Insomnia Study
So, what do you do when you can’t fall asleep? Count sheep? Just lay there? Toss and turn and throw the pillow?
Now true, these are all approaches that don’t involve medicine, but they are unfortunately all the wrong things to do!
In fact, they feed the problem of insomnia.
However, the good news is this: there are ways to get a better night’s rest, and not use medicine.
The latest research in the Journal of the American Medical Association in fact compared cognitive behavioral therapy interventions--ways to change the way one mentally approaches insomnia--to medicine like lunesta, the popular sleeping pill.
The study found those using the non-medical techniques had greater improvements in their sleep than those getting the medication.
Dr, Michael Mandel, a sleep specialist at Sleep Services of America, says, “We try to compare what the patient is actually doing with what they actually need and we try to show them the differences, there is an education aspect to it and then we try to change their behavior based on that educate.”
What works is information on so called sleep hygiene—how to keep a comfortable sleeping environment.
Adam, who has a problem with insomnia in the summertime, says, “It is really hot in the city, really stick and no one has central air.”
So, fixing that environment would be a key to getting Adam better sleep in the summer
Also, restricting sleep—getting out of bed until you are tired and ready to fall asleep is very important. So is stimulus control, such as not watching TV or working when one can’t sleep.
Yes, learning how to fall asleep, and how to relax, can go a very long way.
Dr. Mandel points out that when compared to those using sleeping medicine, people who are treated with cognitive behavior therapy fall asleep easier, stay asleep better, and wake up less. “Many patients who I see who are on sleep medication come to me to try to get off of them, and sleep medicines will only go so far, sleep medicines are good for what we call acute or very short term insomnia, but people who have long term insomnia that goes on for weeks, months or years, really need to rely on something more than just drugs,” says Dr. Mandel.
It’s amazing that most people with chronic or long lasting insomnia–up to 85 percent–remain untreated.
Two-thirds of individuals with insomnia report having poor knowledge of available treatment options, and as many as one fifth resort to either untested over-the-counter medications or alcohol in attempts to improve their condition.
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