If You Can't Sleep, Try Therapy

Kathleen Dwyer-Blair March 31, 2011

Person trying to sleep in bed with pillow mostly over face — Image credit: photo by twinsfisch on Unsplash.

We are now offering telehealth therapy sessions to existing and new clients who reside in New York State. Due to the recent developments, insurance companies are now covering Teletherapy and video psychotherapy.

If you are experiencing anxiety, depression, or stress, please reach out to see how we may be helpful to you.

Call (516) 221-9494

It's 2 AM, and despite your best intentions, you can’t seem to fall asleep. You lay awake for hours, your mind wide-awake even though you feel exhausted. The red digits on the alarm clock show that your opportunity to rest is dwindling fast – and yet time seems to be dragging by ...

You’re frustrated, cranky, and downright tired. Still, it doesn’t seem like sleep is coming anytime soon. If the story above is one you relate to, then you might be familiar with the draining effects of insomnia.

By definition:

“insomnia” is Latin for “no sleep;” it is characterized by an inability to fall or stay asleep. This leads to fatigue, irritability, and can affect one’s overall health.
Sometimes, insomnia is a symptom of an illness, or a result of stress in one’s life.

Insomnia has been found to increase the risk of heart disease, decreased immune system functioning, and overall deterioration of mental health, and can become very dangerous if it occurs frequently over time.

A study on insomnia reported on by TIME magazine shows that a combination of therapy and information can have a significant impact on treating insomnia. [You can read the article here.]

A therapeutic approach known as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) was used to set up behavioral interventions for improving sleep:

This included specific behaviors such as getting up at the same time every day, regardless of how much the patient slept, and not going to bed unless tired.
When the therapists followed up with the patients, they found that 55% no longer met the criteria for insomnia.

Therapy has proven to have a strong impact not only on sleeplessness, but the factors that can cause it, such as stress, depression, obsessive thoughts, and anxiety.

Seeking treatment for insomnia can help to greatly alleviate your symptoms. At Nassau Guidance & Counseling, you can work with one of our experienced therapists to develop tools to address your insomnia. Contact us at (516) 221-9494 for more information. It could be the first step toward sleeping a little easier at night.

Do you suffer from insomnia? If so, what do you do to address it? Feel free to leave your experiences in the comment section below.