Do you often toss and turn for hours prior to falling asleep? Do you worry throughout the day about going to sleep and become anxious about how your lack of sleep will prevent you from accomplishing day-to-day tasks? Does your sleep disturbance create more anxiety and often lead to depressed mood? Have you tried countless sleep medications to no avail in hopes of a restful night’s sleep? If so, you may struggle with insomnia or other sleep-related problems and may be a good candidate for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I).

Research suggests that over one-third of adults experience occasional symptoms of insomnia and that 10 to 22% of individuals struggle with chronic sleep difficulties. Though insomnia can be related to a number of both medical and psychological conditions, insomnia is a very treatable condition with CBT-I.

CBT-I is based upon decades of research and represents the gold standard treatment for insomnia and related sleep problems. Like other CBT interventions, CBT-I is an evidence-based, short-term, collaborative treatment approach that includes the following treatment ingredients:

• Cognitive strategies to address unhelpful thoughts about sleep as well as psychoeducation about sleep.
• Behavioral strategies to assist with controlling one’s environment as it relates to sleep while altering behaviors that contribute to poor sleep quality.
• Cognitive and behavioral strategies to address physiological arousal and worry behaviors that contribute to the maintenance of poor sleep.