RNS, Sleep & Insomnia, June 2005
1:44
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2005/hminsomnia.htm
Re-learn the art of a good night's sleep: U-M Cognitive behavioral therapies, education can help insomniacs
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Lead: While sleep may seem like a natural process, it is one that can easily be taken for granted. A recent poll by the National Science Foundation found that only 50 percent of Americans get a good night's sleep a few nights each week. When interruptions to sleep become a chronic problem, doctors can offer patients a multidisciplinary approach to treating insomnia that teaches them how to sleep. Here is Erin Block with more.
TRT 1:44
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Insomnia, the most common sleep disorder, affects 40 percent of women and 30 percent of men. It is characterized by difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, waking early with the inability to fall back asleep, or just waking up feeling tired and un-rested from poor quality of sleep.
Dr. J. Todd Arnedt, Ph.D., director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program treats people with insomnia. Arnedt uses a three-pronged approach in his program to help turn insomnia into a well-rested morning.
Arnedt says,
“There's behavioral components, and we teach people specific behavioral strategies for helping them to sleep. There's educational components, what we sort of refer to as sleep hygiene: teaching people, promoting good sleep practices and making sure that they engage in good sleep practices. And the third important piece is a cognitive component, and that has to do with when people have repeated bad nights of sleep, they naturally fall into patterns of thinking. They get worried about their sleep, they get concerned about their sleep, they get anxious about their sleep, they get depressed about their sleep. And all of these things, while they're natural, they actually start to perpetuate the problem, because people will begin to develop anticipatory anxiety around bedtime.”
Arnedt also teaches patients the many factors for good sleep hygiene.
Arnedt advises,
“One of the critical components when you're having difficulty sleeping and getting your sleep on track is ensuring that the bed is used for sleep and sleep only. So that means all other activities are restricted from bed. There's no watching TV in bed, there's no reading bed, there's not talking on the phone in bed, there's no doing work in bed. It's also important to have a nighttime snack before you get into bed at night, something that can have some simplex carbohydrates in it, it can be a little bit sleep inducing.”
Other good sleep hygiene practices include: going to bed and getting up at the same time each day—even on the weekends, avoiding daytime naps, avoiding caffeine late in the day, exercising regularly during the day, but avoiding late evening exercise and keeping the bedroom dark, quiet and comfortable.
Erin Block, U-M Health System News |
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