I’m a sleep therapist and I think most advice on how to fix your sleep is terrible.

You know the drill. You’re lying in bed, tossing and turning, desperate for sleep. You’ve tried every trick in the book: meditation, supplements, blue light blocking glasses, white noise, ASMR, essential oils – the list goes on. But what if I told you that trying so hard might actually be making your sleep problems worse?

When it comes to sleep, everyone has their own ideas on what works, and there is no shortage of expert advice on the internet.

One curious thing I’ve noticed is that folks who are most eager to give advice are often the ones struggling with sleep the most. On the flip side, if you ask those who sleep like logs for their secrets, they usually don’t have much to offer. Most often you will hear that they just lay down and drift off. No fancy hacks, techniques, or tricks. In fact, good sleepers hardly give sleep a second thought.

In this article, I want to show how heeding (terrible) advice that leads to exerting effort can actually exacerbate your sleep problems.

But first, let’s start by clearing up some misconceptions about insomnia.

What is Insomnia, Really?

When most people think about someone with insomnia, they picture a severely sleep-deprived individual barely making it through the day after not sleeping at all.

The truth is that sleep deprivation and insomnia are two different things, and it’s crucial to distinguish between them. Sleep deprivation occurs when you don’t get enough sleep because the opportunity to rest simply isn’t there – either by choice or due to external factors like a new baby, night shifts, or illness.

Insomnia, on the other hand, is difficulty