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Staying awake can help with insomnia
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
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An unusual way to solve such a common problem as chronic insomnia is given by specialists from Pennsylvania - according to their recommendations, a person with sleep disorders should spend as little time in bed as possible, this will help to fall asleep faster and get rid of insomnia. The scientists' findings were confirmed by tests in which people with various sleep disorders took part - according to the results of the studies, up to 80% of volunteers began to sleep better.
The unusual method also helps people with sleep disorders prevent the development of prolonged or chronic insomnia.
During the tests, Pennsylvania scientists recommended that the participants of the experiment get out of bed and stay awake if they still could not fall asleep a couple of hours before the alarm went off. According to the experts, this approach is to some extent cognitive behavioral therapy. In most cases, a person suffering from insomnia spends the whole night in bed, in painful attempts to fall asleep, and this is what leads to a violation of the balance between the natural process of falling asleep and the ability to fall asleep. Trying to fall asleep, tossing and turning in bed, a person seems to intensify insomnia, i.e., as if giving the body a signal "Do not sleep."
More than 400 people took part in the unusual experiment, the study was conducted at a private research university in the USA (Pennsylvania), 36 participants had acute insomnia, but most of them soon managed to cope with the problem, the rest of the volunteers did not complain of serious problems with falling asleep. During the experiment, which lasted 6 months, 394 participants gradually lost their sleep problems, but 31 people's acute insomnia became chronic.
During the deep sleep phase, participants without any serious sleep problems spent less time in bed compared to those who had no problems falling asleep.
Some of the participants suffering from acute insomnia reduced the time spent in bed, as a result of which problems with falling asleep gradually disappeared, while the participants who did not follow the recommendations of specialists and spent more time in bed (went to bed earlier, tried their best to fall asleep until the morning) developed chronic insomnia.
As you can see, it is wakefulness that helps to cope with insomnia, i.e. trying to fall asleep for many hours only aggravates the problem and can cause the development of chronic forms of sleep disorders. Experts emphasize that the less time you spend in bed in useless attempts to fall asleep for at least half an hour, it is better to get up and spend time doing something pleasant - as a result, the problem with falling asleep will disappear by itself.
Sleep disorders are studied by scientists from different countries, since millions of people in the world suffer from this pathology. In China, for example, experts have established that insomnia is caused by pathologies in the brain - a decrease in the integrity of the white matter in certain areas of the right hemisphere and the thalamus. Chinese specialists suggest that it is the anomalies in these areas of the brain that cause the development of insomnia and depression, and the abnormal processes themselves are provoked by a decrease in the myelin sheath of nerve fibers.
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