Introducing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (Introducing...) Read Online Free Page B

and deal with worry before going to bed. Once he’s eaten, Robert sits down and allows himself half an hour of ‘worry time’ to think about the things that might otherwise keep him awake. He uses the worry exercises from Chapter 4 to help him to decide whether he can do something practical to solve each problem now, or whether he needs to make a plan to solve it in the future. He makes notes so that he knows there’s no danger of him forgetting things. Robert spends half an hour on his worry time exercise, making sure he’s covered everything he might worry about. He then spends some time quietly listening to music which both he and his wife find is relaxing, before they go to bed together. Robert moves his clock so that he can no longer see it from the bed.
Once in bed if he finds his mind heading off in the direction of his worries, he now firmly tells himself that this isn’t the time to worry, that there’s nothing he can do about it right now, and that he’s already planned how to deal with everything he needs to for tomorrow. If something comes up, however, that Robert really wants to remember, and that he knows he didn’t include in his worry time, then, if he can’t move on from it, he writes it down on the piece of paper he now keeps next to the bed, before allowing himself to move on to something else.
At first this whole process proves pretty difficult. Robert keeps catching himself starting a particular worry, and has to remind himself that he has dealt with it for now. He has to deliberately encourage his mind to move on to something else. Rather than getting frustrated with the repetition, he reminds himself that it takes time and patience to break habits. He considers reading Chapter 5 for more ideas on beating bad habits. If after 15 minutes he’s still awake, Robert gets up, goes into the front room and listens to music for a while before coming back to bed when he feels tired. Over time Robert’s sleep starts to improve and he finds he is more able to deal with the worry that used to prevent him from sleeping.
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Case study – Simon
Simon also needs to apply the principles of sleep hygiene in order to improve his poor sleep. Simon uses these techniques alongside those suggested in Chapter 6 to help lift his low mood. He realizes that he needs to get more active during the day in order to sleep at night. He also has to stop napping during the day. This proves difficult while he has so little to do, so Simon starts to structure his day, planning his time to include both tasks and leisure activities. As he learns to keep busy during the day, he finds he no longer feels so tired and sleepy all the time. Simon cuts down on the time he spends watching television, and arranges times to see friends, walk the dog and go swimming.
Like Robert, he implements a bedtime routine which he too finds relaxing. He makes sure he is strict with himself about the times he goes to bed and gets up. Simon and his partner used to watch television in bed at night, so they agree to move the television out of the bedroom, and only switch it on when there is something they really want to watch. Simon also decides to cut out alcohol in the evening, and only have a drink or two over dinner at the weekend.
Not surprisingly, Simon finds these changes difficult to stick to at first. He’s not used to sleeping at night, and initially finds that he doesn’t sleep much. It’s then very hard for him to stay awake during the day and he needs to make sure he keeps busy in order to force himself to stay awake. Simon asks his friends to help with this. Eventually, Simon finds that he’s able to fall into a more natural pattern and sleep at night. His increased activity during the day starts to improve his mood, which also helps him to stop worrying and sleep better. Simon’s motivation increases and he becomes more positive about continuing his search for another job.
Finally, though things are very much improved, Simon and