Behavioral Sleep Medicine

info — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:09:38 +0000

In my last post back a few months ago, I promised I’d talk more about cognitive and behavioral treatments for insomnia. Although many people with insomnia view sleep medication as the single best answer to their sleep problem, a lot of folks would rather find ways to help their insomnia without taking medications. Why?

Medications help you sleep quickly, and for a lot people that’s a very high priority. But some people have side effects from sleep medications, including memory problems and drowsiness the next day. Many commonly-used medications for sleep can cause dependence on them. And unless you have pretty good insurance, many of the newer medications (the one’s you see advertised on TV) are pretty expensive. So medications are usually helpful in getting people to sleep and keeping them asleep, but may cause other problems.

What are alternatives? An increasing number of behavioral health specialists are interested in using cognitive-behavioral techniques to treat insomnia. You might think that insomnia is just a medical problem. The truth is that a lot of medical problems are associated with people’s behaviors. An example is diabetes. It’s a disorder of how the body uses sugar. That’s physical. But diabetes is affected by things like diet, exercise, and depression. Behavioral factors can affect diabetes.

Insomnia is also influenced by behavior. Things like having a regular bed time, not drinking coffee before bed time, and having a cool and quiet bedroom are important. Many people with insomnia have a number of habits that interfere with getting a good night’s sleep. Working with a qualified behavioral health specialist may help with your insomnia without medications.

A good article on cognitive-behavioral treatment of insomnia is available on the Mayo Clinic website, here.

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Behavioral Sleep Medicine