It seems that most of us have insomnia for periods of time, if not pretty much permanently. Insomnia is must be due in part to our 21st century lifestyle and perhaps changes in our sleep habits as we age.
A few weeks back I had a post Sleep Problems. In that post I talked about insomnia and gave a few statistics. The amazing one, to me, was that it is estimated that the market for insomnia drugs will be $3.9 billion by 2012. $3.9 billion?
At the end of the post I said I was going to sign up for an online course/consultation for treating insomnia with cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT. The course lasts 5 weeks and you get pdfs, your weekly sleep diary analyzed and advice on how to change your sleep habits. See the other post for more info; the course link is cbtforinsomnia.com.
I kept my first sleep diary for a week, and then emailed it. A day later I got my first guidelines.
My problem is not getting to sleep, but waking up in the early hours of the morning and not getting back to sleep for quite a long time. The advice for me was basically to go to bed later, but still get up at the same time every day and not lie in bed once I awoke in the morning.
I got very tired but it seems to have really helped. I have had one night where I did not wake at-all. By the end of the third week, I was wakening once or twice per night, but was not awake for very long, and my brain did not go into that super active mode that kept me awake before.
The verdict? So far a success. Hopefully, when I start to go to bed a bit earlier, I will have trained myself and no longer wake up with an active brain and be awake for long periods of time. Waking briefly is fine with me.
If you have insomnia and want to try a simple and different approach, it might be worth a shot.
photo credit: Photo4jenifer
[tags]insomnia, cognitive behavioral therapy, CBT, sleep problems[/tags]
