Insomnia
People with insomnia may have a hard time falling asleep, staying asleep, or may wake too early. Individuals may also experience the effects of poor sleep during the daytime, such as:
Feeling tired or having low energy
Trouble with attention, concentration, and memory
Becoming easily irritated
Insomnia may arise as a primary disorder, or it may be associated with various mental health problems such as depression, anxiety, traumatic life events, post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and attention deficit disorder. In some individuals, insomnia is related to physical health issues, medications, substance use/caffeine intake, or changes in lifestyle or sleep habits.
You should seek help if your insomnia persists for more than a month or makes it difficult for you to function while awake.
What is CBT for Insomnia (CBT-I)?
CBT-I is an evidence-based treatment for insomnia. The American College of Physicians, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, and the National Institutes of Health recommend that all adult patients with chronic insomnia receive CBT-I as their first line of treatment. CBT-I is a non-medication approach that focuses on the thoughts and behaviors that contribute to poor sleep and a treatment that provides clients with proven strategies to help them prevent and overcome sleep problems.
What is Enhanced CBT-I?
Here at CBTDenver we compliment CBT-I with other helpful techniques to address the anxiety, stress, frustration, and depression that are often associated with insomnia. These approaches include, mindfulness, acceptance, distress tolerance, and relaxation training. We work with clients to examine their individual values and goals and help people identify the challenges that get in the way of pursuing these objectives.
How long does treatment last?
CBT-I usually requires between 4 to 12 weekly, 50-minute sessions to be effective. Some clients may require more sessions if they have an underlying anxiety disorder, depression, health issues or are experiencing a complicated life transition. At times, we offer insomnia treatment as a group intervention as well.
How will I know if CBT-I is helping?
Most people participating in CBT-I usually notice improvement in their sleep quality after a few sessions resulting in increased alertness, concentration skills, and energy. Our goal is to establish a reasonable sleep plan, which is different for everyone, and then progress towards that goal.
What to expect from CBT-I therapy
Attend sessions regularly to increase effectiveness.
Work with your therapist to set weekly sleep goals.
Monitor your sleep using a simple sleep diary each morning.
Implement specific strategies to help retrain thinking and behavior patterns to get better sleep.
CBT-I strategies may include the following:
Cognitive component. Addressing your thoughts and beliefs about your sleep. Worry and anxiety about your insomnia can lead to a spiral in which anxiety makes it harder to fall asleep, more anxiety ensues, making it harder to fall asleep…the pattern continues and reinforces itself.
Sleep restriction. Lying in bed awake can become a habit that can lead to and maintain insomnia. This technique temporarily decreases the time you spend in bed to compact your sleep and to make you spend less time in bed tossing and turning. With your clinician’s guidance, the time you spend in bed is gradually increased.
Stimulus control. This technique helps remove factors that condition the mind to resist sleep. For example, staying up watching movies on your computer may condition you to stay awake rather than fall asleep.
Sleep hygiene. Sleep hygiene involves changing basic lifestyle habits that influence sleep. These include keeping the bedroom quiet, cool and dark, limiting caffeine intake later in the day, winding down and relaxing or practicing mindfulness at night.
At CBT Denver, we know that not every treatment approach is a perfect fit for every person and every condition. That’s why we offer several different treatment approaches that allow us to bring our best, most personalized care to every client in our practice.
During your initial consultation session, we will listen to your challenges and goals and will offer information about evidence-based treatments that best fit you and your desired outcomes. Together we can develop the best treatment approach or approaches that work for you.
