![]() To fully understand how CBT-i works to improve sleep, it’s important to discuss what cognition is and how your thoughts and feelings directly impact your behavior. The strategies you learn through CBT-i can help you to tackle any future sleep problems, and enable you to continue getting the restful sleep you need. Rather than just masking the problem, CBT-i helps you to get to the root causes of your insomnia and find healthy coping strategies. It helps you develop habits that promote a healthy pattern of sleep.” The American Academy of Sleep Medicine explains that CBT-i, “helps you change actions or thoughts that hurt your ability to sleep well. ![]() CBT-i teaches you to replace unhelpful thoughts and behaviors which feed into your insomnia, with positive, helpful thoughts and behaviors to help you get a restful sleep. In the UK, she added, possibilities include increasing access through IAPT (improving access to psychological therapies) services, health visitors or even specialist apps and websites such as Sleepio, which is currently available free through in the NHS in some parts of south-east England.CBT-i is a form of psychological therapy which helps to address the thinking patterns and behaviors which are contributing to insomnia. The team said it seemed four to eight sessions of CBT were required for such improvements, with an additional trial finding little benefit when only two CBT sessions were offered to insomniacs.ĭavidson said the new study supported the idea that CBT for insomnia could and should be offered through GPs – patients’ usual first port of call – although, as with most of the studies, the therapy itself could be delivered by others such as nurses, social workers or other primary care services. By contrast, those who were just on a waiting list, or given treatment as usual, only experienced up to four minutes’ improvement in the time it took to drop off and a maximum of eight minutes’ improvement in time spent awake after going to sleep. Looking at results from four randomised control trials, with between 66 and 201 participants of mixed ages, the team found that participants fell asleep on average nine to 30 minutes sooner after completing a course of CBT for insomnia and experienced a reduction of between 22 and 36 minutes in the amount of time spent awake after going to sleep. The results showed CBT for insomnia was effective and led to improvements in sleep that lasted during a follow-up many months later. Why can’t I sleep? My mission to understand insomnia – video In some studies, participants were also taking medication to help them sleep. Writing in the British Journal of General Practice, Davidson and colleagues report how they examined the results from 13 previously conducted studies on the provision of CBT for insomnia through primary care. ![]() These include staying away from the bed when awake, challenging attitudes about sleep loss and restricting the number of hours spent in bed. Instead, the main treatment for chronic insomnia is CBT – a programme of changes to the way an individual approaches and thinks about sleep. Sleeping pills are not recommended for long-term use and can have side-effects, as well as posing a risk of addiction. The condition is linked to health problems including depression, as well as difficulties in functioning and sometimes resulting in accidents. Chronic insomnia, in which individuals have difficulties dropping off or staying asleep at least three nights a week for three months or more, is thought to affect about 10-15% of adults. ![]()
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