The Times - UK (2022-05-23)

the times | Monday May 23 2022 7

life

After pills failed, I turned to the

Sleepio app for my insomnia

Rory Cellan-Jones tried the new NHS treatment

alcohol near bedtime; make sure

your bedroom is dark, reasonably

soundproofed and not overheated.

But then you get introduced to a

couple of new concepts, the first

being sleep efficiency. This measures

the percentage of the time that you

are in bed and asleep, the aim being

to get it higher. One common

problem for insomniacs, apparently,

is that you begin to associate your

bed with being awake, and Sleepio

tries to break that link. So you are

advised not to watch TV or check

your email in bed, and if, like me,

you tend to wake in the middle of the

night, you should not lie staring at

the ceiling for any more than 15

minutes. Then you are supposed to

go to another room and perhaps read

or listen to the radio until you feel

sleepy enough to return to bed.

In the first couple of weeks my

sleep efficiency was pretty poor,

hovering at about 70 per cent, with

an average of five hours’ sleep a

night. Then, on two nights when I

barely slept at all, it plunged as low

as 6 per cent. I then realised that this

was almost certainly because I’d

missed two days of one of my

Parkinson’s medications.

By week three my sleep showed

few signs of improvement, although

I was feeling more cheerful about it

as I began to understand more about

the causes of insomnia.

Then in the next online session

came what the Prof described as

“the big one”, warning that it was

the toughest part of the course —

creating your new sleep schedule.

This relied on another Sleepio

concept: sleep restriction. It sounds

counterintuitive, but by limiting your

hours of sleep — or at least the time

you aim to be asleep — the course

aims to build up the biological

pressure to nod off.

I was given a window of six hours

for my sleep schedule, choosing to

get into bed at 11pm and be out of it

at 5am. The schedule runs seven days

a week — no lie-in at the weekend.

You are supposed to wind down for

an hour, doing something that isn’t

too taxing such as watching TV or

reading, then go straight to bed at

11pm, hoping to fall asleep within

a few minutes. If you wake in the

middle of the night you must obey

the 15-minute rule and get out of

the bedroom for a while, and you

must not sleep beyond your

scheduled waking time.

How’s it going after five days?

Well, my average time asleep is

still about five hours per night, but

my sleep efficiency has soared

above 80 per cent, even hitting the

target of 90 per cent one night.

I’m spending more of my time in

bed asleep. My progress is patchy:

one night I woke at 3.45am, went

to another room to read at 4am,

and never returned to bed.

I am, however, cautiously

optimistic that I am making

progress. If Sleepio can deliver me

six hours of unbroken sleep on

most nights, I shall be happy.

I

t was as I lay awake in the small

hours for the third night in a row

that I decided it was time to do

something about my insomnia.

It had been getting worse over the

past year, probably a symptom of the

Parkinson’s disease with which I’d

been diagnosed three years ago.

I rarely had a problem falling asleep

but a few hours later I would be

staring at the ceiling trying to work

out if it was pitch-black 2am or “just

a glimmer of the approaching dawn”

04.45am — a semi-respectable time

to go downstairs.

My doctor had tried me out on

melatonin, which had no discernible

effect, so I started to explore a

technology solution. There were any

number of mindfulness apps

featuring whale song or some actor

reading a bedtime story, but they all

sounded a little too Californian.

Then, after canvassing the views of

several sleep experts, I zeroed in on

something called CBTI: cognitive

behavioural therapy for insomnia.

The “analogue” version, where you

actually go and see a therapist, has

been around for decades, but now a

couple of online courses claim they

can deliver the same experience in

the form of an app. I chose Sleepio,

described as offering scientifically

backed tools to reduce symptoms of

poor sleep. Last week it was

announced that it’s going to be

offered on the NHS.

Once you have signed up,

providing plenty of detail about your

sleep habits, you embark on the first

of six weekly sessions with an

animated character called the Prof.

After speaking to Sleepio’s creator,

Professor Colin Espie, with his

soothing Scottish burr, I realised the

Prof is him in cartoon form.

At the heart of the Sleepio course

is a detailed sleep diary — when you

went to bed, when you tried to get to

sleep, how long that took, how often

you woke up, when you woke up for

a final time and when you got up.

That data helps to personalise the

advice the Prof gives you in each

weekly session. At first, much of it

seemed obvious — avoid coffee and

1 a m t t m s W s m a t I b o t a o p s m

I see myself as:

1 Extraverted, enthusiastic

2 Critical, quarrelsome

3 Dependable, self-disciplined

4 Anxious, easily upset

5 Open to new experiences, complex

6 Reserved, quiet

7 Sympathetic, warm

8 Disorganised, careless

9 Calm, emotionally stable

10 Conventional, uncreative

How to get your score:

You will have a score of 1 to 7 on each

of these questions. First, work out the

reverse score for each of the following

questions: Q2, Q6, Q8, Q9 and Q10.

So if you scored 7, give yourself a 1; if

you scored 6, give yourself a 2 and so

on as below:

7 = 1

6 = 2

5 = 3

4 = 4

3 = 5

2 = 6

1 = 7

Now, work out your score for each

dimension:

Openness to experience: score for Q5

plus score for Q10

Conscientiousness: score for Q3 plus

score for Q8

Extraversion: score for Q1 plus score

for Q6

Agreeableness: score for Q2 plus

score for Q7

Neuroticism: score for Q4 plus score

for Q9

For each you should have a score

between 2 and 14. The overall

assessment for each trait is below:

A score between 2 and 6 = low

A score between 7 and 10 = medium

A score between 11 and 14 = high

The labels are fairly self-explanatory.

Your score on openness to experience,

for instance, refers to the depth and

complexity of your mental life and

experiences, and typically reflects your

willingness to try out new things and

explore new places and ideas.

Conscientiousness reflects your

tendency to be diligent, hard-working

and your desire to do a job well. This

trait overlaps closely with your degree

of grittiness and persistence.

Extraversion reveals the extent to

which you enjoy being sociable and

outgoing. If you are introverted —

with a score at the low end of this

spectrum — you are more likely to

recharge your energy primarily from

solitude rather than from other people.

Agreeableness is the degree to which

you are concerned with being “nice”

and not offending others; and

neuroticism is the degree to which

you are prone to anxiety, worry, low

self-esteem and depression.

The personality trait that is most

important for switchcraft is openness

to experience. If you score low on

openness to experience, you are likely

to prefer routine and feel particularly

uncomfortable with uncertainty.

Holding on to cherished beliefs will be

a source of great comfort to you and

because of this you may be particularly

resistant to change. If this sounds like

you, you can take small steps to

become more open. For instance,

maybe you can start by questioning

authority figures. Rather than always

accepting the status quo, ask yourself

whether there might be an alternative

way of doing things or way of thinking.

I know it is not easy, but taking the

first small steps helps. Try to become

more excited about trying out new

sensations and ideas. It helps to look

at others as role models and try to

emulate them, at least to a small

extent. More open people typically

have a wide range of interests, are

usually very adaptable, intellectually

curious and often easily bored. They

tend to be introspective and interested

in exploring their inner and outer

worlds, and are often creative and

comfortable with uncertainty and

capable of behaving in quite

unconventional ways.

How to rate your

intellectual humility

To give you an idea of how you rate

in terms of intellectual humility,

you can answer the nine questions

below. As with the “big five” quiz,

for each question give yourself a

score from 1 (disagree strongly) to

7 (agree strongly).

1 No one would ever accuse me of

laying down the law, I can accept it

when I make a mistake.

2 I really appreciate very clever

people.

3 I don’t think that changing your

mind should be seen as a form of

weakness.

4 I appreciate getting feedback from

others, even when it’s not very

complimentary.

5 If I’m ignorant of the facts, I’m

willing to hold my hands up and say

so.

6 I find it very difficult to laugh at

myself.

7 I am open to persuasion by a good

argument.

8 When someone criticises my

thinking, I usually feel very uneasy.

9 When someone doesn’t get what I

am saying, I usually think that they

just aren’t very bright.

How to get your score:

You will have a score of 1 to 7 on each

of these questions. First, work out the

reverse score for the following

questions: Q6, Q8 and Q9. So if you

scored 7, give yourself a 1; if you scored

6, give yourself a 2 and so on as before.

Then when you add up all your scores

across the nine questions, you should

have a score between 9 and 63. Higher

scores indicate a higher degree of

intellectual humility.

A score between 9 and 21 = very low

A score between 22 and 38 = low

A score between 39 and 50 = medium

A score between 51 and 57 = high

A score between 58 and 63 = very high

Take the test