In my last post I mentioned that CBT-I, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, takes a fair amount of work and motivation. What did I mean by that? Well, essentially CBT-I is a very active therapy. It requires that you be willing to make some real changes to your habits and thinking patterns around sleep. If you decide to pursue CBT-I with me (or any other qualified therapist), then straightaway I’m going to ask you to start logging your sleep and behaviors/habits related to sleep. The logs can be somewhat tedious–not gonna lie–and they take effort on your part to track your current habits around sleep (both daytime and nighttime habits). We track things like when you get in and out of bed, how many naps you take, when did you exercise, did you take any medications, etc.
As you can see, this takes some effort right out of the gate. Hang in there with me though…it’s worth it.
Once we have the logs, this will provide us data that we can then use to make a customized sleep window for your particular body clock. We will use this data throughout treatment to sort out what behaviors are helping or hurting your sleep. It’s all very scientific! And what I love about that is when someone comes in and says “I wonder if this thing I changed made a difference in my sleep?” I can say, “let’s look at the data!”
The logs also evolve as treatment progresses. Typically what I see for my clients is that they notice patterns in their sleep, and as they shift those patterns they begin to feel more confident in their ability to manage their sleep.
The other thing I ask you to do is to begin to change some of your behaviors around sleep. This can be things like going to bed at the same time every night, or avoiding naps. I will also likely ask you to challenge some of your thinking around sleep (e.g., “I HAVE to get 8 hours of sleep to function!”) in order to break the link between your anxiety toward sleep and your actual ability to sleep.
So as you can see, CBT-I is not the sort of therapy where you get to sit back and enjoy the ride. It’s hard work, and it will require that you be motivated enough to follow the recommendations and make these changes. The upside is so sweet, though: you’ll get back your ability to sleep with ease, and a sense that you have control over your body clock. And that should be music to your ears!!
