Sleep better…ZZZz

Have you ever noticed what a difference a good night of sleep can make? 

Do you ever wake up from great sleep and realize that you are thinking more clearly and moving through your day with more clarity?  

I love sleep!  

And, when I don’t get good sleep, I become a grouch.  My thinking slows down.  I feel more fuzzy headed, sluggish…It’s not good. 

You might be asking, “How do I know if I have insomnia?”

How is your sleep?

  • When you turn off the lights, does it take you more than 30 minutes to fall asleep?

  • Do you wake up during the night and then have a hard time falling back asleep?

  • Do you wake up too early, before your alarm goes off?

  • How long has this been going on? If it’s been longer than three months, you may have insomnia, and it may be wise to get this further assessed.

And, if you have had any of the above sleep issues, do you compensate by…

  • Taking naps during the day?

  • Going to bed early so you can catch up on sleep?

  • Staying in bed later than you planned in the morning, trying to get some sleep… since you did not get enough at night?

Did you know that these compensatory behaviors may be perpetuating your insomnia?

How does therapy help?

There are different approaches to working with sleep.
The first step is to assess and to understand what might be affecting your sleep.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I)

CBT-I is an evidence based program for improving sleep. In CBT-I, we look at specific behaviors that affect sleep (and there are several of them), and we see which ones are most aligned with your habits. If we know which habits are contributing to your insomnia, we can come up with a plan to change that!

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

If you have experienced difficult or very stressful life events, that may be contributing to having less satisfying sleep. In that case, EMDR may be a useful approach for you. It helps to neutralize the emotions that often come up with memories of difficult past experiences, and when those memories are not as distressing, your body can relax and sleep better.