Daniel Erichsen - Set it & Forget it: Are you ready to transform your sleep?

Theres nobody on the planet that has helped me more in making this book happen than my wife Jamie Rabot. Not only by being her kind and supportive self but also by teaching me how the mind works and by designing all the illustrations. Thank you for everything.
LA, who drew all the illustrations, Im so happy having your work here. I believe it will truly change the experience of reading this book for which Im ever grateful.
Nick Wignall, thank you for teaching me how perfectly the expression set it and forget it applies to sleep and giving me a name for this book. I hope it will not dissuade you from writing another one with me one day.

Michael Schwartz and Martin Reed, thank you for all your insights and support. Every path is easier when you know youre not alone.
Last but certainly not least, a huge thank you to anyone from the YouTube community that has ever left a comment or sent me an email. I have learned more from you than from any other source and I know you have so much more to teach me.

Hi there!
Im super excited that youve decided to use Set it & Forget it to get past your insomnia and to a place of amazing sleep!
Speaking of your destination, heres something that will help you get there.
Remember its not a race. Getting to the last page in 6 hours does not mean youll start sleeping fantastic. Understanding every chapter on the other hand will! And that may take some time.

Set away a minute after each chapter to think about what you just read. Does it make sense? Do you have any reservations? Are you ready to move forward?

Your goal after completing part one, Set it, is to understand what insomnia is and why youve had trouble sleeping.

When you reach part two, Forget it, your goal becomes to start shifting attention away from sleep. Slow down on the reading. Do more of things you enjoy and perhaps have postponed until youre sleeping better.

If you come across anything you're not sure makes sense, read the chapter one more time. Use my YouTube channel/Podcast The Sleep Coach School to your advantage. All the material in this book is explained and contextualized in hundreds of hours of free content. This includes me using Set it & Forget it when answering questions or talking with people who've had trouble sleeping just like you.

If you're still not sure, please leave a comment on the YouTube channel or head to and use the form for questions to be answered in Open class. These are videos where myself or other coaches answer questions in live episodes.

With that said, we are ready to move ahead and start learning. Before we do, I want to thank you for giving me this chance to help you sleep better.

Sincerely,

Daniel

If you've had trouble sleeping for a few weeks or months, you may feel that this chapter doesnt apply to you. And thats right. It was indeed written to make sure someone with long time sleep issues is ready for change. This said, you can still learn something very important so do stick around!

If you on the other hand have struggled for years or even decades, then it is very important that you ask yourself how you feel about getting better.

Yes that's right. It is important that you ask yourself how you feel about getting better.

The obvious reason you may be surprised to read these lines is - who wouldn't want to sleep better?

Here's the thing - having insomnia for years does things to you that you may not be consciously aware of.

Firstly, the process of trying to figure out why you're not sleeping and trying to find things that could make you sleep year after year can affect your identity. You may start thinking of yourself as an insomniac. You may feel that having trouble sleeping is part of who you are.

This can lead to a place where thinking of yourself as someone who sleeps well seems foreign. It's hard to change your identity.

Secondly, all the time and effort spent on sleep can feel like an investment. Was all the pondering, all the experimenting and all the preoccupation really for nothing?

It can be difficult to accept that all the things you did to sleep better was no investment, but actually a big part of the problem.

Thirdly, having insomnia can let you off the hook. It is something to point to as the reason for why you are not doing things you've meant or wanted to do. It can be comforting to have something to blame for your shortcomings.

Finally, being the person that sleeps very little may give you attention as well as empathy which are both nice to get from friends and family.

Now take a look within. Ask yourself if you're holding on to insomnia for any reason. When you do, one of two things happen:

Either you find that the answer is no. And thats great! Nothing is standing in the way of you getting better sleep.

Or you find that you do take comfort in having insomnia at some level. It has served a purpose for you. And that's good too.

Because if you've identified a holdout, a recess in the brain that in fact is not ready to leave insomnia behind, well then you have something to work on.

It may not seem like much, but understanding that you may not have been ready in the past is the key to becoming fully committed to sleeping well now.

And when you are fully committed to a method that combines education and habit change - you will leave insomnia behind forever!

Do you remember a time when sleep was not a struggle? If you do then let that work in your favor. However you slept and felt back then is your reference point. Thats the place you will get back to when you no longer worry about sleep.
If you cant remember a time when you didnt struggle to sleep, well then you dont have a reference point. Rather, you will learn as you move forward what sleeping well means to you.
Whether you have a reference point or not, knowing how most people sleep is important. Because from what you hear, you may think everyone but yourself is getting 8 hours of solid sleep every night. And feeling that youre way off an unattainable mark will not help you sleep any better. Well guess what, people sleep very differently from what we are told is ideal.
If you were to ask a bunch of people how much they sleep, they would say about 7 hours. Studies show that when healthy adults with no sleep problems are asked, their belief is that they get 7 hours of sleep.
In reality, most people don't have a clue.
Either they simply guess that they sleep about 7 hours because it sounds about right or theyll assume that they sleep 7 hours because they go to bed at 11 pm and get up at 6 am. When you objectively examine these same people, a different story emerges. Using electroencephalography (EEG) or actigraphy (think Fitbit) you find that their average sleep is actually a bit above 6 hours. Objectively measured, most adults sleep between 5.5 and 7 hours.
In other words, people with no trouble sleeping overestimate how much they sleep by about 1 hour. When we look at quality instead of quantity, things are very similar. Those without sleep problems believe they dont wake up during the night or only wake up a few times. In fact, when you studysomeone in the sleep lab, seeing a couple of awakenings