Insomnia Treatment

Insomnia is a very common problem and can be influenced by many medical and environmental factors. The first step towards addressing insomnia is a comprehensive evaluation to better understand all of the factors affecting your sleep.  In some cases, pre-existing medical conditions may interfere with getting comfortable and being able to sleep.  In these cases, it is important to first address the underlying medical condition, since that will lead to a greater likelihood of improving your sleep.

In patients without pre-existing medical issues, the most effective approach to improving sleep quality and duration is addressing lifestyle factors that are known to negatively affect sleep. These lifestyle factors are often referred to as “sleep hygiene” and are an important part of insomnia treatment.  The other major components of behavioral treatment for insomnia include stimulus control and sleep restriction procedures.  In essence, these procedures target the sleep-wake cycle, a biologically regulated system within each of us that tells us when to sleep and when to wake up.  The sleep wake cycle in insomnia patients is often dysregulated and needs to be retrained, so that patients can sleep when they want to.

Insomnia patients often express an interest in taking medication to promote sleep.  While these medications may help in the short term, they are often associated with long-term complications that can negatively impact sleep.  In patients without pre-existing medical illness, we strongly discourage the use of these medications since many of them are addictive and have been shown to have negative affects on the natural sleep wake cycle.