If you suffer from sleepless nights -- you're not alone. One in three Americans experience at least occasional insomnia --- and more of them are turning to medications to help them get to sleep at night.
But a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows they're just a temporary solution, and that new behavioral therapy may offer more long-term help.
Having lived with chronic insomnia for over 10 years, Sylvia Bourque came to dread nightfall.
“I became very frantic, because I was thinking … night is coming again and I will see the ceiling for three or four hours,” she says.
“The impact of chronic insomnia is that it reduces quality of life, it impairs daytime functioning but beyond that, chronic insomnia is a risk factor for major depression,” says Dr. Charles Morin of Université Laval in Québec, Canada.
The lack of proven long-term treatments for insomnia led Dr. Morin to lead a study exploring the impact that a psychological treatment called "cognitive behavioral therapy" -- used alone and in combination with medication -- could have on a group of 160 patients with chronic insomnia.
“Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT in short, is a therapeutic approach aimed at changing poor sleep habits and irregular sleep schedules and also changing the way people think about their sleep and their insomnia,” says Morin.
Participants were taught to avoid unrealistic sleep expectations, restrict their time in bed and get up at the same time daily. Changes in their sleep habits were measured with periodic sleep lab assessments as well as self-reported "sleep diaries".
Featured this week in JAMA, the study found that the best results were achieved with a combined approach: CBT and medication during the initial six-week treatment phase, followed by CBT alone in the extended six-month treatment phase.
“If you continue with medication, then people are less likely to invest time and effort in changing their sleep habits,” Morin says.
Bourque still relies on CBT methods if she happens to wake up at night.
“I will do exactly what dr. Morin said to me -- to get up, to do an activity like reading or listening to soft music that will lead me to go back to sleep. And it does work,” says Bourque.
The effects of chronic insomnia can be severe, impacting how well someone can function during the day and increasing the risk for major depression.
Despite the negative effects, most people with insomnia don't ever seek treatment and instead use alcohol or over the counter products to try and manage it.
