Picture this. It is 02:47 and you have just looked at the clock again. The dog next door barked once and that was enough. Now you are doing the sums: if you fall asleep right away, you will still get three hours before the alarm and the school lunchboxes. You are tired to your bones, and yet your brain will not let go.
What a good night looks like inside the brain
Sleep is not one long blank. Through the night your brain moves through cycles of lighter sleep, deep sleep and dreaming sleep, each lasting roughly an hour and a half.
Deep sleep is thought to be the stage that does much of the physical restoring. During it, the brain produces large, slow waves called delta waves. Older textbooks called this stage 3 and stage 4 sleep. Today both are grouped together as stage N3, or slow-wave sleep.
Before you reach deep sleep, you pass through lighter stage 2 sleep. This is where sleep spindles appear. A spindle is a short burst of faster brain activity, lasting a second or two. Spindles are produced with the help of the thalamus, a relay station deep in the brain that passes signals from the senses up to the thinking brain.
Sleep spindles, a possible night watchman
Sleep spindles are thought to help protect sleep. One theory is that, while a spindle fires, sounds and other signals from outside are less likely to get through, so that a creaking roof or a passing car is less likely to wake you.
Whether people with insomnia have fewer or weaker spindles is not settled. What is more widely accepted is that chronic insomnia is linked to a brain that stays too alert. The term for this is hyperarousal, which simply means the nervous system is still switched on when it should be powering down. You may recognise the feeling of being wired but tired.
Sleep is not something you can force. It is something a calm brain allows.
Rule out medical causes first
Insomnia that lasts longer than a few weeks deserves a visit to your doctor. Poor sleep is sometimes a symptom of something else, and those causes need medical treatment, not brain training.
Please see a doctor first if you have any of these:
- Loud snoring, gasping or pauses in breathing at night, which may point to sleep apnoea
- Falling asleep at the wheel or during conversations
- An uncomfortable urge to move your legs in the evening
- Pain, reflux, night sweats or frequent trips to the bathroom that wake you
- Low mood, anxiety, or thoughts of harming yourself. Please reach out for help today.
Your doctor may also recommend cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, often shortened to CBT-I. It is a structured programme that changes the habits and worries that keep insomnia going, and it is widely regarded as the first treatment to try. Neurofeedback is complementary. It can sit alongside medical care and CBT-I, but it does not replace them.
Training by day for better nights
Here is the interesting part. During the day, when you sit still and feel calm but alert, the brain produces a rhythm over the strip that controls movement and body sensation. It is called SMR, short for sensorimotor rhythm. SMR sits in a similar frequency range to sleep spindles and is thought to involve some of the same brain circuits.
In SMR neurofeedback, small sensors on the scalp read your brain activity while you sit comfortably. Nothing is sent into the brain. Each time your brain produces a little more of this calm rhythm, you are rewarded with a sound or a change on the screen. The aim is that, over many repetitions, the brain produces the rhythm more readily. If you are new to this, start with our introduction to what neurofeedback is.
The idea is that a brain which practises calm stillness by day may find it easier to settle and stay settled at night. Neurofeedback has been studied for insomnia, and the results are mixed: some findings are encouraging and others show no clear benefit. Whether training changes sleep spindles themselves is not established. So it would be wrong to promise you a result. Results vary.
What to expect, and what you can do at home
Every client at our Krugersdorp practice begins with a 19-channel brain map, which takes about an hour and a half. Sessions last 45 to 60 minutes and start with a short check-in on how you are feeling. Our what to expect page explains the process.
Whatever else you try, steady habits at home are worth having:
- Get up at the same time every day, including weekends
- Get morning light on your face, even for a few minutes
- Keep caffeine to the morning and go easy on alcohol at night
- Put screens away in the last hour before bed
- If you are wide awake in bed, get up, sit somewhere dim and quiet, and return when you feel sleepy
Common questions
Can neurofeedback cure insomnia?
We cannot promise a cure. Neurofeedback is a complementary form of brain training that may help an over-alert nervous system settle. The aim is easier, steadier sleep, but the research is mixed and results vary. It belongs alongside good sleep habits and any treatment your doctor recommends.
Can I stop taking my sleeping tablets?
Not on your own. Some sleeping tablets cause rebound insomnia or withdrawal symptoms if they are stopped suddenly. If your sleep improves and you would like to reduce your medication, speak to the doctor who prescribed it. They can guide you through doing that slowly and safely while you continue training.
Why is the training done during the day if my problem is at night?
Because neurofeedback is a form of learning, and it is done while you are awake. Daytime training rewards a calm, still, alert rhythm called SMR, which is thought to share some circuits with the sleep spindles that may help protect sleep. The idea is that a brain that practises settling by day may settle more easily at night.
Long nights can make everything else in life feel harder than it is. If your doctor has ruled out a medical cause and you are still lying awake, you are welcome to contact Irine to talk about whether brain training might help you rest again.
- insomnia
- sleep spindles
- delta waves
- restoration
- deep sleep
