Complaints about sleep and insomnia are something we hear from clients all the time. There are medical reasons for some cases of insomnia. But so many experience insomnia for psychological reasons: racing thoughts, learned tendency to pressure oneself to sleep, and others. So how do we help clients through this? Luckily, CBTi is a highly effective nonmedication tool we can all utilize.
Research has found that sleep can impact mental health and vice versa. Studies have also shown that CBTi is an extremely effective method for approaching insomnia. Multiple medical organizations have even recommended CBTi as frontline treatment for insomnia over sleep medications.
CBTi mainly focuses on a few key processes, in a nutshell. One is patterns of behavior that lead individuals to develop unhealthy “sleep hygiene” (e.g., developing the tendency to wait until bed to think through their day). Another focus of CBTi is approaching and challenging maladaptive thoughts and beliefs about sleep and lack of sleep (“It will be terrible tomorrow without sleep and I won’t be about to handle anything.”).
Interestingly, these types thoughts and beliefs paradoxically “rev-up” thought processes, physiological arousal, and worry. These experiences interfere with our body’s natural desire to go to sleep when it is tired. CBTi helps individuals challenge maladaptive beliefs and develop new alternative behaviors to allow the body to get to sleep naturally.
Pros: CBTi is highly effective. And no medication needed! It is also a pretty close application if you already have some CBT training. If not, continuing education training can get you there. This effective method also addresses medication interaction concerns. And clients can use skills learned from this approach forever; skills that can be applied to other difficulties clients experience.
Limits: The only real limit is time. CBTi takes weeks to months for clients to learn, whereas some medications kick in right away (perhaps a small price to pay). It also requires structured training for the clinician, but that pays itself back in client benefit and in-demand specialization for therapists.
CBTi is highly effective and is in-reach for clinicians to learn! There is a good continuing education training for CBTi as well as good book resources that explain the concepts and methods. This good brief introductory explanation of insomnia and ways to combat it can also inform clients before diving in with them. Happy thera– Zzzzzzzzz…….
