Cognitive Behavioral Therapy And Its Effects On Insomnia Symptoms And Impairment

Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia is a recent framework developed to address the dysfunctional cognitions and behaviors that contribute to poor sleeping patterns. Insomnia often presents as a comorbidity to a medical or psychiatric disorder, but may also be an isolated diagnosis. According to research studies, benzodiazepine-receptor agonists (BzRAs) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are the two most effective therapies for treatment and management of insomnia. And while both treatments are beneficial for short-term management of insomnia, CBTi produces long-term sustained benefits with no side effects thus being more advantageous that prescription drug use only. CBTi involves five components: stimulus control, sleep restriction, relaxation training, cognitive therapy and sleep hygiene education. Because CBTi is a fairly new approach, trained professionals may be difficult to find; creative delivery of therapy through telephone or Skype appointments may be necessary.

Ohayon, M. M., & Roth, T. (2003). Place of chronic insomnia in the course of depressive and anxiety disorders. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 37(1), 9-15.

In my paper, I will tackle insomnia from various perspectives: definitions, types, causes, effects, and means of solutions.

The impact of sleep deprivation can impact nearly every aspect of your life. In my life, it has affected me in so many ways. Throughout the day, I feel tired, and when I’m supposed to have a good night’s rest, I am wide awake. The days I don’t have the energy to do anything, are about most days, but even though the effects of insomnia are great they won’t end my life. Although insomnia is common, most people can find a treatment that works for them. There are techniques for stress reduction, relaxation, sleep schedule management and even sleep pills that can control insomnia. Relaxing and scheduling a sleep pattern helps me get a better night’s rest, yet sometimes it’s still tough. Besides, it is better than stressing about it or having anxiety or depression as a result of

Sleep is often over looked as an intervention for ME, but through the improvement of environment, medication, life style changes and self-help strategies, sleep can be improved to help provide symptom relief and increase an individuals energy envelope. (ANZMES, n.d.c; Pemberton & Berry, 2009; Wright,

Different age groups of people require different hours of sleep. Children and adolescents require nine to eleven hours of sleep per day. Adults need 7-9 hours, yet some people feel better sleeping lesser hours even with those guidelines. It is true that alcohol helps people sleep faster, but sleep is disrupted once the level which is in the blood starts to fall. It might lead to waking up and difficulties to fall back to sleep. It is true that depression and anxiety may lead to lead to insomnia but for a short time. People should understand that insomnia is not only brought by depression, but chronic pain, bad side-effects of a particular medication, worries and stress are also known to cause long-term insomnia (Okun et al., 2009). Depression and anxiety should not keep an individual awake for a long time but only for a short time. Additionally, the myth that it is right the lie in bed sleepless is not true. Everyone requires sleep during the day or at night, and it is necessary for the body and the brain to function properly. Notably, sleep is good for relaxing the brain in adults and in children, sleep is important for development (Szelenberger, 2006). One should not be fooled that sleep is not necessary, but those people with insomnia should practice relaxation techniques for them to fall asleep. It is true that people tend to sleep few hours as they

Ebben, M. R., & Narizhnaya, M. (2012). Cognitive and Behavioral Treatment Options for Insomnia. Mount Sinai Journal Of Medicine, 79(4)

Sleep is a beneficial necessity both from a scientific and psychological standpoint as sleep improves mental and physical health. Sleep plays an essential role in our growth and development as human beings. During sleep, our brains are growing and preparing for the day ahead so that we may be productive and attentive in every daily task (“Sleep”). Sleep is used by some as a way to escape the harsh reality of life, healing genuine sadness and terminating evocative pain. Without the recommended minimum of eight hours of sleep each night, people can get agitated, distracted easily, acquire health problems, make bad decisions, and feel sad and depressed (Borbely).

Traditional treatments for chronic insomnia include drugs such as over-the-counter antihistamine preparations, with or without mild analgesics, benzodiazepine receptor agonists, sedating antidepressants, neuroleptics, melatonin, and herbal remedies such as valerian. The pharmacological advance has remained the most extensively used for decades, in spite of extensive concerns about long-term effectiveness, habituation, tolerance, and potential difficulties, especially in elderly people. Growing evidence suggests that non-pharmacological treatments, alone or perhaps in combination with drugs, produce clinically noteworthy and strong improvement. In looking at summary data about treatments, it should be noted, with some recent exceptions, outcome studies of pharmacotherapy are almost entirely restricted to brief treatment duration of less than 6 weeks. Even though little doubt exists about the helpfulness of hypnotic drugs for short-term treatment of acute insomnia, evidence shows that the effects of short-term pharmacotherapy trials degrade over time in patients with chronic insomnia. By contrast, cognitive-behavioural treatments are tough and robustly effective on long-term follow-up. In routine practice, pharmacotherapy and a variety of non-pharmacological interventions are sometimes united. Although clinical experience would seem to propose that this joint approach

Universal to every human from birth to death, sleep is a necessary function to survival, productivity, and happiness. While most fall asleep at night with ease, it is estimated that 50-70 million Americans battle sleep or wakefulness disorders. Although sleep disorders do not immediately present with a threat comparable to other common disorders such as depression, bipolar, or schizophrenia, sleep disorders prove very disruptive to one’s quality of life. Insufficient sleep may result in difficulty concentrating, difficulty with memory, trouble with personal care such as hygiene, driving, or managing finances, and poor performance in the workplace. While there is a wide array of sleep related illnesses that may plague any given individual,

I have always been enchanted by the idea of sleep. As a child, I laid in bed attempting to understand why I was unable to fall asleep. I knew I wasn’t the only one, but the snoring of my family convinced me otherwise. Biology taught me to understand genetics and environmental cues, but they were unable to explain to me how my sleep pattern was different. Unable to figure the cause of my sleep problems, I delved into self-treatments instead. Curiosity for knowledge in sleep therapy prompted my interest in understanding sleep consequences and health.

A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of the Effects of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia on Sleep and Daytime Functioning in College Students. (Taylor, et al. 2014)

read through the many other disorders, such as OCD, GAD and PSTD it became clearer to me

Sleep is undoubtedly one of the most essential requirements for the human body to function properly. It plays a very important role in ensuring the wellness of the human body both physically as well as mentally. In fact, the importance of sleep is clear from the fact that it helps you in maintaining a good lifestyle throughout our entire lifetime. Not only does it help maintain our physical and mental health; rather it also helps in maintaining a decent and healthy lifestyle along with ensuring safety from a number of fatal diseases. It is usually said that the mood in which you wake up is largely dependent on the type of sleep you have been in. This in itself is a big proof of the importance of sleep in our lives. While sleeping, our body finally gets its share of rest and it also gets ample time in rejuvenating from all the wear and tear that it went through during the entire day. Not only this, the body is in its own working condition when we are sleeping as this is the time when it supports the healthy functioning of the brain as well as physical attributes of our body.

The use of different acupuncture points in yoga would help to improve blood circulation, hormonal functioning and stimulates cognitive functioning of the brain that would promote sleeping. It is important for me to take care of my diet and follow proper regime if I am only relying on behavioral intervention and don’t want to take any medication or any other therapy to treat insomnia. For this, it should be ensure that at least before six hours of bed time the caffeine beverages should be avoided in the night time as it leads to hyper arousal (Meltzer & Crabtree, 2015).