Living with insomnia can be extremely challenging. If you are someone who struggles with insomnia, you may feel like it is an odd or isolating health issue. There are many misconceptions about insomnia, including what triggers insomnia and various treatment methods. Due to these common misunderstandings, it can be difficult to get effective help from family and friends. Therefore, working with a professional is often necessary.
Despite potentially feeling isolated, please try to remember that insomnia impacts many people. You are not alone in your struggles. Insomnia is a common disorder, and there are several effective treatment plans available to you. Often, it is necessary to get professional treatment to ensure that you are getting enough sleep each night to remain healthy and continue to be the best version of yourself.
Anchor Therapy is a counseling center in Hoboken, NJ with psychotherapists specialized in helping children, teens, adults, and couples with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, trauma, and life transitions. Anchor Therapy is accepting new clients and is now providing in-person sessions and telehealth (video/phone) sessions to residents of New Jersey and New York.
Insomnia is a sleep disorder where it is hard to stay asleep, fall asleep, or cause you to wake up too early with the inability to fall back asleep. You may still feel tired when you wake up. Insomnia can negatively impact your energy, mood, work performance, quality of life, and overall health.
While most adults need seven to eight hours of sleep a night, the exact number of hours varies person-to-person. Many people experience short-term insomnia where they experience sleep difficulty for days or even weeks. Typically, this stems from trauma or stress. However, long-term, or chronic insomnia, lasts for a month or more. Insomnia can be the primary health issue or there may be underlying conditions.
Symptoms of insomnia include:
Waking up throughout the night
Constant worries about sleep
Having a hard time paying attention, recalling, or concentrating
Making more and more mistakes or accidents
Waking up too early
Difficulty falling asleep in the evening
Not feeling rested after a night of sleep
Feeling tired or sleepy during the day
Anxiety
Depression
Irritability
Some people may naturally try to cure their insomnia.
Some examples of this may include:
Mindfulness meditations:
If you are completing a mindfulness meditation, you will breathe slowly and steadily while sitting in a comfortable position. In addition to assisting in your sleep habits, mindfulness meditations can lessen stress, improve your immunity, and aid in concentration. Research suggests that mindfulness meditations improve insomnia conditions and help with overall sleep patterns.
Mantra repetition:
Repeating a positive affirmation or mantra can halt the chatter in your mind, calming down your thoughts. Mantras create a relaxation effect in the body. By practicing consistent mantras or affirmations, you may experience reduced levels of insomnia. You can repeat your mantra in your head or aloud, and remind yourself to stay focused on your mantra during your practice instead of letting your mind wander. Gently bring yourself back to the message.
Yoga:
Yoga not only improves sleep patterns, but also minimizes stress, improves mental focus, and boosts physical functioning. It is important to choose a yoga flow that prioritizes breath work or acts as a moving meditation. By practicing this form of yoga, which mostly consists of slow, controlled movements, allows you to focus on the present moment. This practice does not have to take long- it can be just 10 or 15 minutes daily with some longer practices spread throughout the week.
Exercise:
Exercise helps your overall help and specifically helps with improving your sleep quality. People who regularly exercise often experience fewer symptoms of insomnia. To reap the benefits of exercise, consistency is important. Therefore, you should aim to exercise at least 20 minutes per day.
Massage:
Massage therapy often helps people with insomnia, reducing discomfort, anxiety, and depression. If you do not have the funds to get a professional massage, a self-massage will work just as well!
Magnesium:
Magnesium, a natural mineral, is thought to promote healthy sleep patterns. It is important to note that you should not take magnesium unless your doctor has cleared you to do so.
Lavender:
Lavender is a natural option to improve your mood, decrease discomfort, and advance sleep. Lavender can be used in many forms, such as lavender oil, a lavender spray for your pillows and bed, or aromatherapy.
Melatonin:
Melatonin helps people fall asleep more easily and can improve their sleep quality. Research has shown that melatonin drastically improves the sleep of those with insomnia. This is something you would want to discuss with your doctor before ingesting.
While some of these tips may be helpful to include in your nighttime routine, they may not completely cure your insomnia. It can be easy to point the finger and blame yourself for your insomnia, but it is often not your fault. Having one cup of coffee in the late afternoon is not to blame for your chronic insomnia. In other words, insomnia does not result from making small choices like that irregularly. Insomnia is not your fault and, if you believe that it is, it can often make you more anxious. Hence, making it harder for you to fall asleep and get the proper amount of rest that you need to be the healthiest version of yourself. Luckily, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, also known as CBT, is here to the rescue!
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT):
While you can turn to medication, like sleeping pills, CBT is often recommended first in treating insomnia. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is a scientifically proven method to end your insomnia. CBT is a concise treatment plan that is goal-focused, producing long-lasting results.
Your licensed mental health counselor will assess your unique situation. The sleep therapist will help pinpoint the triggers that contribute to your insomnia so you can learn to identify them and defuse the situation. By offering careful guidance, your sleep counselor will teach you how to create healthy and impactful sleep behaviors. Once you learn to calm the mind and manage stress, you will learn that it is possible to sleep and awaken with a clear mind. Part of this CBT journey includes making efforts to eliminate thoughts that are hindering your sleep journey.
Lastly, coping strategies are taught. These strategies will help you properly acknowledge sleep loss and guide your daytime functioning. Your therapist will also create a sleep-wake schedule to help you manage your sleep needs.
A general CBT program lasts for about 12 sessions. The one-on-one sessions will typically occur once a week or, in some cases, every other week. They will typically last 30 to 60 minutes. Your progress is thoroughly measured each week via sleep logs. As you progress, your sleep therapist will provide distinct guidance to help you advance towards your goals.
CBT is the main form of therapy that we employ here at Anchor Therapy. During our first intake session, we will discuss our plan, encompassing meeting times and the general overview of our therapy sessions. If you would like to learn more generally what CBT is, check out our blog “What is CBT?”.
Overall, CBT is a great option for treating your insomnia. It can successfully treat your sleep disorder without using sleeping pills. Since CBT is highly individualized, we recommend that you reach out to a therapist for an intake session to get started.
Victoria Scala
is the Social Media Manager at Anchor Therapy in Hoboken, New Jersey. She is currently an undergraduate student at the Honors College of Rutgers University-Newark, looking to study Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the graduate level. As a Social Media Manager at Anchor Therapy, Victoria is committed to producing content for and managing the office’s social media presence and blog.
