The Sleep Easily System and The Importance of Sleep [Interview][Transcript]
Guest: Dr. Richard Shane
Presenter: Neal Howard
Guest Bio: Richard Shane, Ph.D., has been a psychotherapist for 35 years. He is the Behavioral Sleep Specialist for New West Physicians, Colorado, with 85 physicians serving over 170,000 patients. From 2010 through 2014, he was the Behavioral Sleep Specialist for Lutheran Medical Center Sleep Center in Denver. Dr. Shane discovered specific body sensations that are neurological switches for sleep. He further researched the neurophysiology of sleep and developed the Sleep Easily Method.
Segment overview: Dr. Richard Shane, Phd, talks about his recently launched new non-drug based sleep solution called “Sleep Easily”.
Transcription
Health Professional Radio – Sleep Easily System
Neal Howard: Hello and welcome to Health Professional Radio. Thank you so much for joining us today, I’m your host Neal Howard. Our guest in studio today is here to talk with us about the importance of sleep and some of the problems associated with the lack of sleep or at least not necessarily the lack of sleep but poor sleeping habits that don’t allow us to live up to our maximum potential throughout the day. Dr. Richard Shane has been a Psychotherapist since 1977. He is behavioral sleep specialist for New West Physicians in Colorado with 85 physicians serving over 170,000 patients. How are you doing this afternoon Dr. Shane?
Dr. Richard Shane I’m doing well Neal. Thanks for having me on your show.
N: Thank you so much. The importance of sleep, we I think I was raised to believe that 8 hours was nice, round figure for the amount of sleep that I was supposed to have. I’ve since learned that maybe 8 hours is too much or too little depending on who you are and what your habits are. Now you are involved heavily in educating people about the importance of sleep.
S: Yes, I am. And a fact that that’s very dear to me and that is everybody, all the experts should disseminating the information that we need 8 hours sleep. I think that is doing a disservice to people because sleep is not a one-size-fits all. And then there are so many people out there now who have increased their anxiety because they think they’re not able to get what is some national average. And really instead of it being one number, the guideline is – it’s common sense – you should sleep as much as it takes to feel rested the next day. I am for some people it’s less, for some people it’s more but be guided by your inner feeling rather than some number.
N: And is it dependent also not necessarily exclusively but in addition to that isn’t it dependent also on what you do during the day and or maybe what you do on a daily basis as opposed what you do or don’t do on the weekends, is that a factor as well?
S: Yes, especially if our days are stressful, that has an effect on sleep. But later on the interview we’ll talk about “How do you sleep in the midst of stress for sure.” And also what you do, people have heard of good sleep habits and how what you do during the day affects your sleep and we’ll cover that too.
N: You developed a newly launched drug based system for well improving one’s sleep habit. Could you talk a little bit about that?
S: Yeah, first let me talk about how it came to be as you mentioned at the beginning of the show I’ve been a psychotherapist since late 1970’s. And then in the early 1990’s I had a major crisis in my life and one of the results was I developed severe insomnia. For the first year I was sleeping about 3 hours at night. First I was terrified and angry about it. But then there was no solution, no I didn’t want to take medication and other sleep methods didn’t help. So it just seem like “Well this is my life path. I have to find my way through this” and I spent years. And again worldly exploring my own insomnia specifically just lying there quietly not yet asleep which is just kind of noticing what’s going on inside my body and mind as I get closer and closer to sleep. And from that process Neal, I made a major discovery and that is right as we’re falling asleep there are certain body sensations that occur. They’re subtle but they’re very easy to notice when you know how to notice them and people talk about the feeling of falling asleep, well I was able to map out what are the body sensations that created that feeling. Now I call them the physical triggers for sleep. And then from that I created a method and one of the characteristics is you don’t have to quiet your mind because that’s obviously what blocks most people trying to quiet their mind, this is in the midst of whatever busyness is going on, your mind and emotion there is a simple way to get the body feeling of falling asleep. And when you do that, your mind and emotions become calm all by themselves without effort.
N: Before we talk a little bit further about this method, you said you developed severe insomnia. Now that term “insomnia” is knocked around quite a bit. We hear a lot about insomnia, does it necessarily mean not sleeping at all? What exactly is insomnia? Clear up some misconceptions that we might have.
S: I’m glad you brought that up because most people have a misconception. They think that insomnia means hardly sleeping at all. Through my years of practice I have many, many people say well I don’t have insomnia, I just have difficulty falling asleep. So in my practice I actually rarely use the word insomnia, I just call it difficulty sleeping. So there are three forms, actually four forms. One is difficulty falling asleep initially, the other is waking up too early, difficulty falling back to sleep, and the third is not sleeping deeply enough, and all of those lead to the fourth which is not feeling rested in the morning. But any of those are forms of insomnia, but just for right now let’s not used to the word, let’s talk about difficulty sleeping.
N: Okay. So you had a severe difficulty sleeping but you were able to map out these triggers, these physical triggers that let the mind know that “Hey it’s time to go to sleep” and you fall asleep more comfortably or more deeply. Is that how it works?
S: Yes, and once I found the steps that would allow me to get to sleep or back to sleep, then I switch my psychotherapy practice and specialize just in working with people who had difficulty sleeping. And then the other discovery Neal over 20 years of doing this is finding that the body sensations of sleep are the same in everyone.
N: Wow.
S: So when I teach this to people, it quickly becomes this feeling of recognition. People go “Oh I knew that feeling, I just didn’t know how to get to it.”
N: Okay. So this is this feeling is something that we cannot arrive at deliberately?
S: Yeah it’s very, very simple. And as I said doesn’t involved quieting the mind because that’s too much effort. It also doesn’t involve a lot of people ask well “Is this meditation?” It’s not meditation. Meditation for most people is difficult and it takes a long time to learn. The sleep easily, learn at home method is very easy to learn and most people sleep better at the first night because meditation is just it’s too cumbersome to use for sleep. It also doesn’t involved hypnosis, it’s very clear and simple like if said to you “Feel your hands,” there’s no strangeness or no hypnosis about that. It’s just a body sensation, the method is that clear and simple – just “body sensations.”
N: There is a website that we can get more information and possibly get our hands on your sleep easily system. Could you talk about that website briefly?
S: Yes it is www.sleepeasily.com and when we come back Neal I’ll talk about what are the steps to learn this, how quick it is, but also to know right here. It comes with a money back guarantee because it works that well.
N: You’ve been listening to Health Professional Radio. I’m your host Neal Howard. We’ve been in studio this afternoon talking with Dr. Richard Shane, a Psychotherapist since 1977. Currently he is behavioral sleeps specialist for New West Physicians in Colorado. We’ve been here talking about the importance of sleep as we clear up some of the misconceptions about insomnia itself and also talk about doctors recently launched new non-drug based sleep solution called “Sleep Easily.” It’s been great having you here with us today Dr. Shane.
S: Thanks for having me Neal.
N: Thank you. Transcripts and audio of this program are available at healthprofessionalradio.com.au and also with hpr.fm and you can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes.