If you’re also struggling to fall asleep at night while you’re rotating from one side to another, we have some great news for you. According to Dr. Karan Raj, reversed psychology is what made him overcome his insomnia. What we mean by “reversed psychology,” in this case, is pretty simple. It’s the simple act of saying to yourself that you won’t fall asleep as you get in your bed.
Why would you spend money on pills for insomnia when you can simply try a completely natural way of falling asleep? Furthermore, those pills might even produce some side effects that you don’t need. The reversed psychology method can be used by everyone, so there’s practically no reason not to try it next time when you have trouble falling asleep.
Dr. Karan Raj explained as The Jerusalem Post quotes:
When I started working as a doctor, I struggled with insomnia. There’s one thing I thought wouldn’t work but it did.
Basically, you say to yourself ‘I’m not going to sleep’ and you stay awake. You don’t read a book, play with your phone or watch TV, anything. You just lie in bed with your eyes open. You force yourself to stay awake, tell yourself ‘Don’t go to sleep, don’t go to sleep.’ In many cases, you’ll feel tired and fall asleep. It works for me.
He also added in the comments as the same source quotes:
By the way, this is called ‘paradoxical intent.’ If I tell you not to think about a polar bear … guess what you’ll think of first? Works the same way!
Let’s face it: lying down in your bed and waiting to fall asleep for hours while you’re feeling sleepy and tired is awful. Up to 70 million Americans are affected by sleep disorders every year. In other words, insomnia is very common, but that doesn’t mean that we have to neglect it.