Q: I get stressed about falling asleep. I seem to fixate on wanting to know what’s normal to see right at sleep onset. How do you know that you are “successfully” beating insomnia?
A: What’s normal? No one knows exactly what’s normal to be thinking about in that twilight zone between drowsiness and actual sleep, although EEG recordings give us a clue.
Your description of stress about sleep gives us another clue about your situation in particular. Sleep is best understood as a process of just letting go, rather than dwelling on what we’re thinking about at the moment of falling asleep.
Specifically, studies have shown that thinking about “nothing in particular” is associated with faster sleep onset. So if you just let your thoughts wander pleasantly without any forcing or direction you’re likely to fall asleep faster.
As for “successfully” beating insomnia, you are the best judge of that. Normally it’s based on how you feel and perform during daytime hours. If you have enough energy to get through the day, mood is normal, don’t experience excessive drowsiness, all that suggests you’re getting enough sleep for your needs.
That’s a simple way of looking at it. In the Sleep Training System you’ll also learn how to measure your sleep objectively, so you can most efficiently make use of your time in bed.
That combination, your sleep efficiency plus your perceptions of daytime performance, is usually the best way to determine when you’ve reached your goals of better sleep naturally.