Insomnia is a frequent disorder, so effective treatment can be essential to get what you need to sleep. George Pegios - Explore safe and effective non-drug insomnia treatments.
Insomnia is a frequent sleep disorder that can cause difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep or causing you to wake up too early and not be able to fall asleep again. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia is an effective treatment for chronic sleep problems and is generally recommended as the first treatment.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia is a structured program that helps you identify and replace thoughts, as well as behaviors that cause or worsen sleep problems with habits that promote deep sleep. Unlike sleeping pills, CBT-I helps you overcome the root causes of sleep problems
To identify how to best treat insomnia, your sleep therapist may direct you to keep a detailed sleep diary for a week or two.
George Pegios How does cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia work?
The cognitive part of this therapy teaches you to recognize and change beliefs that affect your ability to sleep.
This type of therapy can help you control or eliminate negative thoughts and worries that keep you awake.
The behavioral part of therapy helps you acquire good sleep habits and avoid behaviors that prevent you from sleeping well.
Depending on your needs, the therapist may recommend some of these cognitive behavioral therapy techniques for insomnia:
* Stimulus control therapy.
This method helps to eliminate the factors that condition your mind to resist sleep. For example, you could learn to establish a consistent bedtime and wakeup schedule, avoid naps, use the bed only for sleep and sexual intercourse, and leave the room if you cannot fall asleep within 20 minutes. Go back to bed only when you are sleepy.
* Sleep restriction.
Lying in bed when you are awake can become a habit that leads to poor sleep. This treatment reduces the time you spend in bed, causing partial sleep deprivation and increasing your tiredness the following night. Once you can sleep better, the time you spend in bed increases progressively.
* Sleep hygiene.
This method of therapy involves changing basic lifestyle habits that influence sleep, such as smoking or drinking too much caffeine in the last hours of the day, drinking too much alcohol, or not exercising regularly. It also contains tips that help you sleep better, such as ways to relax an hour or two before going to sleep.
* Improved sleeping environment.
This provides ways for you to create a comfortable sleeping environment, such as keeping your room quiet and dark and cool, not having a TV in the room, and hiding the clock from view.
* Relaxation training.
This method helps you calm your mind and body. The approaches include meditation, guided visualization, and muscle relaxation, among others.
* Stay awake passively.
Also known as "paradoxical intention," this therapy involves avoiding any effort to fall asleep. Paradoxically, worrying about not being able to sleep can actually keep you awake. Getting rid of this worry can help you relax and make it easier for you to fall asleep.
* Biofeedback.
This method allows you to observe biological signs, such as heart rate and muscle tension, and shows you how to adapt to them. Your sleep specialist may give you a biofeedback device to take home to record your daily patterns. This information can help identify patterns that affect sleep.