Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI)
CBTI consists of several components that are tailored to the patient’s individual presentation.
Consist of a set of instructions that address conditioned arousal by a sleep consolidation training process in which the aim is to eliminate prolonged middle-of-the-night awakenings. Still, it can also help with problems falling asleep at the beginning of the night.
This step-wise procedure aims to first improve sleep quality and later worry about its quantity. Initially the time spent in bed is restricted to the amount of sleep that is currently feasible. In subsequent steps the time spent in bed is gradually increased.
Another component of CBTI consists of strategies for reducing sleep-interfering thoughts and worries, managing stress, calming an active mind that won’t shut off when trying to sleep and relaxing. The key is shifting from “trying hard to sleep” to “allowing sleep to happen.”
CBTI takes into account people’s biological clocks and aims to align bed time and rise time with an individual’s internal clock. This may sometimes involve properly timed exposure to bright light.
Sleep Diary
Your consultant may ask you to fill out a sleep diary or sleep log each day to document specific sleep and wake habits over a period of time. A sleep diary can be particularly useful in diagnosing and treating insomnia and circadian rhythm disorders.
A sleep diary can be a very helpful tool to gain more insight into your sleep problem, or to monitor whether a treatment is successful. Sleep diaries are normally completed once or twice a day. It usually consists of several questions related to sleep and wake times, nap times, caffeine and alcohol use and general mood or functioning.
