In general, people believe that sleep problems like insomnia can only be solved by taking sleeping pills. However, turning to a sleep therapist can also be an effective insomnia treatment. One specific therapy that’s proven to be successful in fighting against insomnia symptoms is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). Want to learn more? Continue reading below.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia?
Put briefly, cognitive-behavioral therapy is one of the most common therapies for treating sleep disorders and problems that focuses on identifying thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that contribute to experiencing insomnia symptoms. Your sleep therapist will then restructure these thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in a way that will help you get quality sleep.
In other words, CBT-I can help you change the way you think of sleep and your sleep issues, as well as change your behavior before bedtime which keeps you from getting a good night’s sleep. Additionally, this therapy will help you adopt relaxation skills and healthy lifestyle habits that will contribute to better sleeping patterns.
How does Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia Work?
The typical components of CBT-I sessions include:
Cognitive reframing or restructuring of misconceptions or harmful thoughts about sleep is the first step toward combating insomnia. People with insomnia tend to have inaccurate and dysfunctional thoughts about sleep which further worsen sleep, which then contributes to greater dysfunctional thoughts, creating a vicious circle. So, cognitive restructuring tries to break this cycle by altering the thoughts that result in insomnia symptoms.
Behavioral interventions are attempts to create healthy sleep habits through stimulus control before bedtime, sleep restriction and compression, and relaxation techniques.
Sleeping of stimulus control, many insomnia patients associate their bedroom with numerous behaviors that make sleeping challenging such as watching TV, eating, scrolling on their phones, etc. Thus, stimulus control focuses on eliminating those stimuli by reclaiming the bedroom as a place for sleeping and sex only.
Furthermore, your sleep therapist and CBT-I provider will focus on reducing the time you lie in bed awake through sleep restriction, i.e. limiting time spent in bed to the amount of sleep you get on a typical night so that the drive to sleep increases. Similarly, a more gentle technique might be used called sleep compression where the time spent in bed is gradually reduced, instead of immediately.
The last component of behavioral interventions is relaxation training. Your CBT-I provider will teach you some relaxation techniques that will help you calm down your racing thoughts and anxiety which commonly occur when lying in bed unable to fall asleep. Some examples of such techniques include breathing exercises, autogenic training, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), biofeedback, meditation, and hypnosis.
- Psychoeducational Interventions
Finally, understanding the link between feelings, thoughts, behaviors, and sleep is of utmost importance for alleviating insomnia symptoms and finally getting restful sleep. Your sleep therapist will educate you about good sleep hygiene and the importance of following such sleep-healthy practices. Therefore, your CBT-I provider will teach you how diet, exercise, and sleep environment impact sleep and what lifestyle changes you need to make to support sleep.
Final Thought
Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that makes falling and/or staying asleep difficult. Luckily, with cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) you can effectively combat this disorder and improve sleep. All you need to do is find a reliable and professional CBT-I therapist.