How We Get To Sleep
The four stages of sleep are :
Insomnia and Hypnosis
We ' ve all " been there ." Tossing and turning , getting up , maybe reading a little , or watching a little TV . Then more tossing and turning , still unable to fall asleep and , finally , out of sheer exhaustion , we do " drop off ." Or we have occasionally fallen asleep and then , only two , three , or four hours later , woken up , unable to go back to sleep . We may even ask ourselves , " What ' s going on here ?" These two experiences are the more common forms of insomnia , i . e .,
1 ) Inability to get to sleep .
2 ) Inability to maintain sleep .
When either or both of these conditions become chronic , they can easily affect our ability to cope and our overall capacity to effectively function in our everyday activities . The good news is , once we understand the real behavioural dynamics at work here , these conditions can be easily corrected .
How We Get To Sleep
Let ' s examine how a person who has no difficulty getting to sleep actually does it . Most people are unaware that someone who lies down in bed and " goes to sleep " actually moves through four different stages , the last of which is unconscious sleep .
The four stages of sleep are :
1 Thinking 2 Fantasy 3 Hypnoidal 4 Unconscious Sleep
Stage 1 – Thinking
When we get into bed , we start thinking about the events of the day or , possibly , what will happen tomorrow , or any myriad of things .
Stage 2 – Fantasy
Whether the person is consciously aware of it or not , his thoughts eventually turn to thoughts ASSOCIATED with relaxation . ( Perhaps thought of a future vacation or activity in a place that person already associates with feeling relaxed .)