Réveillé en pleine nuit

Night awakenings

The problem explained:

In reality, it is quite normal to wake up in the middle of the night. Sleep is composed of cycles and when you reach the end of a cycle, you are more alert and the slightest noise or the slightest unconscious stress can wake you up. The real problem is when you have trouble getting back to sleep quickly.


In most cases, it is anxiety and stress that prevent you from sleep.


This can be anxiety related to your concerns or to the difficult day ahead. It can also come from the fear of not getting enough sleep: You think you do not have time to go back to sleep before waking up or you’re anxiously anticipating the sound of the alarm.


Fear is not only a psychological phenomenon. Fear and stress activate what is called an alert state, a physiological mechanism characterized by a hyper activation of the autonomic nervous system. Neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine are released, which contribute to the stimulation of the central arousal and keep you awake.

Goals:

  • Rebalance your autonomic nervous system to break the vicious cycle of stress and anxiety that keep you awake.

  • Let go.

  • In the long run, help you regain confidence in your ability to go back to sleep quickly. In fact, you know how to fall back asleep immediately, but the fear of not succeeding or anxious thoughts block you.


How Dodow helps you:

Dodow can not prevent you from waking up during the night, but it can help you fall asleep quickly!

  • By breathing long enough at the Dodow rhythm (6 respirations per minute), you stimulate the baroreflex, a small physiological mechanism that restores the balance of the autonomic nervous system. Thus, you will quickly pass from the alert state (activation of the sympathetic nervous system) to the resting state (activation of the parasympathetic nervous system), the same condition which you are in during digestion: slightly drowsy.

  • Synchronizing your breathing to a light pulse at a slow and steady rhythm has a hypnotic effect (the phenomenon is similar to watching a pendulum). Thus, after a few minutes you are able to let go and sleep.

  • After a few months, you will regain confidence in yourself, you will realise that your body knows how to fall asleep alone, when the mind or anxiety do not interfere. You can then take the place of Dodow!

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Stress

Stress

The problem explained:

All types of stressful events put your system on alert. When you get home, you may be tense and relatively irritable. In fact, you have activated a defense mechanism called the alert state. The alert state is characterized by the hyper-activation of the autonomic nervous system. Your body is ready to face a dangerous situation. Nor epinephrine is secreted, which helps to stimulate the central arousal and keeps you awake. In prehistoric times, this physiological mechanism would have helped you avoid falling asleep in a hostile environment and being attacked by a bear, but today it will keep you awake when there is no real danger. Normally the transition from the alert state to the resting state is automatic, but the accumulation of stress slows down the process and it can take hours instead of minutes.

Goals:

  • Our goal is to rebalance your autonomic nervous system and help you leave the alert state as quickly as possible. This rebalancing is essential in order to find the resting state conducive to sleep, to let go, and completely disconnect yourself from the stressful events of your day.

  • Let go by deconnecting completely from stressful events of the day.


How Dodow helps you:

  • By breathing at the Dodow rhythm (6 breaths per minute), you stimulate the baroreflex, a small physiological mechanism that restores the balance of the autonomic nervous system. Thus, you will quickly pass from the alert state (activation of the sympathetic nervous system), into the resting state (activation of the parasympathetic nervous system). The resting state is the same state in which during digestion one is slightly drowsy. In this state, you are much less sensitive to stress, metabolism slows down, and the secretion of neurotransmitters that keep you awake are stopped. Finally, you arrive at the threshold of sleep.

  • Synchronizing your breathing to a light pulse at a slow and steady rhythm has a hypnotic effect (the phenomenon is similar to watching a pendulum). Thus, after a few minutes you are able to let go and sleep.


    Other situations: In a hotel room after you travel to other time zones, or Sunday night when anxiety about Monday prevents you from sleeping.

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Pensées plein la tête

Thoughts running through your head

The problem explained:

The problem is two-fold:

  • When you are consumed by your thoughts and they either excite you or scare you, neurotransmitters are released which have side effects including sending a signal to the brain to stay awake. It’s as if you are watching an exciting movie, making it difficult to fall asleep.

  • You can be more or less attentive to your thoughts sometimes they can be let go, but often they seem real. The problem is somewhat similar to sensitivity to sound. You can either be aware of sounds, or not pay them any attention. When you go to bed, if you are too attentive and alert, the slightest thought can keep you awake.

Goals:

  • Create a diversion which will occupy your mind with something far less stimulating than your thoughts.

  • Become less attentive, less alert, and ensure that you are unaware of your thoughts. In a theater, the goal would be to physically move you from the first to the last row, where the scene is much less clear and details both auditory and visual fade.

  • Become less attentive, less alert, and ensure that you are unaware of your thoughts. In a theater, the goal would be to physically move you from the first to the last row, where the scene is much less clear and details both auditory and visual fade.


How Dodow helps you:

Dodow is not a miracle product, but a clever tool which promotes sleep by regulating nervous system functioning without the side effects often encountered with many sleep aid products.

  • Create a diversion which will occupy your mind with something far less stimulating than your thoughts.

  • By focusing on the light signal and synchronising your breathing to its pace, the majority of your attention will be occupied by something far less stimulating than your thoughts.

Trivia: In Russia, a scientist named Pavlov found that upon putting dogs in empty rooms, where nothing could stimulate their curiosity, they fell asleep immediately. Dodow reproduces the same effect in your head.

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Soucis

Worries

The problem explained:

A difficult breakup, the loss of a job, or temporary depression is often accompanied by insomnia. We must act quickly before insomnia becomes "conditioned" and it continues even when your worries are finally behind you.


The biggest problem is often associated with stress, which causes sleep problems. Stress has physiological consequences that result in an imbalance of the autonomic nervous system. Your body is ready to face a dangerous situation, you are in what is called the alert state, which is characterised by the release of neurotransmitters that keep you awake by stimulating your sympathetic nervous system.

Goals:

  • Let go by occupying your brain, which will keep you from rehashing your problems.

  • You pass from the alert state, where arousal and vigilance are stimulated, to the resting state where you are less reactive to all your worries, as if you were lightly anaesthetized.


How Dodow helps you:

  • By focusing on the light signal and synchronizing your breathing to its rhythm, you will occupy much of your attention with a more relaxing activity instead of rehashing your problems. As a result, you give less attention to your anxious thoughts. On the other hand, the regular pulse of light has a hypnotic effect. Thus, after a few minutes you are able to let go and sleep.

  • By breathing long enough at the Dodow rhythm (6 respirations per minute), you stimulate the baroreflex, a small physiological mechanism that restores the balance of the autonomic nervous system. Thus, you will quickly pass from the alert state (activation of the sympathetic nervous system) to the resting state (activation of the parasympathetic nervous system), the same condition which you are in during digestion: slightly drowsy. In this state, you will be much less sensitive to stress, your metabolism will slow down, the secretion of neurotransmitters that kept you awake has been stopped, and you will arrive at the threshold of sleep.

Other situations: the night before an important event such as a job interview, an international equestrian competition, end of semester exams, or your marriage.

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Insomnies chronique

Chronic insomnia

The problem explained:

You only need to have problems falling asleep two or three times in a row before the question arises : " Am I going to fall asleep tonight ?" "You already imagine tomorrow's chaotic schedule. This fear of not sleeping is self fulfilling and can repeatedly lead to insomnia. The truth is that your body has not forgotten how to fall asleep, but it merely believe that you can not do it tonight and this conditioning prevents you from falling asleep.


Fear is not only a psychologic phenomenon. Fear and stress activate what we call the waking state, a physiological mechanism as a result of an hyperactivation of the autonomic nervous system. Neurotransmitters such as noradrenalin are then secreted to stimulate certain areas of the brain and keep you awake.Activating this state was using in prehistoric times when humans were at risk of being put in constant physical danger. Today, however, the fight or flight state has in large lost its significance, especially when it is time to sleep


When you become aware of this anxiety and you still can not sleep, you stress yourself out even more, which only reinforces the phenomenon, it is a vicious cycle. You do you fall asleep until you have abandoned all hope of sleep and by then it is often far too late!

Goals:

  • Free yourself from the goal of falling asleep that creates what is called a performance anxiety (fear of failure: in this case, not being able to sleep). You've probably noticed that it is when you give up the fight that sleep comes.

  • Break the vicious cycle of insomnia and get you passed the alert state to the rest state.

  • To regain confidence in yourself, to you realise that your body already knows how to fall asleep.


How Dodow helps you:

  • While doing the exercise for 20 minutes your only goal is to breathe in rhythm with the light, so you stop fighting internally to sleep and free yourself of the performance anxiety that prevents you from sleeping. In psychology, this phenomenon is called: paradoxical intention.

  • By breathing long enough at the Dodow rhythm (6 respirations per minute), you stimulate the baroreflex, a small physiological mechanism that restores the balance of the autonomic nervous system and makes you move quickly to the resting state, the same state which you are in during digestion: slightly drowsy.

  • Synchronizing your breathing to a light pulse at a slow and steady rhythm has a hypnotic effect (the phenomenon is similar to watching a pendulum). Thus, after a few minutes you are able to let go and sleep.

  • You will regain confidence in yourself after a few weeks and you will need no more than the 20 minute mode. You can then switch to the 8 minute mode and with a little luck, after a few months you can switch Dodow off!

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Femmes enceintes

Insomnia & Pregnancy

The problem explained:

Awaking frequently, difficulty falling asleep ... the nights of expectant mothers are not easy. The causes of these difficult nights are numerous, but can generally be divided into two categories: physiological causes and psychological causes.

  • Physiological causes include: pain due to acid reflux, cramps, leg pain, back pain or joint pain. The need for diuretics also causes you to wake up, normally you would be able to fall asleep again easily, if it weren't for the anxiety keeping you up.

  • Anxiety is the major psychological cause of difficult nights for an expectant mother, but it also has a physiological impact! Active anxiety, which is also called the alert state, is a physiological mechanism characterised by the hyper activation of the autonomic nervous system. Neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine are released, which contribute to the stimulation of the central arousal and keep you awake.

Goals:

  • Relax your body to make it less sensitive to pain. In fact, when the body is at rest, it is less responsive to pain and you experience a feeling of well-being.

  • You are able to pass from the alert state to the resting state by countering the effects of anxiety which contribute to keeping you awake.

  • Let go.

  • Unlike sleeping pills, Dodow isn't swallowed, which is what makes it a product particularly suitable for pregnant women, for whom sleeping pills are strongly discouraged!


    By breathing very slowly to the rhythm that you indicate to Dodow, you can profoundly relax. Furthermore, several scientific studies have shown that slow breathing limited the perception of pain.

  • Finally, the effect of Dodow on pain is similar to yoga or relaxation therapy, with the advantage of being able to exercise directly from your bed without having to pay for each session. In addition, Dodow guides you for 8 or 20 minutes, no need to make more effort!


    By breathing long enough at the Dodow rhythm (6 respirations per minute), you stimulate the baroreflex, a small physiological mechanism that restores the balance of the autonomic nervous system. So you'll move quickly from the alert state to the resting state, the same state which you are in during digestion: slightly drowsy.

  • Synchronizing your breathing to a light pulse at a slow and steady rhythm has a hypnotic effect (the phenomenon is similar to watching a pendulum). Thus, after a few minutes you are able to let go and sleep.

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Environnement bruyant

Noisy environment

The problem explained:

In reality, it is not the noise that keeps you awake, but rather your reaction to the noise. Indeed, some people do manage to fall asleep on planes, on trains, others even at work…


The sound of snoring is not necessarily disturbing in itself, but the irritation it causes you keeps you awake. This reaction to the noise causes a physiological response which results in the secretion of neurotransmitters stimulating your central arousal and alertness, which keep you awake.

Goals:

The goal is simply to make you less reactive to noises such as snoring. To do this, there are two ways:

  • Create a diversion to occupy your brain with something much less annoying than ambient noises.

  • Become less attentive and less reactive, to ensure that you are hardly aware of the outside noises. At a concert, the goal would be to make you go from the first row to the last row: the speakers are far away, the sound is less audible.


How Dodow helps you:

  • By having you focus on the light signal to synchronize your breathing on its own rhythm, you will occupy most of your attention with a much less irritating activity than the noise you've been focusing on. So you'll ignore the snoring next to you.

  • By breathing long enough at the Dodow rhythm (6 respirations per minute), you stimulate the baroreflex, a small physiological mechanism that restores the balance of the autonomic nervous system. Thus, you will pass quickly from the alert state (activation of the sympathetic nervous system) to the resting state (activation of the parasympathetic nervous system). In this state, you will be much less sensitive to stimuli, whether external: noise, light; or internal: thoughts.

Other situations: neighborhood parties, neighbors who just had a child, neighbors who are trying to have another child, neighbors who are watching the latest action movie in their home theater, in short, for all types of neighborhood noises and other external stimuli such as the light from the bar across the street.

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