How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Treat Insomnia
It might sound surprising to hear that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help with insomnia. If you have insomnia, it’s difficult for you to fall asleep, or stay asleep peacefully all night. But, you may be wondering, how can a form of talk therapy help with sleep issues?
At Greater Lowell Psychiatric Associates, our team of mental health experts, under the leadership of Dr. Ronald P. Winfield, can assist you in coping better with insomnia and other conditions.
Our team, located in North Chelmsford, Massachusetts, sees new and existing patients with sleep issues. And, yes, your provider may recommend CBT as part of your treatment plan.
When insomnia doesn’t let you sleep
For something that you do every night, sleep is actually a complicated biological process that involves your brain chemistry. If everything doesn’t go right in your brain, you can find yourself struggling with insomnia.
Insomnia damages your quality of life, as well as your whole-body health and wellness. Without consistent, high-quality sleep, you’re likely to be irritable, mentally unfocused, and more prone to getting sick. That’s not a setup for success!
While everyone experiences a bad night’s sleep sometimes, chronic insomnia takes a real toll on your physical and mental health. Reach out to the team at Greater Lowell Psychiatric Associates, and find out how you can improve your sleep situation.
How CBT can effectively treat insomnia
Because so much of the process of falling, and staying, asleep involves your brain, it makes sense that CBT can help with insomnia. In fact, there's a whole branch of CBT known as CBT-I, or cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Here’s how this approach helps you sleep better.
CBT involves identifying thoughts, patterns, and mental structures, and understanding how these cognitive factors affect your behavior. Then, you can take control by deciding how, and when, to make changes in your mindset and approach to sleep.
You may need to adjust your thinking around bedtime. Do you procrastinate at bedtime, throwing off your sleep cycle? Or, if you stimulate your brain too much, or in the wrong ways, late in the evening, you could be making it harder for yourself to get to sleep. CBT-I helps you gain awareness and control over these issues.
CBT-I can also help you to better handle unhelpful stress related to your insomnia. Getting stressed out over sleeplessness makes it that much harder to slip into sleep when bedtime rolls around. Techniques like mindfulness, meditation, and stress release may be what you need to clear stress and make room for regular, high-quality rest in your life.
Benefits of CBT for insomnia
CBT-I offers you a flexible framework for improving your sleep hygiene. With CBT-I, you aren’t relying on drugs to achieve a good night’s sleep. And, you can adapt your bedtime routine as needed, to continue receiving the optimum benefits from your improved sleep hygiene.
You might be amazed at how much better you feel once you’re not coping with the physical and mental health impacts of insomnia. To learn more about how CBT can help you conquer insomnia, contact Dr. Winfield and the team at Greater Lowell Psychiatric Associates online or over the phone today and schedule your initial consultation appointment.