Difficulty Sleeping

Difficulty sleeping every now and again is common and completely natural. If you have experienced difficulty sleeping for more than a couple of weeks we can provide you with techniques to help you fall asleep quickly and re-establish a regular sleep rhythm.

If your symptoms have been going on for longer than a few months you may be struggling with insomnia. If it takes 30 minutes or longer to fall asleep, or you are waking for more than 30 minutes during the night or in the earlier morning, three or more times a week it is likely that you will benefit from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I).

CBT-I is an evidence based practice which helps you fall asleep quickly and get a refreshing continuous sleep. It uses cognitive components to target the thoughts and worries that prevent sleep, and uses behavioural components to establish a new sleep routine and eradicate sleeplessness from bed.

Common issues targeted by cognitive components:

• sleep effort (the harder you try to sleep, the harder it becomes)

• reviewing & planning thoughts (things that happened today, things that will happen tomorrow)

• real life issues that need some real attention (if you are busy through the day, these thoughts may become more apparent at night)

• mind jumping from topic to topic

• thinking about thinking

• thinking about not sleeping

Behavioural components re-establish the association between bed and sleep, and re-align your sleep wake drive to help bed become a comfortable restful place.

National Institute for Clinical Evidence (NICE) recommends Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is used as first line treatment for insomnia.

The vast majority of people who receive CBT-I see long lasting improvements in their sleep. Around half achieve complete remission even if symptoms and have been ongoing for years.

CBT-I is usually delivered over six sessions.

It is unlikely that excess caffeine and looking at screens caused you difficulty with sleep, so it’s unlikely avoiding these things will resolve you symptoms.

CBT-I targets racing mind, sleep related worry and establishes as new sleep schedule to give you a refreshing night’s sleep.