If you’ve been living with months or years of insomnia it can be difficult to feel like there is an end to feeling tired and exhausted. Insomnia can be significantly complex and additional problems with sleep timing and obstructive sleep apnoea need a professional diagnosis. The daily grind of waking up and not feeling well rested often leads to feeling defeated and resigned to the fact that you are or will become, a ‘bad sleeper’ for life.  The good news is insomnia can improve or completely resolve, depending on its underlying causes, how it is managed, and the education you get to manage re-occurrences. Insomnia is often categorized into two types:

1. Acute Insomnia: Is short-term and often triggered by stress, illness, or major life events. Acute insomnia typically resolves on its own or with short-term strategies to manage stress and improve sleep habits. How long does it last? Acute insomnia has a time frame of up to 3 months and affects all ages. Common sleep problems include difficulty falling asleep – over 30 minutes for adults, over 20 minutes for kids, waking in the night and unable to easily fall back to sleep, waking too early in the morning to start your day, and needing help to get to or stay asleep. The latter is common within families when children need a parent nearby at sleep onset, overnight waking and often to settle sleep anxiety and separation issues. 

1. Chronic Insomnia: This lasts for three months or longer and may be linked to underlying medical, psychological, or behavioral issues, sleep hygiene, and sleep misperception. While chronic insomnia may not “go away” completely without addressing its root causes, it can often be significantly improved with effective treatment and lifestyle adjustments, irrespective of age and time. 

Treatments That Can Help

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTi): This evidence-based approach helps people change negative thought patterns and behaviors around sleep, and often uses techniques to reset sleep homeostatic pressure. Leading to long-term improvement, CBTi is considered the “Gold Standard in treatment for insomnia and is highly evidence-based. This means decades of research and peer-reviewed scientific publications support the evidence that it is a very effective treatment. 
• Relaxation Techniques: Practices like mindfulness, progressive muscle relaxation, and deep breathing can help reduce anxiety and promote sleep.
• Addressing Underlying Conditions: Treating conditions like anxiety, depression, pain, or sleep apnea can alleviate insomnia symptoms.
• Good Sleep Hygiene: Consistent sleep schedules, assessing screen time and content, and creating a comfortable sleep environment, are key.
• Medication (if needed): In some cases, short-term medication like melatonin may be prescribed, and can be used as part of therapy with a sleep practitioner. It is becoming much less common to see sleeping medications prescribed for insomnia with CBTI always preferred as the best long-term solution for insomnia. 

How long does it take to get rid of insomnia?

With the right approach, many children and adults see significant improvements and complete resolution in as little as 1 to 4 weeks. At Nigh Nigh we discuss a therapeutic approach that involves therapy over a 4 or 6-week time frame, depending on factors like if the sleep problem is acute or chronic, other significant health factors, use of sleep medications, and if the client requires more clinical support. 

Our treatment times are further broken down for parents with young children who need more urgent help. We find our 7-day intensive sleep therapy option for babies and toddlers highly popular and successful. Parents literally cannot believe sleep can be turned around so quickly when they have struggled for months and years with little ones who have never learned the skill of good sleep. 

Anything can change sleep

Solving the sleep problem is part of the solution. It’s imperative that when you have treatment you are taught the skills to consolidate you or your childs new sleep habits.  Sleep changes for everyone, it’s normal. From our years of experience we often hear sleep changed with illness, taking a holiday and even moving house. These are all life events that can alter sleep but should only do so temporarily. 

 Sleep science for sleep maintenance

We are always going to include sleep education based on the latest sleep science. For starters; did you know blue light from screens isnt’ strong enough to delay sleep onset? That means you can watch a screen – without fearing the light from the screen will mess up your ability to get to sleep. We value sleep education and that’s why we want to pass it on to you. When you have the right education you can keep on top of good sleep…that’s what good sleeper’s do!

Sweet Dreams

From

Deb