5. Part 4: Behavioural Economics as the Insomniac's Shield: Recognizing and Resisting Manipulation
The Cognitive Shield for Sleep: Protecting Insomniacs from Undue Influence in the Self-Help Industry
Behavioural Economics—a field typically employed to guide consumer behaviour—serves as our protective framework for vulnerable insomniacs. This discipline illuminates how predictable cognitive patterns make sleep-deprived individuals prime targets for exploitation, while simultaneously providing evidence-based defenses against such tactics.
5.1. Behavioural Economics Fundamentals for Sleep Protection: Understanding Cognitive Vulnerabilities Through Lacanian Theory
At its core, Behavioural Economics integrates psychological insights with economic principles to explain non-rational human decision-making. These systematic deviations from rationality—cognitive biases and mental shortcuts—follow predictable patterns that manipulative sleep gurus readily exploit. Our approach inverts this knowledge defensively: rather than using biases to manipulate, we expose them to prevent exploitation. Through Lacan’s theoretical lens, these biases manifest as symptoms of the insomniac’s relationship with reality—emerging when conventional understanding of sleep breaks down or when quick-fix promises become irresistibly alluring.
• Key Insight: Our decision-making operates through two systems—the quick, emotional System 1 and the methodical, analytical System 2. Sleep industry manipulators target System 1, circumventing critical thinking already compromised by sleep deprivation.
○ Lacanian Perspective: For insomniacs, System 1 functions primarily in the Imaginary domain, characterised by immediate identification with sleep promises and desires for instant relief. System 2 operates in the Symbolic realm of language, logic, and acceptance of ambiguity. Sleep gurus deliberately keep sufferers trapped in Imaginary quick-fix fantasies, preventing Symbolic critical assessment.
• The Objective: Helping insomniacs transition from reactive System 1 responses to deliberative System 2 thinking when evaluating sleep solutions.
○ Lacanian Application: This transition strengthens the insomniac’s engagement with the Symbolic order—enabling them to articulate uncertainties, evaluate claims critically, challenge unsubstantiated promises, and accept the limitations of sleep knowledge rather than embracing the illusory completeness offered by self-proclaimed experts.
Using behavioral economics as a defensive tool rather than offensive is brilliant. The System 1/System 2 distinction explains why sleep-deprived people are so vulenrable to quick fixes - exhaustion literally shuts down critical thinking. I didn't expect the Lacanian angle here, but mapping these biases to the Imaginary vs Symbolic makes sense for understanding why people fall for guru promises.