Insomnia and Imagery Therapy

This article describes the use of the imagery technique we pioneered for the treatment of chronic nightmares, but in this study it was used for insomnia. Although a strong proponent of imagery work for the treatment of insomnia, in my forthcoming book Sound Sleep, Sound Mind I detail how imagery actually represents that natural way in which an individual falls asleep. It’s not some special new miracle treatment. Rather, imagery is a natural part of the human mind’s capacity to function while awake and serves as a gateway to sleep. Thus, imagery is not needed for breathing and relaxation as cited in the article. Instead, just by tapping into the natural process of observing images in your mind, you are more likely to fall asleep. Why? Because you are jump starting the little dreamlets that emerge in your mind’s eye at bedtime, which are the very last stage of consciousness before you nod off. Nearly all insomniacs possess the ability to work on imagery, but the most important first step for them is to realize that imagery skills are something they already possess; they just need to reacquaint themselves with their use.