In this episode of the Being Well Podcast, Forrest is joined by Dr. Ashley Mason, a clinical psychologist and sleep researcher at UCSF, to discuss Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). They talk about what separates insomnia from a few rough nights, why people with insomnia sleep (on average) only a little less than everyone else but experience the night completely differently, how insomnia develops and what keeps it going, and the five pillars of CBT-I. Dr. Mason walks through what treatment looks like in practice: fixing your wake time, restricting time in bed, working with 2am thoughts, a surprisingly early caffeine cutoff, and why meditation apps in bed are a hard no.
About our guest: Dr. Ashley Mason is a clinical psychologist and associate professor of psychiatry at UC San Francisco, where she directs the Sleep, Eating, and Affect Lab and leads the insomnia treatment program at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health.
Key Topics
- 00:00: Introduction
- 03:43: What insomnia is, and why it’s not just about hours of sleep
- 14:06: How insomnia develops
- 20:40: Sleep hygiene, the five pillars of CBT-I, and caffeine
- 27:02: What treatment looks like: wake time and time in bed restriction
- 35:20: Sleep anxiety, tracking, and working with 2am thoughts
- 39:31: Sleep as a performance category, fear-mongering, and alcohol
- 46:00: Meditation apps, relaxation, and brain dumping
- 50:34: How well CBT-I works, and using heat for sleep and depression
- 1:03:26: Recap
