Cognitive Therapy

Sleep Beliefs Can Hurt Sleep

What you believe to be true about sleep can either help or hinder the ability to sleep. There are many common understandings about sleep that are actually incorrect. A couple that are common are:

• Believing that one can thrive with a few hours of sleep a night. While sleep needs differ for an individual the basic idea of eight hours is proving to be true. Studies on alertness have been done that show that even with 7 hours per night there is an increasing level of impaired alertness that occurs. It’s alarming when you realize that most people who have impaired alertness don’t think they do, they claim to be “just fine.”
  
• Believing that sleeping pills that you can pick up in any store are necessary for sleep. Some studies are showing that believing that a sleeping pill has helped with a good night’s sleep is the reason the pill is effective rather than any effects in the pill itself. Also, almost all sleeping aides lose effectiveness if used longer than recommended and then it appears two things happen - the real sleep enhancer is the belief in the pill, and the pills themselves can impair good sleep.

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