Self-help program
5. Cognitive distortions
Our thoughts are a reflection of our inner world. However, they are more often interpretations than absolute facts.
Cognitive distortions are false beliefs that you automatically perceive as true and that can lower your mood and hold you back.
The following are a few examples:
- I will not get through the day at work.
- I know I will not sleep tonight either.
- I always sleep badly.
- Insomnia is damaging my health.
- Falling asleep is impossible for me.
The next exercise challenges this kind of thinking.
How does practising help?
Identifying and challenging your cognitive distortions can help you to see insomnia differently.
Thought
Emotion
Physical sensations
Action
Challenging your cognitive distortions
Cognitive distortions that feel real are often distressing. They can interfere with sleep. Cognitive distortions can be overcome by cognitive reframing.
The following are examples of questions that you can use to test and challenge your perceptions:
- Is my thinking based on fact, a belief or a guess?
- What evidence is there that my thinking is correct?
- Have I heard it with my own ears or seen it with my own eyes?
- What are other people likely to think?
- Is it possible that I have jumped to a conclusion that is not actually correct?
Cognitive reframing
Cognitive distortions and cognitive reframing are two sides of the same coin. Cognitive distortions interfere with sleep, and reframing negative thoughts promotes sleep.
Cognitive distortion
Inflexible and often inaccurate negatively biased thinking pattern that interferes with sleep.
Cognitive reframing
A flexible, forgiving and sleep-friendly mindset that is usually based on fact.
Below is a list of examples of cognitive distortions and how each negative thought can be reframed.
Use the exercise template below to reflect on your perceptions about insomnia.
Exercise: Cognitive distortions associated with insomnia
Goal
Learn to test the truthfulness of your perceptions. It will help you to reframe your thoughts and find alternative, sleep-friendly ways of thinking.
Instructions
Use the exercise to recognize and challenge mindsets that perpetuate insomnia.
Do this exercise regularly.
1. Read the examples in the expandable list above and think about the cognitive distortions that they represent.
If you recognize a similar cognitive distortion in yourself, write it in the text box.
2. Try to identify an alternative way of thinking about each scenario.
You can use the following questions as a guide:
- Is my thinking based on fact, a belief or a guess?
- What evidence is there that my thinking is correct?
- Have I heard it with my own ears or seen it with my own eyes?
- What are other people likely to think?
- Is it possible that I have jumped to a conclusion that is not actually correct?