Self-help program
3. TIPS FOR THE FUTURE
You are now familiar with all the exercises featured in the Self-Help Program for Insomnia. This is the third and final section of the program. It teaches you more about the prerequisites for sleep and healthy lifestyle choices that promote good-quality sleep.
Moving forward
We hope that you have found the tools and exercises featured in this program useful and helpful. Recovery is all about focusing on the present and keeping you sights set on the future.
There are many ways in which you can help yourself to sleep better. Examples include following regular sleeping and waking times, a healthy lifestyle, a consistent evening routine and the exercises featured in this self-help program.
Remember that everything that you do or do not do in your waking hours affects how you sleep in the night. Achieving healthy sleep is a 24-hour process.
Practice makes perfect
As with all learning, mastering sleep-friendly habits and thinking patterns also requires regular practice. We recommend that you first try the exercises featured in this self-help program in low-pressure situations and gradually work your way up to scenarios where you have a risk of becoming overwhelmed.
Learning to sleep better is a little like learning to swim
When you are learning to swim, you need to first practice the technique in shallow water and work on your confidence in safe conditions. Once you have mastered the basics, you can move to swimming in more challenging conditions, such as in deep water where you cannot touch the bottom with your feet.
Practicing can feel exhausting, especially in the early stages. It is therefore important that you reward yourself at regular intervals, such as after doing an exercise for a week.
Think of a way to reward yourself. Examples include giving yourself a moment to listen to your favorite music or read a book, dedicating a whole evening to relaxing, or calling a friend. It is important that the reward is something that genuinely appeals to you.