Over a third of insomniacs are regularly attempting some form of trick to get to sleep, but most aren’t counting sheep, survey data reveals.
Instead, the most popular strategies typically involve breathing or relaxation exercises, according to the poll answered by 1028 Norwegian adults earlier this year.
Among those who reported using a sleep hack, just 7% said they tried counting sheep, nearly half the proportion who would “actively use a mobile phone, tablet or PC” (14%).
All up, some 34% of respondents with insomnia said they used a method or trick to fall asleep. Symptoms were assessed with the validated Bergen Insomnia Scale, and chronic insomnia based on ICSD-3/DSM-5 criteria.
But even among the participants without chronic insomnia, 28% regularly employed such a strategy, the researchers reported in Journal of Sleep Research (link here).
“This may suggest that for some people, such a strategy may be effective or at least does not seem to disrupt sleep initiation, they wrote.
“Most people do not use methods or tricks to fall asleep, but chronic insomnia was associated with a higher frequency of such use. Still, the use of methods/tricks was also seen among participants without insomnia.”
What strategy do most people use to fall asleep