What Are Recommended Treatments or Therapy for Better Sleep?
Cognitive behavioral therapy and hypnotic medication are recommended treatments for insomnia, according to Patricia Geraghty, NP. Watch this video to find out the components of cognitive behavioral theory and learn more about hypnotics.
Transcript
So the very front line first recommended therapy for chronic insomnia
meaning difficulty in sleeping enough lasting four or more weeks is not drugs, not medication, but with psychological and behavioral
changes. And the real punch line is what we call cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, that involves really changing our understanding
of sleep and what it means to have a good night sleep. I say to my patients when they talk about, I keep waking up, I keep waking
up is that, that appears to be normal with age. So we expect I'm gonna go to bed, go to sleep and wake up in the morning, evidently
that's not normal. So the question we need to ask ourselves is did you get a good night's sleep, is are you waking up feeling rested
enough? And so correcting some of those understandings, this also includes what we call sleep
hygiene, a good environment, we call sleep restriction. The bedroom and bed is for sleep and sex, don't watch TV in bed, don't read
in bed and then a very important part of cognitive behavioral therapy is some component of relaxation exercises mindful relaxation, meditation
or imagery. Second line therapy would be the medications that are called hypnotics, we have a number of hypnotics available, but
if almost all of them are approved only for short term use. And one of the big problems when you consider the two sort of branches
of treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia or medication is we see a prolonged duration of effect. Meaning if you do the
CBT you're going to sleep better and six months to a year later
you'll still be sleeping better. But if you do the medication you stop the medication, it can become dependency forming and subject to abuse and you will have rebound insomnia, you'll be sleeping worse than ever.
insomnia
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