Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi)
Living with insomnia can be a challenge. Fortunately, effective treatments are available that can help people fall asleep faster, stay asleep, and feel more rested during the day. Cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is a short, structured, and evidence-based approach to combating the frustrating symptoms of insomnia.
How Does CBT-I Work?
CBT-I focuses on exploring the connection between the way we think, the things we do, and how we sleep. During treatment, a trained CBT-I provider helps to identify thoughts, feelings, and behaviours that are contributing to the symptoms of insomnia.
Thoughts and feelings about sleep are examined and tested to see if they’re accurate, while behaviours are examined to determine if they promote sleep. A therapist will then clarify or reframe misconceptions and challenges in a way that is more conducive to restful sleep.
The main therapeutic components of cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia (CBTi) are:
- General Sleep Education
- Bedtime Restriction Therapy
- Stimulus Control Therapy
- Relaxation Techniques
- Cognitive Restructuring
Is CBT-I Effective?
When these techniques are used together as multicomponent CBT-I, as many as 70% to 80% of patients with primary insomnia experience improvements. Benefits include less time to fall asleep, more time spent asleep, and waking up less during sleep.
CBTi therapy has been reported to improve insomnia severity, sleep onset latency (time to first fall asleep), wake after sleep onset (time spent awake during the night after first falling asleep), number of nocturnal awakenings, total sleep time, and sleep efficiency (total sleep time divided by average time spent in bed) over long-term follow-up.
CBTi Versus Pills
It’s common for people to try sleeping pills available without a prescription before seeking help for insomnia. Some prescription sleep medicines can be an effective short-term treatment. For example, they can provide relief right away when you’re very stressed or grieving. But generally sleeping pills are not the best long-term treatment for insomnia for many people.
It’s unlikely that all your insomnia symptoms will go away with medicines alone. Also, some prescriptions come with the risk of serious side effects, including dependence, withdrawal symptoms, amnesia and thoughts about suicide. Most commonly, these medicines can make you tired when you need to be alert, for example, at work or while driving.
CBTi may be a good treatment choice if you have long-term sleep problems or you’re worried about becoming dependent on sleep medicines. It also can be a good choice if medicines aren’t effective or cause bothersome side effects.
Unlike sleep medicines, CBTi addresses what’s causing your insomnia rather than just relieving symptoms. But it takes time and effort to make it work.
Sleep Therapy & Counselling | Sleep Psychologist Adelaide
We are trained in Cognitive behaviour therapy for insomnia (CBTi) from Australian Psychological Society (APS) and Australian Sleep Association (ASA) as a CBTi practitioner that demonstrate our expertise in the most evidence-based psychotherapy treatment for insomnia.You can contact us on (08) 7079 9529 or email admin@sehatpsychology.com.au to book an appointment (telehealth or face to face) with our sleep therapist.
Online Psychologists & Therapists Australia | Adelaide Psychology Clinic
Our experienced psychologists can help you understand your insomnia, and learning how to deal with sleeping issues can make a lasting difference to your quality of life.