Insomnia

Are you struggling to sleep?

CBT-I (cognitive behavioural therapy package for insomnia) is consistently better than any drug therapy for insomnia, for both effectiveness and long-term benefits.

What is CBT-I?

Sleep hygiene
Visit Patient Info for a good web page describing changes you can make to improve sleep hygiene. 30% of patients will get better with sleep hygiene alone.

Stimulus control
A way of retraining the brain that bed is for sleep. Five simple rules:

1. Go to bed only when sleepy.
2. Get out of bed if you are not asleep within 15-20 minutes (repeat as necessary).
3. Use the bed and bedroom only for sleeping.
4. Get up at the same time everyday.
5. No napping.

Sleep restriction
Use a sleep diary to record how long you are asleep and how long you are awake in bed, and then restrict your time in bed to your asleep time only.

For example, if your bedtime is 11pm and your get up time is 7am, and your total time in bed is 8 hours and total time asleep is 6 hours, go to bed at 1am to restrict your sleep to 6 hours. After 2 weeks you should notice an improvement with deeper, better quality sleep.

If you feel tired after 2 weeks you can add an extra 30 minutes to your “in bed time.” Increase every 2 weeks as necessary.

Relaxation
Yoga, Tai Chi, mindfulness.

Exercise
Exercise improves sleep.