Building Better Sleep Habits with CBT-I from a Wakefield Therapist

The Importance of Sleep for Overall Health 

Improve your sleep today with CBT-I with a Therapist in Wakefield

Sleep is one of those things we simply can not do without, no matter how much we wish we could. Trust me, I really wish I could get away with only four hours of sleep a night, but it’s simply not possible. Sleep plays a critical role in our health and mental health because it plays such a critical role in our brain health. It is one of our most primitive needs along with food and water. Can it feel inconvenient? Of course! Modern American life is all about busy schedules and commitments that can lead us to feel like there simply are not enough hours in the day to make room for sleep. Yet we suffer tremendously without it. 

Not only can it feel hard to make time for sleep and to make sleep a priority, but sleep can feel evasive. Many people struggle with sleep even during hours they have dedicated to trying to sleep. It can be hard to fall sleep and/or hard to stay asleep. It can even be harder to have truly restful sleep when sleeping. This loss of sleep can have a really negative impact on daily life and a destructive impact on well-being over time. 

Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to improve sleep, including many ways that do not include medication or supplements. If you are struggling with sleep and worry you have tried everything to no avail, a therapist in Wakefield can help you overcome your struggles with sleep and help you get back to better, restful and restorative sleep.

Understanding Insomnia and Sleep Struggles

Insomnia can take different forms and to be quite frank, they are all pretty miserable to experience. Some people struggled to fall asleep, often laying for hours awake in bed, tossing and turning and getting frustrated. Others fall asleep with ease, but find themselves waking after just a few hours of sleep. Maybe they can fall asleep again, but then they wake again and again until they eventually give up and move on with the day. And others make it relatively smoothly through much of the night but wake up a couple hours before they want to, and before they feel like they have truly gotten all the rest they need. Their bodies are very awake then and they are totally unable to get those final couple hours of sleep. Many people also struggle with nightmares punctuating their sleep, so even if they sleep through the night, they wake emotionally exhausted and on edge. 

All of these disruptions lead to physical and emotional challenges because they all interfere with sleep quality. Sleep actually happens in different phases through the night and each phase plays an important role. So even if some phases of sleep are intact, the disruption to other phases can be very harmful. This article from the National Institutes of Health touches on some of the reasons adequate sleep is so important: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/sleep/why-sleep-important. 

How Do I Fix My Sleep? 

Improving sleep can feel like a struggle yet I assure you, with a knowledgeable guide, you might actually see results rather quickly and it will be a relief!! 

One of the most important parts about addressing insomnia is getting a thorough assessment. Are there medical factors that might be interfering with sleep? Are there schedule constraints that make it challenging to keep a consistent routine? What is the caffeine relationship? Is there even a comfortable place to sleep? All of these details are critical to providing the most personal approach. 

Often a first step is to address any medical causes for insomnia and determine how to work best with them. This could be things like getting assessed for sleep apnea (good news, this can usually be done from home now instead of needing to sleep in a hospital or sleep center in a really artificial environment), addressing hormonally-driven night sweats (which are typically hot flashes occurring overnight) or reviewing medication side effects and dosing timing. 

Importantly, there is a treatment called CPT-I, or Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Insomnia, which is considered a gold standard intervention for insomnia. Finding a therapist trained in CBT-I (such as myself) can be a crucial step toward resolving your insomnia.

What is CBT-I? An Overview of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia 

Briefly, CBT-I is a form of therapy which addresses the unique connection between ways that you might be thinking and ways you might behave to support or undermine sleep. It essentially reviews your thoughts and behaviors and how to make adjustments to them so they promote sleep and help you move past insomnia. If that sounds simple, it is because there is often elegance in simplicity! If that sounds impossible or complicated, I can assure you that with the right support and a trusted CBT-I therapist, it can be quite straightforward. The good news is that it can help within weeks and usually helps start to resolve insomnia rather quickly. 

If you have been struggling with insomnia, this may sound too good to be true. Research has repeatedly shown CBT-I to be effective though, and often more effective than medication. It can be really, really hard to address your own sleep alone though, and this is why finding a therapist in Wakefield who is trained in CBT-I can be an important decision to getting the guidance you need. 

Identifying and Addressing Sleep-Disrupting Thoughts 

We have all been there…looking at the clock and thinking “oh my gosh, now I’m only going to get five and a half hours of sleep…oh no, I’m never going to fall asleep…geez, it’s already been an hour and I’m not even close to falling asleep.” These thoughts are really common when our worry gets the best of us because we feel so desperate to sleep. But do stress-inducing thoughts help us feel more restful and relaxed? Not at all, unfortunately! 

Through CBT-I, you will learn how to recognize your automatic thoughts that might be getting in your way and how to tweak them to still feel realistic, yet to also become more helpful and promote relaxation. I know for myself, if I’m having a night of poor sleep, I have learned to shift away from “oh my gosh I can’t believe I woke up again I’m going to be such a mess tomorrow” and instead focus on “rest is really important and it’s good I’m at least resting right now.” 

Therapy can help identify your thought patterns and also if there are important ways to address these concerns during the day so the thoughts are less disruptive at night.

Building Healthy Sleep Habits

Learning about concepts that are often referred to as sleep hygiene is important as well. This includes ways to protect your sleep environment to help your brain associate your sleep space with sleep and nothing more. This can be done in many, many ways and can be helpful to have a therapist or coach assist so they can alert you to possible blind spots you may have in your routing. 

Working with a CBT-I trained therapist in Wakefield can help you develop a personalized sleep plan that helps you cue your brain to sleep when you need it to. This might involve changing your bedtime routine, adjusting your room and activities or any myriad of adjustments. You will learn how to teach your brain when to sleep and when to wake so the process happens with more ease.

Relaxation Techniques to Calm the Mind Before Bed 

Depending on the way sleeplessness impacts you, you might also learn ways to relax your body and your mind to reduce anxiety before sleep. This could be any variety of strategies, but in therapy, these can be highly tailored to your unique interests and needs. These strategies can help promote your body’s natural relaxation response to help ease into sleep or to restore a sense of calmness after an episode of overnight waking. 

I have personally developed a set of relaxation methods that I use to fall asleep and I change them up every few months as my brain seems to get bored with them regularly, so I need to keep them fresh. Sometimes, it’s focusing on imagery, while other times it’s a focus on breathing or a single point meditation. Whatever form it takes, ensuring that your body is in a calm state is critical to transitioning to sleep. 

How a Therapist in Wakefield Can Support Your Sleep Journey 

Many therapists can provide some assistance with sleep, yet working with a therapist who specializes in CBT-I can really get you more specialized and efficient help. Through therapy using CBT-I, you can get very personal support as you learn about your own sleep issues, what helps and what hinders your sleep. You will develop a highly personal plan for changes to your environment, changes to your routines and changes to your thinking to get you back to sleeping soundly. 

While it may sound like a lot of changes are needed and that might sound intimidating, I can assure you the changes happen in small steps and are often small changes that lead to big results. Sometimes changing the way you spend the fifteen minutes just before going to bed can have a huge impact on how smoothly you fall asleep. Consider CBT-I for yourself to see what is possible. 

Start Building Better Sleep Habits Today 

With available treatments like CBT-I, you can take control of your sleep and get back to feeling rested. Overcoming insomnia is possible with the right guidance and you deserve to have the physical and emotional health benefits that come with better sleep. 

If you are struggling with insomnia or poor sleep habits, a therapist in Wakefield can help you build better sleep patterns through CBT-I. Whether in-person or online, therapy offers a personalized approach to overcoming sleep challenges and improving your overall well-being.

Reach out today to schedule a consultation and start your journey toward restful, restorative sleep.