Friday, October 10, 2008

Alternative Treatments for Insomnia


It may be difficult to address insomnia. Here are some alternative methods to treat insomnia:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
According to women to womenCBT methods may combine a number of elements, including education, advice, psychotherapy, stimulus control and sleep restriction. One premise of cognitive therapy is that merely thinking about sleeplessness and all of the problems it causes the next day leads to ongoing insomnia. Through therapy, CBT can teach a person how to develop a more positive outlook on sleep, while simultaneously encouraging better “sleep hygiene,” or behaviors that are conducive to restful sleep, such as turning off the TV and staying out of bed unless you’re sleeping or having sex.

Sleep Restriction Therapy
SRT helps you find your body's threshold for sleep. Ever person has different threshold - it may be 6 hours for some or others may have 8. One way is by depriving yourself of sleep for 24 hours. Once your body is exhqusted, it will now crave for some sleep. This will gradually increase your sleeping time until you find your own threshold.

It is also helpful if you will keep track of your sleep for a couple of weeks and this can be evaluated by the doctor.

Light Therapy
This is also known as phototherapy this method uses specific wavelengths of light for a certain amount of time. This is also used for affective disorder, depression and sleep disorders. Research shows that Using this blue light in the early evening can help people who have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep to sleep solidly throughout the night. This connection occurs because the receptors for the specific blue light in our eyes link directly to the suprachiasmatic nucleus, the part of your brain that regulates your circadian rhythm.

Click here to read the article

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