Rubin Naiman – Insomnia: Integrative Sleep Therapy

Outline

Epidemic of Sleep and Dream Loss

• Prevalence and trends of sleeplessness
• Night fever: insomnia, inflammation, illness
• Insomnia, anxiety, depression and PTSD
• Environmental factors: the erosion of night
• Artificial light at night (aLAN) and life pace
• Cultural resistance to rest / hyperarousal
• Insomnia as an addiction to waking consciousness
• Insomnia as a social illness

What is Sleep? What is Dreaming?

• We don’t get sleep because we don’t ‘get’ sleep
• Medicalization and domestication of sleep
• Suppression of night, darkness and melatonin
• Nature of sleep and dreams
• Deep sleep and the deep self
• Rhythmic infrastructure of everything
• Circadian rhythm & blues: sleep phase disorders
• REM sleep, dreaming and dream loss
• Traditional and spiritual views of sleep and dreams

Insomnia: Definition, Etiology and Evaluation

• Types of insomnia; sleep and dream loss
• 3P model of etiology
• Lifestyle factors in sleep loss
• Iatrogenic factors: common medications and sleep
• Nature deficit disorder and sleep disruption
• Arrogance and hyperarousal
• Biomedical factors in sleep loss
• Impact of other sleep disorders
• Screen and evaluate sleep and dreams

Management and Treatment of Insomnia

• Noise Reduction Model (NRMI)
• Taking vs. letting go of something to sleep
• Biomedical factors: manage ‘body noise’
• Sleeping pills: a wolf in sleep’s clothing
• Botanicals, nutrition, melatonin
• Nutrition and sleep
• The body in sleep: gravity & stimulus control
• The princess & the pee: what wakes us up at night?
• Environmental factors: managing ‘bed noise’
• Conditioned insomnia
• Stimulus control and sleep constriction

Psychological Factors: Manage ‘Mind Noise’

• CBT-I: thoughts, beliefs and meta-cognitions around sleep
• Paradox of sleep effort: the ego cannot sleep
• Sleeping together: the night side of relationships
• Sleeping in the forest – the art of sleep
• Humility as the antidote to hyperarousal
• Secondary gain of primary insomnia
• Dream work: interpretation, relation and healing
• Bad dreams, nightmares, PTSD and shadow work
• Video: sleep interview & treatment process

Transpersonal Views

• Sleep and dreams as spiritual practice
• Non-violent approach to night, sleep and dreams
• Art of spiritual surrender
• Where do you go when you go to sleep?
• Fall in love with sleep again
• The waking dream: re-enchanting everyday life
• The US of consciousness: sleep & dream lessons for waking
• Braid Theory: toward a unified consciousness