Sleep Tech Tip of the Week

by Michael Miller, RPSGT

Most of my professional career has been spent working third shift as a sleep technologist. The biggest challenge that I faced while working nights was enduring the exhausting schedule that can accompany having a career in sleep medicine. Working as a sleep technologist, my life revolved around sleep in one way or another: either watching someone else’s or attempting to achieve adequate sleep of my own. Periodically, I would suffer from transient insomnia, especially when I was switching from my work schedule to my personal schedule. I was acclimated to sleeping better during the daytime hours so that when I tried to fall asleep at night I would often experience difficulties. At one point I was prescribed sleep medication but found that I could not fall asleep naturally and actually began relying on the medication to achieve any sleep whatsoever.

Around ten years ago, I was explaining my situation to a colleague who made a suggestion that at the time I thought was seemingly elementary. They suggested that when I was experiencing difficulties falling asleep that I should silently count backwards from 200 by odd numbers. I thought this to be a pretty simple and to say the least an “odd” technique. With little hope, the next time I found myself lying awake with fleeting thoughts consuming my mind I attempted this basic task. I remember beginning to count 199, 197,195, 193, etc. and I as I became more focused on those odd numbers all the other thoughts in my mind began to subside. I am not sure how far that I actually counted but I know that I never made it to “0”. I was impressed and surprised that something as easy as counting worked so efficiently.

A short time after being introduced to this method of relaxation, I suggested this tip to a patient of mine who was having difficulty achieving sleep in the sleep lab environment, go figure. Reluctantly they agreed to make an effort to attempt it.  I began to notice a rhythmic pattern of alpha burst that appeared to be associated with the patient’s counting. As the patient continued to count the alpha activity became increasingly more evident and eventually began to span the entire epoch leading to stage 1 sleep shortly thereafter. The next morning my patient expressed the same amazement that I had recently experienced myself.

If you or someone you know is having difficulty relaxing while attempting to fall asleep, try counting backwards by odd numbers from 200 because oddly enough it works!

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Tags: insomnia, sleep medicine, sleep study