Feeling Better with Less Sleep

Those suffering from sleep disorders should sleep less. Is this really true? We took a close look at the phenomenon…

Wake therapy against sleep disorders

Better sleep thanks to less sleep? Sounds paradoxical, but it’s true. The so-called “therapy of sleep restriction” was brought to life as early as 1987 by the US-American psychologist Art Spielman. It is aimed particularly at people who suffer chronically from sleep disorders. The idea: A restful sleep does not depend on the duration but rather on the quality. Accordingly, six hours of restful deep sleep can be enough.

People with sleep disorders can only dream of such a deep sleep: they often lie in bed for hours, staring at the ceiling and becoming increasingly depressed as time shrinks continuously until morning. However, as the “Zentrum für Schlafmedizin” in Munich writes, sleep restriction therapy uses the imbalance between real sleep time and the time actually spent in bed.

How the sleep restriction works

For several weeks, a “sleep diary” records when you go to bed, fall asleep and wake up again. For example, someone who has slept for an average of five hours a night may only stay in bed for these five hours. An example: You have tried to sleep nine hours a night and usually went to bed at 10 pm. However, you fell asleep at midnight at the earliest and woke up around five o’clock. Then you must reduce your bedtime by four hours. But be careful not to fall below the limit of four and a half hours of sleep.

The effect: especially at the beginning of the therapy, tiredness and sleep pressure increases significantly. If the waking therapy is effective, you can stay in bed 15 to 30 minutes longer in the following week. The whole thing is practiced until the individual sleeping time is reached. On the other hand, those who sleep less than the scheduled five hours must shorten the bedtime by half an hour – in theory.

How can this work?

Why the concept of sleep restriction can work is actually quite obvious: at the time when they go to bed, sufferers are so exhausted that they fall into deep sleep immediately. As a result, at some point the bed no longer stands for sleepless nights, but for peaceful sleep. And that is ultimately the goal: the bed should awaken positive feelings by improving sleep continuity and increasing the number of deep sleep phases.