Don Salmon
2 min readFeb 19, 2023

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CBT-I (in which I'm certified) has worked very well for up to 50% of the population of insomnia sufferers (which, by the way, is more than twice as high as the effectiveness of supplements or sleeping pills)

But for significant sup-groups, it's not enough (even with sleep restriction, stimulus control, and the cognitive portion). Mindfulness has been found to lift the cure rate from 50 to upwards of 70 or 80%.

But much mindfulness is taught in a very tense way which is counterproductive to sleep. So you have to find someone who can teach a relatively calm, effortless mindfulness.

There are also yoga nidra (deep relaxation) practices which are not commonly known among those who commonly teach relaxation. These have also been found to add to the effectiveness of the overall program.

And if you do find someone who brings these altogether, you may have to take into account issues related to aging, gender, and other physiological issues. It can be very simple but it can be in some cases quite complex.

I'll just make one concrete suggestion if you're willing to learn a little of relaxation and mindfulness on your own.

if you can do mindfulness meditation of any kind lying down, and you can let go of the thoughts about needing to sleep, just enjoying the opportunity to spend what is in a way kind of mini retreat every night, you may find yourself not caring as much whether you actually fall asleep, having more energy in the day (as well as feeling more relaxed) and (down the line but don't think about it now!) falling asleep more easily!

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Don Salmon
Don Salmon

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