The following excerpts from the Annals of the Indian Academy of Neurology explain both sleep hygiene education stimulus control therapy for Insomnia very well.
Stimulus Control Therapy
“Stimulus control therapy is based on the premise that insomnia is a conditioned response to temporal (bedtime) and environmental (bed/bedroom) cues that are usually associated with sleep. Accordingly, the main objective of stimulus control therapy is to train the patient to “re-associate the bed and bedroom with rapid sleep onset by curtailing sleep-incompatible activities (overt and covert) that serve as cues for staying awake and by enforcing a consistent sleep-wake schedule.” Stimulus control therapy consists of the following instructional procedures consisting of going to bed only when feeling sleepy, using the bed and bedroom only for sleep and sex and nothing else like watching TV, getting out of bed and going into another room whenever unable to fall asleep or returning to sleep within 15–20 minutes and returning to bed only when sleepy again, maintaining a regular rising time in the morning regardless of sleep duration the previous night, and avoiding daytime napping.”
Sleep hygiene education
“Sleep hygiene education targets health practices (e.g., diet, exercise, and substance use) and environmental factors (e.g., light, noise, temperature, and mattress) that may be either detrimental or beneficial to sleep. Although these factors are rarely severe enough to be the primary cause of chronic insomnia, they may complicate an existing sleep problem and hinder treatment progress. Additional recommendations, which tend to overlap with stimulus control and sleep restriction, may also include curtailing daytime napping and time spent in bed. While poor sleepers are generally better informed about sleep hygiene, they also engage in more unhealthy practices than good sleepers. Thus, the objectives of sleep hygiene are to promote better health practices. In a meta-analysis of sleep hygiene, effect size observed was modest in all parameters”
Reference
Ann Indian Acad Neurol. 2010 Apr-Jun; 13(2): 94–102.