Are there good reasons to use sleeping pills?
Absolutely, particularly in times of stress, like the death of a spouse or a cancer diagnosis, when trying to first treat mental illness or insomnia, or when willfully ignoring biological clocks, as in shift work and jet lag. So how do I get sleep without sleeping pills? Recognize three things—that sleeping pills often work through conditioning, which you can do well without pills; that what you do during the day strongly impacts what happens to you during the night; and that your body is built to rest in very effective, very particular ways. 1. You have to calm down and rest before you sleep, and the simple acts of flossing and brushing your teeth, putting out your clothes for the next day, reading a book you should have read in high school (or as some patients tell me, one of my books) and hiding the clock can make everything work. 2. Use your body the way it’s built. To get your own private health insurance, go FAR—set a pattern of Food, followed by Activity and then Rest, throughou
