Healthy Podcast will be active again in the late summer or fall. I am super excited as I have plenty of sleep experts and fascinating topics lined up. Also, over the summer I plan to do some ground work to improve the podcast to make it better than ever. I’m pleased to say that the episodes are available on iTunes and all major podcast apps and have been listened to in over 10 countries including South Africa, Australia, The United States and Canada.
Thank you for your loyal support. You can send me ideas for improvement or encouragement through the website. Again, sorry for the interruption and thank you for your understanding and support.
And now, as promised, here is something you can do tonight, to sleep better in the days to come so you can feel and function better in the future.
Two of the most repeated recommendations from our guests for curing insomnia are sleep restriction therapy and stimulus control therapy. If you are not sure what these are you can refer to episodes 14, Sleep Coach with Martin Reed and episode 10 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia with Dr. Stephanie Silberman. You can easily access these through the sleeptohealthy.com website or on your favorite podcast app.
The issue in common with both is that they require you to have the self discipline to get out of bed when you least want to. Generally this happens in the middle of the night and when waking in the early morning, especially after or during a poor night’s sleep when you least want to comply.
The problem stems from our brain’s emotional centre, especially the amygdala, being highly active at night. So our emotion of reluctance is heightened. At the same time our logic centre, the prefrontal cortex, which allows us to override our emotions, is at low activity. So our ability to overcome the negative emotion is greatly reduced. Even if we are a person who has good self control during the day, we can struggle to do what’s helpful but difficult in the middle of the night. That’s certainly my case.
What to do? Here is a 2 step process that should help.
When you know you should get out of bed but lack the will power, rank your motivation level out of 10. Perhaps it is a 3 out of 10. Then ask yourself, why isn’t my motivation level even lower, say a 1 or 2 out of 10. For example, it might not be lower because you know it will help in the long run. Or it might not be lower than 3 out of 10 because you know that once you are out of bed you don’t feel that bad.
Answering this simple question will automatically increase your motivation to do the right thing.
Now for step 2. Right away, start counting down from 5 and before you reach 0, start the motion of getting out of bed – for instance, swing your legs around or start removing the sheets. You don’t need to be out of bed before you reach 0, just in the process of getting out of bed before you reach 0.
You should find your success rate at getting out of bed when you least want to, goes up. It may not reach 100%, but it will almost certainly improve.
You can use this same technique for other initiatives you struggle with such as exercising or starting an unpleasant work task.
The 5 second rule is covered more thoroughly at the end of episode 1, titled Listen to Sleep with Drew Ackerman of the Sleep with Me Podcast.
This is the end of the episode. Please remember to drop me a note through the sleeptohealthy.com website. Thank you for keeping me company today. I hope it won’t be too long before you join me next time on The Sleep to Healthy Podcast.
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