Welcome back to Savvy Psychologist. I'm your guest host, Dr. Jade Wu, and for longtime

listeners, I'm also a blast from the past as a former host of the show here to give you

a mini-series on my favorite topic, Sleep. This is the third and final part of my mini-series

based on my new book, Hello Sleep, the Science and Art of Overcoming Insomnia without medications.

In this mini-series, I'll help you meet sleep challenges, with evidence-based research,

a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment. Today, let's unpack sleep hygiene. What matters, what

doesn't, and how to let go of unnecessary effort to achieve sustainable sleep health?

A while ago, I had an insomnia patient with perfect sleep hygiene. Michelle never had

more than one cup of coffee, always before noon. She went to the gym often, but never

close to bedtime. She had black-out curtains and a high-tech sound machine. She went to

bed at 10 p.m. on the dot and meditated with the goal of falling asleep by 10.30 p.m.

She even put away all her screens by 8 p.m. every night. That's right, even her Kindle.

So you can understand why Michelle was extra frustrated. She was doing everything right,

and she tried so hard to just clear her mind and relax. Yet, she still took forever to

fall asleep. So when I met her, she was desperate. She asked, what am I doing wrong, with choice

placement of a word that rhymes with duck, because she was on her third day of having hardly

slept at all. You may be surprised to hear this, but in my insomnia clinic,

I see people with impeccable sleep hygiene all the time. If this resonates with you,

I have two words for you. Sleep, effort. Sleep effort is anything you do to try to chase

down sleep, to try to force sleep to happen when it's not naturally happening on its own.

It might be counting sheep while you're saying to yourself, come on, just sleep damn it.

It might be trying really hard to clear your mind and getting frustrated when straight

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