Tips to Stop Insomnia and Get Back to Sleep

At the National Jewish Health Sleep Center, insomnia expert Jack Edinger, PhD, helps insomniacs by getting them out of bed. Your bed should be associated with successful sleep, so when you are troubled by insomnia, he suggests getting out of bed and going to another area of your home. When you are tired, go back to your bed and sleep should come easier.

Video Transcript

What we have people do is when they're wide awake and they're not sleeping, not to struggle in bed.

We don’t want the bed and the bedroom to be a place where they torture themselves and agonize and actually raise their arousal that will block sleep from coming back.

So we have them sort of get out of situation, go to another room, do something relaxing for a while and when they’re actually sleepy, try again.

So we’re trying to pair the bed with successful sleep attempts, not working at it and struggling.