Relaxation Revolution by Herbert Benson MD

Author:Herbert Benson, MD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scribner
Published: 2010-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

The other group of participants was taught these stimulus control techniques plus the evocation of the relaxation response. All subjects underwent a 10-week period of training, and also a post-treatment follow-up for one month.

Both groups improved significantly in reducing the amount of time they took to get to sleep, but the group that had used the relaxation response did better. On average, they experienced a decline in sleep-onset time from more than 77 minutes to 17.5 minutes during the post-test period.

In another insomnia study conducted in 1996, Jacobs, Richard Friedman, and I found that an approach to insomnia that used lifestyle changes, the relaxation response, and various other cognitive restructuring techniques enabled over 90 percent of the participants who were using sleep medications to either eliminate or reduce their drug use.37

Possible Mind Body Treatments

To treat your insomnia, begin practicing the two-phase Benson-Henry Protocol summarized on page 111.

In light of the research and clinical experience in this area, we also recommend the following approach to treating your insomnia:

The Role of Posture

Because posture is a primary consideration when you want to fall asleep, you will need to alter our usual instructions about the two-phase mind body treatment protocol. Normally, we recommend that in Phase One you assume a comfortable sitting position. One of the reasons is to be sure you stay awake! Sitting in a chair, standing and swaying, sitting cross-legged on the floor, and kneeling are meditational or prayerful postures that have evolved over millennia, in part to keep practitioners from falling asleep.

But in treating insomnia, your objective is different: You want to assume a posture that will help you fall asleep, and that means it is necessary for you to lie down as you use the standard relaxation response instructions. As you break the train of everyday thought in a reclining posture, the stimuli traveling from your mind to your body will typically trigger physiologic responses and brain waves that produce sleep instead of a wakeful calmness.

A peculiar problem that often occurs as you’re trying to drift off to sleep is that you may lapse into a foggy state, not quite awake or asleep, during which anxious thoughts—such as “I’m still not asleep and I have to get up in two hours!”—arouse you and keep you awake. In this foggy state, you may also find it particularly hard to center on your focus word or phrase.

As an antidote, most patients find that all they have to do is condition themselves with regular practice of the two-phase mind body exercise during their wakeful hours. With that training, they are much more likely to be able to turn away from distractions with an “Oh well”; break the train of everyday thought; and, because of the reclining position, fall asleep.

For the Phase Two visualization, you have a range of possibilities when dealing with insomnia. You might picture yourself floating on a cloud, completely relaxed—and hold that image for the recommended 8 to 10 minutes. Or you might imagine yourself floating in a warm pool of water.

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