Medication for sleeping problems (i.e. Ambien) as all of you know help as long as you take the medication. However, once you stop taking the medication, the sleeping problems resurface and sometimes the problems are even worse such as having greater difficulty becoming sleepy or staying asleep. In numerous research study, it has been proven that behavioral techniques solve sleeping dysfunction and show long term treatment gains unlike what we see with medication. In many cases other than sleep related issues, medication in conjunction with psychotherapy or behavioral techniques is more effective than if either one of these methods are delivered alone. Here's techniques in behavioral therapy that can put you on the right track:
1. Do not take naps during the day time. This is the hardest for people to stick to, but you really got to push yourself not to fall asleep during the day. You may try this a day or two and say I'm still unable to fall asleep at night and I'm just miserable not taking naps. Just trust me on this one. Keep sticking to this without cheating and in a weak it will really start paying off. The body after awhile will start demanding sleep.
2. Wake up at the same time everyday even on the weekends. Yes, I know you want to sleep in when you have the opportunity but it creates a terrible cycle. You sleep in late on Saturday and end up staying up later on the weekend nights and when monday comes around you don't get enough sleep because you were up late Sunday night and have to wake up early on Monday.
3. The Do Nots Before Bedtime: a)Do not exercise too late. Ideally exercise before 6pm. Exercise stimulates your body and need adequate time to relax even if you feel exhausted from working out b) Don't eat right before bed... if you eat late keep it to a very light snack and nothing 1 hour before bed. c) No caffeine after 6pm that means no sodas or coffee. d) Do not use the computer right before bed. The computer emits blue light which the brain interprets as daylight. In turn this message to the brain stimulates the brain rather than relaxes you. e) Don't watch or listen to things that makes you excited (e.g. action movies, watching boxing, listening to fast paced music)
4. The Does Before Bedtime: create a routine that relaxes you before going to bed and these routines will eventually become cues that may you feel sleepy. Examples when getting ready for bed: 1) put on your pajamas, brush your teeth, take a shower or bath, listen to relaxing music.
5. Use your bed only for sleeping and sex. Do not read in bed, eat in bed, or work/study/read in bed. You want to associate your bed only with sleep or sex. So, when you get in bed you will not have conflicting feelings of needing to work or do other things.
6. Take care of things before you go to bed that are possible sleep distractors or interrupters. Example: let the dog out to go potty before you crawl into bed. Go to the bathroom before you go to bed so you don't need to get up. Have a drink by the bed so if you are thirsty you won't have to go to the kitchen.
7. (I don't 100% agree with this but some people do) If lie down to sleep and you don't feel tired then get out of bed and do something that will make you tired. Return to bed only when you are tired. (I personally can't do this because I wake up even more when I get out of bed.)
8. There's some relaxation techniques you can do to calm yourself down but I'll create a new thread on that alone (it's called deep muscle relaxation with or without imagery).
9. Other things is to reduce the distractions in the environment by either reducing the noise (you can were earplugs if you are in an environment where you cannot control the noise) and try to make the room as dark as possible.

If you follow these steps without cheating I promise that your sleep will improve over the next couple of weeks. And, the longer you practice these techniques the less likely that your sleep problems will resurface. Try to do this without the use of medication. Medication actually interfers with the effectiveness of these behavioral techniques. There is also a tendency to get frustrated easily if we don't fall asleep within a couple minutes and then we go grab our bottle of Ambien or whatever and pop a few pills. It will be rough the first few days trying these techniques without medication but it will get better and be really beneficial in the long run. Just imagine, no longer dependent on sleeping pills and the eliminating the risk of future sleeping problems.

I'll talk later in another thread how to deal with stress that has a major impact on sleep and daily functioning.

Hope this helps,
Poo

One more note: all of this has scientific merit. If anyone wants the journal articles with the results just let me know and I can probably find them in pdf format. However, since they are professional journal articles they are rather dry..definitely nothing like magazine articles you'll find in Psychology Today, Reader's Digest, or Vogue. If you are into the technical stuff then hit me up.

Oh, Admin...is there a way to post full journal articles, say in pdf format? I don't think I can provide a link because you need a member of a professional institution to gain access so many people here will not be able to access it themselves. Just let me know,
Poo

Not an admin but I tried to upload the stop smoking book by Alan Carr.My upload limit was only 300K the book is only 400K this is a 56K friendly board if anyone has it anymore,I do have friends in back country that use 56K but they also pay a toll to the nearest town.For $5 more in most areas you can get DSL or better yet cable.