If you are one of the many people who have trouble falling or staying asleep, it probably means that you are suffering from one of the most common sleep disorders, known as insomnia. If you haven’t been diagnosed yet, it’s advisable you undergo a home insomnia testing to find out. However, if you have already been diagnosed with insomnia, you must be wondering whether there is a treatment for this condition. Well, today we decided to discuss chronotherapy as one of the possible treatments for insomnia. Here is everything there is to know about chronotherapy as an insomnia treatment option.

Chronotherapy is a drug-free therapeutic intervention that exploits the body’s circadian rhythms through changes in sleep and wake cycles and daily light exposure. This therapy involves intentionally delaying going to sleep by two to three hours on successive days until you are able to fall asleep at the desired bedtime. Chronotherapy can be a challenging task to do at home and thus, it might be better conducted in a hospital setting.

This therapy means that you will have to continue the delay day after day, with the sleep period moving around the 24-hour clock. For instance, if you want to be in bed by 11 p.m. but end up falling asleep at 3 a.m., then you should adjust your sleep timing with chronotherapy as follows:

• Day 1: Bedtime 6 a.m.
• Day 2: Bedtime 9 a.m.
• Day 3: Bedtime 12 noon
• Day 4: Bedtime 3 p.m.
• Day 5: Bedtime 6 p.m.
• Day 6: Bedtime 9 p.m.
• Day 7 and after that: Bedtime 11 p.m.

This is a schedule which you have to be strictly adhered to. Chronotherapy uses your body’s circadian rhythm to help with mood, eating, and sleep disorders. This therapy means that you will reset a dysregulated circadian rhythm (biological clock) to normal sleep and wake cycles. Moreover, this therapy also required treatment scheduling, which means that you should administer medications in accordance with circadian rhythms. This therapy demonstrates how important the circadian rhythm is for the health and diseases for humans.

There are different types of chronotherapy, including bright light therapy, wake therapy/sleep deprivation therapy, sleep phase advance therapy, and triple chronotherapy. Each one of these types is easy to be administered and requires little use of equipment. They are more of lifestyle changes for the duration of the treatment.

This therapy is very beneficial for the overall health and it will help you fight major depression, combat seasonal mood disorder and bipolar disorder, and help with eating disorders. Last but not least, chronotherapy is extremely effective against delayed sleep phase disorder and insomnia. This means that this therapy will help you reset your disturbed circadian clocks with a treatment schedule and stop using hypnotic medications.

Even though chronotherapy is simple to administer, it does require appropriate medical attention and it’s best conducted in a hospital setting. So, it’s very important to have medical supervision. Thus, this seems like an excellent insomnia treatment option which is drug-free and comes with plenty of other benefits too.