Several clinical trials have found that sleeping pills are outperformed by cognitive behavioral therapy.
Insomnia is common in adults, with nearly 30 percent of us reporting some symptoms of it. Besides making you tired and exasperated, chronic insomnia is associated with a greater risk of anxiety, depression, hypertension, diabetes, accidents and pain. One such sufferer—who suffered from a decreased productivity at work due to his insomnia—was Austin Frakt, a health economist, who recently wrote an article in The New York Times about his treatment.
Frakt wanted to cure his insomnia. And before reaching for any sleeping pill, he looked at the research, specifically evidence-based guidance. He turned to comparative effectiveness research, the study of the effects of one therapy against another therapy, and found that when it comes to insomnia, sleep medications aren’t the best bet for a cure. Several clinical trials have found that sleeping pills are outperformed by cognitive behavioral therapy.
C.B.T. for insomnia (or C.B.T.-I.) goes beyond the “sleep hygiene” tips most people have heard— like avoiding alcohol or caffeine near bedtime and reserving one’s bed for sleep (not reading or watching TV, for example). C.B.T. also adds sticking to a consistent wake time (even on weekends), relaxation techniques and learning to rid oneself of negative attitudes and thoughts about sleep.
According to Frakt, C.B.T. practitioners learn that if you label a night of sleep “bad” and expect a bad day to follow a bad night of sleep, you’re more likely to get it, as well as more likely to be anxious the next time you attempt to sleep.The last part, for Frakt, was key. Through an online program recommended by his doctor, he carefully kept track of how much sleep he got each night. The sleep log helped him be more objective about his sleep patterns. For instance, on nights that he would have considered “bad” – and fretted over – turned out to be ones in which he only got one less hour of sleep then the target seven hours. By recognizing those “bad nights” really weren’t so bad helped him to relax, and relaxing helped him get more and better sleep.According to Frakt, C.B.T. practitioners learn that if you label a night of sleep “bad” and expect a bad day to follow a bad night of sleep, you’re more likely to get it, as well as more likely to be anxious the next time you attempt to sleep. In this way, insomnia can be considered a condition of the mind that then infects the body. C.B.T. aims to reorient one’s thinking and behavior so that sleep becomes a more positive experience. Drugs, on the other hand, just treat insomniacs’ symptoms without addressing the underlying cause, which is why, Frakt asserts, the relief they provide may be less durable.
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Curated from The New York Times
