7 Steps to Eliminate Insomnia Forever

Make sure to download my FREE Guide on the 7 Steps to Eliminate Insomnia Forever & Get Your Life Back Online here - https://www.drorma.com/free-guide

In this video I talk about the 7 key steps to overcoming insomnia and maintaining healthy sleep for life.

Learn how to:

▪️ Stop doing things that don’t work.
▪️ Create a personalized sleep schedule.
▪️ Break the bed-wakefulness association.
▪️ Build sleep confidence (shift from uncertainty, worry and fear).
▪️ Prevent insomnia from ever coming back

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WHAT I DO:
I help people overcome insomnia and get good sleep (without medication, drugs or supplements).

To Your Sleeping Better!
- Steve

TRANSCRIPT
It's extremely common to take the wrong path when you have insomnia because there's so much false and misleading information out there from the internet, doctors, therapists, and health providers. It can be very confusing, anxiety-provoking, and frustrating. If you have insomnia, you're trying your best to overcome it, but you're not getting results. In today's video, I want to end that struggle for you and go over the seven steps to eliminate insomnia forever and explain why this process is the gold standard for overcoming insomnia. It worked for me over 10 years ago, and since then, I've helped hundreds of my clients get rid of insomnia as well.

My name is Dr. Steve Orma, and I'm a clinical psychologist specializing in helping people all over the world eliminate insomnia for good, without medication or wasting time on things that don't work. Let's jump right into the first step for overcoming insomnia.

Step number 1: Understand the real cause
Conventional wisdom and most doctors will tell you that insomnia is caused by things like anxiety, stress, depression, PTSD, medical conditions, excessive caffeine or alcohol intake, heavy meals before bed, or stressful life events. This is what they consider to be the causes of insomnia. However, the truth is that none of these actually cause insomnia. If you don't know the correct cause, you can't find the correct solution. The key to overcoming insomnia is knowing what's actually creating it and then removing or reversing that cause.

There is usually some kind of trigger that leads to poor sleep. This trigger could be any of the things mentioned above, causing one or a few nights of difficult sleep. If you're experiencing anxiety, stress, or going through major life changes, it can definitely disturb your sleep, leading to a few poor nights of sleep. However, this is not insomnia—it's just normal life events affecting your sleep. Our bodies are built to be adaptive and resilient, so having a few poor nights of sleep is part of life.

The real problem starts when poor sleep leads to what are called negative sleep thoughts (NSTs). These are negative thoughts, worries, and concerns about your sleep that develop after experiencing poor sleep. Over time, these negative sleep thoughts lead to negative sleep behaviors (NSBs), which can throw your sleep off track and perpetuate insomnia. Even when the initial trigger that caused poor sleep goes away, the pattern of negative thoughts and behaviors continues, creating the cycle of insomnia.

Step number 2: Stop doing things that don't work
Most of the commonly recommended solutions for insomnia don't work. These include medication, supplements, sleep hygiene tips like meditation, relaxation exercises, reducing caffeine and alcohol, avoiding naps, and having a bedtime routine. While some of these might help strengthen a healthy sleep pattern, they don't eliminate insomnia once it has developed. They can actually make it worse by increasing anxiety and frustration when they don't work.

Step number 3: You don't need anything external
If you're taking sleeping pills or other medications, not only will they not eliminate insomnia, but they can also make it worse by treating only the symptoms. Medications interfere with your normal sleep cycle, can lead to dependency, and have side effects. To eliminate insomnia, you need to taper off medication safely (in consultation with your doctor) and replace it with science-based methods, such as shifting your sleep thoughts and changing your sleep behaviors.

Step number 4: Create a personalized sleep schedule
A consistent sleep schedule helps reset and restore your sleep system. Most people with insomnia have an inconsistent sleep schedule, which exacerbates the problem. Poor sleep behaviors, like sleeping in after a bad night or going to bed early to try to catch up on sleep, can disrupt your natural sleep rhythm.

By understanding the real cause of insomnia, stopping ineffective treatments, not relying on external solutions, and implementing a structured sleep schedule, you can start reversing the cycle of insomnia. If you're serious about overcoming insomnia, I offer a free ebook with seven steps to eliminate insomnia forever without medication. Just comment "ebook" below the video, and I'll send you the link to download it.

These steps are part of a comprehensive approach that has helped many people reclaim their sleep and get their lives back on track.

Step 5: Breaking the bed-wakefulness association
One of the fundamental causes of insomnia is spending too much time awake in bed. If you're lying there feeling anxious, frustrated, ruminating, or even just alert and awake, this behavior feeds into the insomnia cycle. Taking sleeping pills or other substances and putting too much effort into trying to sleep are also poor sleep behaviors. While you may do these things to help your sleep, they often worsen the situation, disrupting your normal sleep pattern and turning your bed into a cue for wakefulness.

The Insomnia Cycle
When you have insomnia, your sleep system enters a cycle that disrupts your normal sleep pattern. To break this pattern, you need to establish a personalized structure for your sleep by changing four key behaviors:

1. Bedtime: Set a consistent time to go to bed each night.

2. Time in Bed: Reduce the amount of time spent awake in bed, as spending too much time in bed awake creates and maintains insomnia.

3. Wake-Up Time: Set a regular time to wake up each morning.

4. Response to Wakefulness: Adjust how you respond when you can't fall asleep or wake up during the night.

Creating a Personalized Sleep Structure
Personalizing your sleep structure is crucial because everyone's sleep system and poor sleep behaviors are different. You can create a personalized sleep schedule by tracking your sleep with a sleep log, which records key metrics such as the amount of time spent in bed, average sleep time, and sleep efficiency. This data allows you to tailor your sleep schedule and adjust it as your sleep improves.

Reversing the Bed-Wakefulness Association
Currently, your bed might be associated with sleeplessness, anxiety, and frustration. To reverse this, you need to maximize the time you spend in bed sleeping and minimize the time spent awake. This involves creating a personalized sleep schedule and getting out of bed if you can’t sleep after a short time. These actions help weaken the association between wakefulness and your bed, making it a cue for sleep again.

Step number 6: Building Sleep Confidence
Sleep confidence is the trust in your body's natural ability to sleep. Insomnia often undermines this confidence, leading to anxiety and doubt about your ability to fall asleep. By consistently implementing behavior shifts and monitoring your sleep progress, you can rebuild this trust and improve your sleep efficiency, average sleep time, and overall sleep quality.

Step number 7: Prevent insomnia from ever coming back
Once you have eliminated insomnia, it’s important to maintain healthy sleep habits to prevent it from returning. This includes maintaining a consistent sleep schedule, making your sleep environment comfortable, and avoiding poor sleep behaviors like taking sleeping pills or worrying about sleep. Keep prioritizing good sleep, just as you would with other aspects of your health, such as diet or exercise.

Conclusion
To eliminate insomnia forever, you need to:

1. Understand that insomnia is caused by poor sleep behaviors and negative sleep thoughts.

2. Stop doing ineffective things like taking sleep aids or worrying about sleep.

3. Create a personalized sleep schedule based on your sleep data.

4. Break the association between your bed and wakefulness.

5. Build confidence in your natural ability to sleep.

6. Maintain healthy sleep habits and avoid behaviors that disrupt sleep.

Following these steps will help you establish healthy, consistent sleep patterns and eliminate insomnia for good.