I get insomnia. I've been doing CBT-i for a month. It's been transformational. Throughout this experience, I've learned a lot about sleep that I wouldn't have l

I get insomnia. I've been doing CBT-i for a month. It's been transformational. Throughout this experience, I've learned a lot about sleep that I wouldn't have learned otherwise. 8 hours of sleep per day is generally a myth. The amount of sleep people need varies from person to person. Ironically, fixating on getting eight hours can cause some people to get insomnia. Insomnia is a condition that is often caused by something (like work stress for the author) but drastically overstays its welcome. My CBT-i program emphasizes that trying to determine the root cause of the insomnia is pointless because of this phenomenon. This theory of how insomnia develops is called the 3P model and was developed by Dr. Arthur Spielman in the NINE TEEN EIGHTIES. (We've been sleeping for thousands and thousands of years!) https://insomnia.sleep-disorders.net/clinical/three-factors-model https://insomnia.sleep-disorders.net/clinical/three-factors-... Sleep apnea is super duper common. But the world (well at least the US) prides itself on working harder and sleeping less. I've met tons of people who start work at 6am but "get to sleep" (usually means "get to bed") at 10pm or later, partially because they wrap up work at home. There is an over-fixation on the long-term degenerative effects of sleep. However, those effects are poorly understood because sleep in itself is poorly understood. You can't really control sleep. That blew my mind. You can train yourself to get sleepy on a schedule, but actually falling asleep isn't up to you. This is why a lot of common sleep hygiene advice isn't that effective (or is actually regressive) long-term. CBT-i focuses a lot on this in particular. Alcohol and sleeping pills DESTROY sleep. That is one of the few things about sleep that is extremely well understood. These things help people get to stage 1 sleep but inhibit the deeper sleep stages that start recovery processes. (The author took antihistamines for years. Antihistamines are used as sleep aids, though they are habit-forming and can cause gnarly insomnia when you get off of them without weaning off.) So I agree with the author. I strongly believe that ALMOST EVERYONE in the US struggles with sleep, but, like sex, talking about that is taboo and drugging your way through the solution is socially acceptable.