When Good Sleep Advice is Harmful

One reason why good sleep advice doesn’t work is that the advice was implemented at the wrong time.

Just like with baking, order matters when it comes to getting sleep on track. You can’t ice cupcakes until you’ve mixed the proper ingredients, poured the batter into the tray, and baked them in the oven.

Advice like…

• Cut out naps
• Wake up at a more consistent time
• Stay out of bed until sleepy
• Learn skills to relax and address a busy mind
• Put away electronics earlier in the evening

...all great recommendations and necessary steps but generally not the smartest advice to start with.

Remember, most teens with insomnia are exhausted, ambivalent, and not confident that these strategies will work (they often haven’t in the past).

Implementing the above strategies consistently is often too difficult at the beginning. Things fall apart and they don’t see benefit from their efforts.

The real harm is that they then learn that these interventions are not helpful or that they are not capable of sleeping better (neither is true), resulting in less willingness to take action in the future.

It’s much more effective to start with small, digestible steps that they can realistically and consistently follow through on.

Eventually, they will be ready for more challenging steps but they need to build some momentum and confidence first.

There are a few easy recommendations that, in my opinion, always make sense to start with.

I talk about them in this chat with paediatrician Dr. Nerissa Bauer from Let’s Talk Kids Health. Skip to 5:30 if you're short on time!