'Stimulus control therapy' is the behavioral therapy with the greatest therapeutic benefit in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.
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Insomnia cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to have the greatest therapeutic benefit among drug-free insomnia treatments, and it gives you specific guidelines that you can simply try to break the cycle of things that interfere with your sleep.
Stimulus control therapy aims to create a consistent sleep-wake pattern by altering the sleep environment.
Specifically, it involves disassociating with sleep-disrupting behaviors and creating conditioned stimuli that are associated with sleep-reinforcing behaviors.
Here are some specific behavioral guidelines
① Sleep only when you feel sleepy. There's no point in forcing yourself to lie down when you're not sleepy.
② Only sleep in bed. Bed is not the place to read, look at your phone, eat, or think.
③Don't stay in bed for more than 10 minutes without falling asleep. If you just can't fall asleep, spend as much time as you want in a place other than your bedroom before returning to your bedroom.
④ Don't take a nap, even if you haven't gotten enough sleep.
⑤ Create a consistent sleep rhythm by waking up at the same time every morning.
⑥ Repeat until you've gotten enough sleep.