Serving Clients across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, based in Philadelphia
Insomnia Therapy Online
Feeling exhausted and sick of it?
When you lie down in bed and try to sleep, are you plagued by racing thoughts, feeling more awake than you have all day?
As sleepless nights pile up, are you finding that you’re frustrated with yourself, your mind, and dreading bedtime because it just feels like an endless struggle rather than a time for rest?
Perhaps you have friends, family or a partner who are able to snooze away just fine without much effort which is frustrating and you’re left wondering “Why can’t I sleep like that?”
Perhaps you’re finding that fatigue is making it harder to live the life you want and exhaustion prevents you from being fully present.
Are you finding yourself caught up in a cycle of trying to play catch-up with sleep, canceling things or calling out because of fatigue and leaning more and more on medications to fall asleep or caffeine and supplements to stay awake?
Are you finding yourself…
concerned about the side effects of medications or finding that they leave you feeling groggy the next day,
Missing out on quality time with people you love or
Feeling discombobulated and distracted?
Perhaps you’ve considered or tried expensive mattresses, trackers, gadgets, counting to 100 and still… you’re left waiting and waiting for sleep to come.
We might have some of the tools to sleep well but that doesn’t mean we automatically know how to build something with them.
It’s not for lack of trying, you’re doing your best and trying hard to sleep well. It can be intimidating and overwhelming not being able to sleep and trying to find a solution.
With so much information about sleep out there, it can be hard to tell what is real and what will actually work. Together lets use a science-backed approach to build better sleep.(1)
Insomnia Therapy That Works Long-Term (2)
with Guided Support
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is a treatment for insomnia helps heal the body’s natural sleep mechanism. It is recommended by the American College of Physicians as the first line treatment for insomnia. (2)
How would it feel to… sleep consistently and enjoy restful nights that last long term ? (3)
How would it feel to… relax as you get ready for bed, knowing your body and mind will naturally prepare for sleep and allow you to drift off? (4)
How would it feel to… be confident and know sleeplessness isn't getting in the way of your goals or good health? (5)
With CBT-I you’ll have guided customized support every step of the way as we reset your sleep allowing you to rediscover your body’s natural ability to sleep. (6)
Ultimately therapy for insomnia can help you go from feeling frustrated and exhausted to rested and empowered.
CBT-I has been shown to help clients: fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer (7) and improve daytime functioning and increase quality of life (8)
Sound too good to be true? I hear you, insomnia can feel like an endless cycle of sleeplessness but fortunately it doesn’t have to be.
Check out the linked research articles in the citations section below and the CBT-I page to learn more about this method.
Referenced:
(1) https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1559827619867677
(2) https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M15-2175
(3) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35099359/
(4) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3554970/
(5) https://jcsm.aasm.org/doi/10.5664/jcsm.7224
(6) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10002474/
(7) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6796223
(8) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31383238/
Frequently asked questions about insomnia therapy
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Sleep difficulties are very common. About 33% to 50% of adults report frequent difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. About 7% to 18% of adults experience sleeplessness often enough that they are diagnosed with insomnia disorder. (9)
The first step of this program is a free consultation and then an assessment to clarify your sleep situation.
Citation
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It is great you’re already working on these strategies otherwise known as “sleep hygiene” However, research shows that sleep hygiene on its own is not enough. (10)
These strategies won’t hurt anything but typically they aren’t enough to reset sleep after insomnia has started. CBT-I takes this several steps further to help you reset your sleep.
Citation
(10)https://www.med.upenn.edu/cbti/assets/user-content/documents/btsd--sleephygiene-bsmtxprotocols.pdf
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This is an excellent question. Often the initial trigger for insomnia is different from what keeps insomnia going.
Initial triggers for insomnia vary widely but some common examples are: medical problems, work problems, family conflict, grief, change in schedule, new infant etc. For some people, the situation resolves on its own but for others the insomnia becomes chronic.
The reasons why insomnia sticks around are not the same as the initial trigger. CBT-I targets the factors that make insomnia chronic. (11)
(11) https://europepmc.org/article/med/26978509
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CBT-I helps with resetting your brain and body to be able to sleep consistently. However, if something outside your own brain/body is the only reason for the sleep issues, it would be more effective to address the problem directly first (For example, sleeping in separate beds, white noise machines, or other creative solutions).
In other words, your bed partner is the only reason you wake up and you fall asleep quickly after the noise or movement and have no issues with insomnia when sleeping alone, CBT-I wouldn't change much.
However, often the noise is only part of the problem and CBT-I helps with the rest. Stress and anxiety predispose, or make someone more likely to be awoken by their bed partner. (12)
In the first session, we will do a thorough assessment. I'm ethically bound to only provide services with a "reasonable promise of success" so I would only recommend continuing if CBT-I is likely to benefit in your specific circumstance.
This is from the CBT-I support page of the Center for Deployment Psych which I think adds some clarity to the situation as well:
"For some patients, difficulty sleeping can be attributed to a specific source, such as a noisy bed partner or uncomfortable mattress. In these cases, targeting the problem directly can help. However, patients with sleep problems generally have multiple contributing factors, particularly if the insomnia has become chronic. That means it is unlikely that simply targeting sleep hygiene will be helpful, and indeed, research demonstrates that for patients who have Insomnia Disorder, even if they have poor sleep hygiene, sleep hygiene interventions alone are ineffective.
Unless your patient has an easily identifiable single source of sleep problems or sleep problems are acute, CBT-I is recommended.” (13)
Citations:
(12) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32421592/
(13) https://deploymentpsych.org/content/faqs-cognitive-behavioral-therapy-insomnia-cbt-i