Course Program

PART I - Getting Started

1 - Getting Started

• Doctors and Sleeping Pills
• Psychotherapy and Over-the-Counter Sleep Aids
• A Breakthrough in the Treatment of Insomnia
• Why This Program Is Different

2 - Some Basic Facts About Sleep and Insomnia

• The Physiology of Sleep
• Body Temperature and Sleep
• Two Brain Systems That Govern Sleep
• Sleep Changes as We Age
• The Various Types of Insomnia
• The Physiology of Insomnia
• How Chronic Insomnia Evolves

3 - Putting Sleeping Pills to Rest

• Benzodiazepines
• Antidepressants
• Over-the-Counter Products
• Synthetic Melatonin
• When Sleeping Pills May Be Appropriate
• You Can Put Sleeping Pills to Rest—Permanently

4 - Conducting Your Own Insomnia Self-Assessment

• Determining Your Baseline Sleep Pattern
• Assessing the Thoughts and Behaviors That Are Disrupting Your Sleep
• Lifestyle Behaviors and Your Sleep Environment
• Is Daytime Stress Causing Insomnia?
• Medical Problems, Drugs, and Mental Health Problems
• The Next Step

PART II - Changing Sleep Thoughts and Behaviors

5 - Changing Your Thoughts About Sleep

• The Placebo Effect and Psychoneuroimmunology
• Negative Sleep Thoughts
• Cognitive Restructuring
• The Eight-Hour-Sleep Myth
• You Are Getting More Sleep Than You Think
• The Effects of Sleep Loss
• Core Sleep
• Insomnia and Daytime Mood
• Using Cognitive Restructuring Every Day

6 - Establishing Sleep-Promoting Habits

• Sleep-Scheduling Techniques
• Reducing Time Allotted for Sleep
• Napping
• Stimulus-Control Techniques
• Your Week Two Progress Summary
• You Can Change Your Behavior

7 - Lifestyle and Environmental Factors That Affect Sleep

• Exercise for Better Sleep and Health
• Improve Sleep and Mood with Bright Light
• How Caffeine, Nicotine, and Alcohol Can Disturb Sleep
• The Food-Sleep Connection
• How to Create the Optimal Sleep Environment
• Your Week Three Progress Summary

PART III - Managing Insomnia by Managing Stress

8 - The Relaxation Response

• The Stress Response
• The Relaxation Response
• The Week Four Progress Summary

9 - Learning to Think Away Your Stress

• Stress and Negative Self-Talk
• Reframing Negative Self-Talk
• Cognitive Restructuring and the Relaxation Response: A Powerful Combination
• The Week Five Progress Summary

10 - Developing Stress-Reducing, Sleep-Enhancing Attitudes and Beliefs

• The Benefits of Optimism
• The Three Cs: Control, Commitment, and Challenge
• No Man Is an Island
• Anger: The Unhealthy Emotion
• Laugh Your Stress Away
• Help Yourself by Helping Others
• Using Positive Illusions and Denial to Manage Stress
• The Power and Biology of Faith
• The Week Six Progress Summary