How Did Matt Walker's Concern Journal Halve Falling Asleep?

Difficulty and anxiety at night in the dark is not the same difficulty and anxiety in the light of day. Thoughts at night come with a magnitude of rumination and catastrophization disproportionate to the description given while awake. Keeping one journal decreased the time it takes to fall asleep by 50 percent, five zero, well on par with any pharmaceutical agent.

The page is for vomiting concerns out and zipping them up before sleep. The host, speaking separately, ties a 3 a.m. waking to writing down things forgotten and still to do, and describes the same list as much more tractable and reasonable after the second half of the night. The journal idea first sounded like hooey, very Berkeley, holding hands and walking home at the end of the day. The speaker does not know what is going on with the brain and thought and emotion at night and has a bunch of theories as to why. Really good studies from good people then found the 50 percent drop.

Being well on par with any pharmaceutical agent is how large the journal effect is. The stated reason for the page is the extra rumination and catastrophization in the dark, so the list goes down before sleep rather than at 3 a.m.