Sleep Psychology
Why see a Clinical Psychologist for sleep?
Psychologists are mental health experts specifically trained to help people manage and resolve problems with their thinking, behaviour and emotions. Psychologists with experience and expertise in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapies for Insomnia (CBTI) are well placed to offer excellent treatment for people experiencing insomnia, poor sleep and related health problems.
Scientific studies have clearly demonstrated that treatments addressing the behaviour, thoughts and emotional responses to poor sleep are more effective for treating insomnia than taking medication over the long term. Cognitive and behavioural therapies are recommended by The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) as standard treatment for insomnia with a high degree of clinical certainty.
Treatment for sleep disorders
Sleep Scheduling
Information about your sleep behaviour collected using sleep diaries and questionnaires is used to modify your sleep schedule and establish healthier sleep patterns. Daytime functioning and sleepiness are monitored to inform changes and adjust the schedule.
Sleep Hygiene
Education about sleep increases your understanding about what is normal sleep and the factors that enhance or interfere with good sleep. Practical changes may be recommended to your bedroom environment, bedtime routine, diet and lifestyle to impove your sleep.
Cognitive Therapy
Breaking unhelpful thinking patterns can be critical to treating insomnia. Cognitive therapy develops your thinking skills to help reduce excessive worry about sleep and reframe unhelpful beliefs about insomnia and its consequences.
Relaxation training
Progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing training help to reduce stress and anxiety responses, muscle tension and intrusive thoughts that can interfere with good sleep. Relaxation training is particularly effective when coupled with other CBTI interventions.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness techniques develop awareness without judgment during bedtime. Increasing your awareness of the mental and physical states that impact sleep, particularly the difference between sleepiness and fatigue, enables you to choose responses that promote good sleep.
Sleep Retraining
Intensive Sleep Retraining (ISR) is an ultra-brief treatment for insomnia which uses acute sleepiness to retrain you to fall asleep quickly. ISR can be administered by smart-phone and other portable devices that are available and accessible to people in remote locations.