Treatment of Insomnia

Treatment

There are few ways to treat insomnia. However, if it doesn’t help, your GP may be able to recommend other treatments. A GP is called as general practitioner or generalist, means that as a physician, they are not only expertise in only one specific area of medicine but others as well. They will provide a set of health care therapy to patients and able to treat different kinds of health conditions like illness and injuries.   

Cognitive and behavioral treatments

Cognitive behavioral (CBT-I) is a technique that teach you to change your beliefs that will affect your sleep and helps you to recognize it.

Stimulus control therapy is a method that helps to make your mind to establish bedroom for your sleep or wake up pattern. For example, set a schedule for your sleeping and wake up time, avoid to nap on day, use the bed only for sleep and sex and go to bed only when you feel sleepy.

Sleep restriction therapy is a method that suggests you to limit the amount of time spent in bed to the actual amount of time spent in sleep because staying in bed when you’re awake can lead to bad habit of poor sleep. This treatment is to help reduce your time spent in bed which will create mild sleep deprivation and makes you more tired on the next day. Sleeping qualities improved as you increase your sleep time.

Relaxation training is a method that aids in calming your mind and body. This treatment includes meditation, imagery, muscle relaxation and others.

Biofeedback is a treatment that uses sensors machine helps you observe biological signs like your heart rate and muscle tension. It will show picture or sounds when you are not relaxed.

Sleep hygiene is a practice that involves changing your basic lifestyle that will influence your sleep at night. This include avoid eating heavy meals at night, smoke or drink caffeine, nap at daytime and others.

Paradoxical intention is to makes you stay awake or avoid the intention to sleep. This method is use only when you have trouble to sleep but not maintaining sleep.

Medication

Your doctor might turn to medication when lifestyle habit changes and behavior therapies does not help your insomnia. Discuss with your doctor the treatment plan that you did. However, they don’t recommend you to rely on sleeping pills for more than few weeks because it may lead to addictive. Nowadays, it is used much lesser than in the past. Doctor will only consider giving you pill when you are having severe insomnia, short-term insomnia or both lifestyle habit change and behavior therapies never help. Sleeping pills contains dangerous side effects like drowsiness in the following morning and some people might rely on this pill.

REFERENCES

NHS Choices (2015). Insomnia - Treatment. Retrieved October 7, 2016, from  http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Insomnia/Pages/Treatment.aspx

Sleep Education (2015). Insomnia - Treatment. Retrieved October 7, 2016, from http://www.sleepeducation.org/essentials-in-sleep/insomnia/treatment

Mayo Clinic (2016). Insomnia treatment: Cognitive behavioral therapy instead of sleeping pills. Retrieved October 7, 2016, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/in-depth/insomnia-treatment/art-20046677