For many patients, the first step in treating insomnia is improving sleep hygiene. This includes eliminating caffeine, limiting alcohol, and establishing a relaxing bedtime routine.
Doctor Kolzet Many older adults have psychiatric or medical conditions that can cause insomnia or contribute to it (comorbidities). It’s important to address these issues in addition to sleeping habits and medications.
1. Stop Worrying About It
Insomnia is a serious sleep disorder that affects one in 10 Americans, and it can cause severe health problems. If you are having trouble falling asleep at night, waking up too frequently in the middle of the night, or not getting enough rest, you should seek treatment for insomnia immediately.
There are several different treatment options for insomnia, but the most effective is cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBTi). CBTi involves a series of sessions with a trained psychologist to teach you techniques that can help you fall asleep and stay asleep. It also helps you address any mental health issues that may be contributing to your insomnia.
For example, people who suffer from depression often have trouble sleeping. Insomnia can actually cause depression, and it’s important to treat the underlying problem in order to get better sleep. CBTi can also help you develop healthier sleeping habits, such as going to bed at the same time every night and avoiding caffeine and alcohol.
Moreover, it can help you change your negative thoughts and emotions about sleep, so they don’t interfere with your ability to go to sleep. This can be done in individual therapy sessions or as part of a group, and you can find a therapist online or in your local area.
When it comes to insomnia, doctors often have a chicken or egg problem: Is the insomnia causing mental health symptoms or is the mental health affecting the sleep? Studies show that depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder are all linked to poor sleep. Taking care of the insomnia will usually calm the other symptoms as well. Medications can also be helpful for some people, but they should not be used as the sole treatment.
2. Get a Good Night’s Rest
A good night’s sleep is essential for a number of reasons, from mental health to physical health. If you are suffering from insomnia, there are some things that you can do to improve your sleep and start feeling better again.
If you’re struggling with insomnia, the first step is to talk to your doctor or therapist. They will be able to assess your symptoms and determine whether or not you have short-term or chronic insomnia, which is important for treatment. They will also ask you about your sleep habits and routine, what medicines you are taking and what other lifestyle changes you have tried.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) addresses the underlying problem and helps people develop healthy sleeping patterns for life. It includes techniques like cognitive restructuring, which examines and challenges negative thoughts that lead to insomnia. It also involves teaching coping skills to help people relax and unwind before going to bed.
Stimulus control is another component of CBT-I. It encourages individuals to only use their beds for sleeping and sex, and they are encouraged to get out of bed if they cannot fall asleep after 15-30 minutes. This teaches the brain to associate their bed with sleeping and not other activities, such as watching TV or studying.
There are many different treatments for insomnia, and your therapist will be able to suggest the best one for you. Some treatments include meditation, yoga, tai chi, acupuncture and biofeedback, which uses technology to monitor certain processes in the body such as heart rate, breathing and body temperature. Other techniques, such as hypnosis and guided or self-hypnosis, teach people to relax on their own using verbal or nonverbal cues.
3. Change Your Habits
Changing your behavior is an important part of insomnia therapy. Many people with insomnia find themselves battling bad habits that may actually be contributing to their sleep issues. Some of these habits can be difficult to break. These include checking email as soon as you wake up, taking the same route to work every day, watching entertaining TV shows before bed, or even biting your nails when nervous.
These habits can create associations in the brain that make it difficult to fall asleep at night. This is why insomnia treatment involves a combination of short-term and long-term lifestyle changes. For example, CBTi helps to teach people how to use their beds only for sleeping and sex. If they cannot fall asleep within 20 minutes, they are encouraged to get out of bed and do something relaxing until they feel sleepy again.
CBTi also incorporates techniques to reduce anxiety and promote relaxation before sleep. For example, patients are encouraged to meditate or practice mindfulness, which can help to quiet the mind and lower emotional reactivity. Patients are also taught breathing exercises, which can help with both anxiety and stress.
If you are battling insomnia, it is important to do everything possible to overcome this condition. However, it is also vital to work with a therapist who can guide you through these lifestyle changes. There is no need to continue suffering from insomnia when there are so many effective treatments out there!
The first step is to figure out what is causing your insomnia. Then you can begin to take action. There are several causes of insomnia, including stress, depression, and other mood disorders, as well as lifestyle and sleep habits.
4. Go to Bed at the Same Time Every Night
For the longest time, doctors have given simple advice for battling insomnia that has had big impacts: cut back on the booze and the afternoon caffeine, don’t spend hours scrolling on your phone before bed, etc. Those hints are still tried and true today, but new research affirms that going to sleep at the same time every night will also help you get better rest.
The reason that consistent sleeping habits are so important is because they help to establish your body’s natural sleep/wake cycle. Our sleep cycles are heavily influenced by circadian rhythms, which are determined in large part by the timing of light and darkness. In general, people with chronic insomnia tend to have disrupted circadian rhythms. This is due to a variety of factors, including mental health conditions like anxiety and depression, medications taken at bedtime, and even everyday events and life circumstances that can cause stress.
Those who suffer from long-term or severe cases of insomnia should consult a sleep specialist, especially if over-the-counter sleeping pills or other prescription drugs have been tried without success. A professional can help you develop a plan that will involve behavioral changes as well as medication, if needed. For example, your sleep expert may ask you to keep a sleep journal for a few weeks to help them understand the nature of your problem and how it has been affected by the various factors that are involved. Insomnia can be caused by many different things, and understanding all the contributing factors will help you treat your insomnia effectively. Then you can finally start getting the sleep you deserve. Hopefully, you will not have to resort to sleep aids, which are best used sparingly in short-term situations such as traveling across multiple time zones or recovering from a medical procedure.
5. Exercise
Exercise is often the last thing on people’s minds when they feel tired, but it is one of the most important parts of insomnia therapy. A regular workout routine helps improve sleep quality, and better sleep leads to more energy, which makes it easier to exercise. The cycle continues, and over time you’ll see a dramatic difference in your sleep.
Studies show that those who regularly exercise experience less insomnia than those who don’t. Exercise also helps reduce the effects of some disorders that negatively affect sleep, such as anxiety and depression. The benefits of physical exercise can extend to mind-body exercises like yoga or tai chi, which incorporate breathing and meditation into the routine. These types of exercises are often more accessible than traditional exercise for those who have mobility issues or are unable to participate in vigorous activities.
In one study, researchers found that tai chi participants experienced sleep improvements similar to those who participated in a conventional exercise program. This finding suggests that tai chi, or other mind-body exercise, may have a distinct mechanistic route to insomnia improvement, possibly by targeting arousal mechanisms that are elevated in those experiencing insomnia.
It is also important to remember that sleep disorders often co-occur with mental health conditions, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or substance use disorders. For this reason, CBTi is a great option for treating insomnia and other mental health issues simultaneously. Your therapist will be able to help you identify the underlying causes of your sleep problems and teach you strategies for managing them. These techniques may include stimulus control, sleep restriction and relapse prevention. In addition to these techniques, your therapist will likely recommend biofeedback, which allows you to observe and monitor your biological responses in real time, and learn how to control them.
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