Arun Kumar
In the last couple of years, I had some issues related to sleep. Initially, there were occasional sleepless nights. They would be like waking up in the middle of the night, or in the early hours of morning and then not being able to go back to sleep again. Slowly, I became aware that this pattern was repeating more frequently.
As the realization of having trouble going to (and staying) asleep dawned, it increased my level of anxiousness about sleep. Before going to bed, I would start to think about sleep and then try to make concerted efforts to fall asleep.
That was when l lost the automaticity associated with sleep that we have. The rule about sleep is that we go sleep without trying but if we try, it does not happen.
Over months, occasional sleepless nights turned into severe insomnia. There would be 3–4 nights straight when I was not able to sleep. The positive feedback loop between obsessively thinking about sleep but then staying awake kept feeding the monster of insomnia. My lack of ability to sleep also started to touch on other aspects of life.
Somewhere along my search to find a key to resolve my insomnia, I learned about the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT is a technique for consciously intervening to prevent negative responses from occurring that can result from various triggers — a thought of not being able to sleep tonight (the trigger) cascading into fears about the quality of day tomorrow (the negative response).
Upon further reading, I also became aware of the specific CBT approach for Insomnia (CBT-I).
CBT-I utilizes various methods aiming to enhance positive association between bed and sleep in contrast to making bed a battleground for a struggle for sleep. The practice of CBT-I includes (i) developing sleep routines that create a positive association between bed and sleep and (ii) encouraging positive interventions between triggers (associated with the possibility of a sleepless night) and catastrophizing its negative consequences on a host of other life related things. The fear of negative consequences pushes us harder to try to go to sleep, which of course, does not work.
CBT-I is proposed as the first line of defense against insomnia and its practice is documented to alleviate two-thirds to three-fourth cases of insomnia. Following the CBT-I practices in their fullness, however, could be daunting task.
For example, one of the requirements of the CBT-I is to get out of the bed when unable to sleep, which, particularly on cold wintery nights, is no piece of cake.
After learning about the CBT-I, I tried to practice CBT-I for more than a year but kept failing again and again. This was even though I kept reminding myself that a few months of grueling CBT-I routine, which had the potential for getting me out of insomnia, would be a far better return on investment then continuing to live with insomnia itself.
But over and over, I kept failing and kept stumbling on my resolve to follow through the CBT-I program.
I am not a person with a weak will by any chance, but in following CBT-I, I fell victim to a choice guided by our natural preference for selecting the path of least resistance.
In a broad sense, given multiple choices that differ in the amount of effort required, we have a natural tendency to select the option that necessitates least amount of effort.
Various phenomena occurring in nature and in human behavior provide examples for the tendency to follow the path of least resistance. When encountering an obstacle, for example, a large rock, the river opts to go around it. To go the other side of a succession of hills, most hikers may select a path along the trough rather than climbing over the hill .
As for many of our behavioral aspects, it is likely that natural selection guided our preference for choosing the path of least resistance. Why spend precious energy reserves by selecting harder path between two options? Save the resources for when times get tougher.
In trying to follow the CBT-I routine, I leaned towards selecting the path of least resistance. To make matters worse, enveloped in the darkness of the night, I told stories and convinced myself that just for one night it is okay not to follow the hard option of CBT-I. One night lying awake in bed turned into two nights, into a week, and before I knew, a month would go by without making any progress in following CBT-I. Over and over, I failed in giving CBT-I an honest try.
It is remarkably easy not to stay disciplined and to psychologically delude ourselves into opting for easier options.
What also helps is our tendency to go for pleasures of immediate gratification vs opting for activities that offer benefits over a longer time horizon (i.e., delayed gratification), a tendency also referred to as the present bias.
Having consciousness is a blessing; however, if not used judiciously, it could be an impediment. Maybe one day, I will be wiser and given two option, I will choose the harder one because unpleasant as it may be, the long-term returns would be better.
Ciao, and thanks for reading.