| Insomnia: Therapy Treatments |
| By Darien Simon, M.S. |
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In addition to sleep aid treatments for insomnia, there are three main types of therapy treatments which may be recommended by your health care provider, depending on the type of insomnia you have (acute or chronic, primary or secondary). These three are cognitive, behavioral, and light therapy.
In cognitive therapy, the therapist works with you to change beliefs and attitudes which may be interfering with your ability to get a good night's sleep. If a life stressor such as loss or change of job, change of residence, death or serious illness in the family, divorce or separation is the cause of your insomnia, it can also help to just discuss your thoughts and feelings about the stressful event with a sympathetic and non-judgmental listener. A behavioral therapist may focus on stimulus control, such as reframing your perception of your bedroom to a more limited set of activities (commonly sleep and sex only), or training you to relax by applying special meditative relaxation techniques to quiet a racing mind or sequentially relax tense muscles. In both cognitive and behavioral therapy, you may also be asked to examine your sleep habits and sleep environment for any factors that might disturb or disrupt your sleep, though the way you do so will differ depending on the type of therapy. The newest technique being employed in treating insomnia is light therapy, geared to helping reset your circadian rhythm to match the daily cycles of light and darkness in nature. While promising, this technique is still new enough that its effectiveness has not yet been demonstrated through extensive research. In addition, any side effects of attempting to alter your internal clock have not been thoroughly investigated, so light therapy should only be tried within a professional therapeutic environment. However, many sources do recommend the use of bright light in the morning, and dim light near bedtime to help cue your body to the appropriate level and type of activity. |
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