Stimulus control is a behavioral technique that breaks the learned association between bed and arousal. When someone has not slept well for months, the bed becomes a cue for activation rather than sleep. The technique reconditions the bed as the exclusive context for sleep and sex.
Concept origin
Bootzin (1972) developed the original protocol and published the first formal instructions. Morin et al.'s (2006) review in Sleep confirmed that stimulus control is one of the components with the largest effect size within CBT-I for chronic insomnia.
Therapeutic approach
Core instructions: 1) go to bed only when genuinely sleepy; 2) get out of bed if sleep does not come within ~20 minutes; 3) use bed only for sleep (and sex); 4) rise at the same time every morning regardless of sleep. Repeat until the association is reconditioned.
Related concepts
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