When falling asleep at night becomes difficult, it’s easy to feel helpless and alone. In reality, insomnia affects 

 and can last anywhere from a few days to weeks, months, or longer.

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that impedes a person’s ability to fall or stay asleep, leading to low energy levels, mood changes, and an overall decreased quality of life. 

Feeling tired even after several hours of sleep

Difficulty to concentrate on, remember, or perform certain tasks

People often confuse insomnia with not getting enough sleep, but you can actually have insomnia even if you get 7 hours of sleep per night. As long as you struggle with falling and staying asleep, and/or not feeling rested during the day, you can still be experiencing insomnia.

Most cases of insomnia are acute, which means each episode may only last for 

 – usually when the patient goes through a stressful period of time. About 10% of reported cases, however, may worsen, leading to longer periods of insomnia. If you have been experiencing at least three days of insomnia symptoms every week for the past month, your condition 

This leads us to an important question: Can insomnia be cured?

Insomnia can be addressed using a variety of treatment methods, depending on its severity. Even 

 can be cured entirely by addressing the underlying cause of the issue in many cases.  So, what are the options for curing insomnia?

Short term solutions for insomnia treatment

Short term or “acute insomnia” can be treated by 

 to promote better rest. These minor adjustments are often the first steps of treatment programs and can provide short-term relief:

Avoid sleep blockers: Refrain from drinking coffee, smoking, or drinking too much at night, as it can take at least a few hours for your body to process these substances.

Develop a sleep window: Designating a window of time to go to sleep and wake up at about the same hour, be it weekends or weekdays, will help your body get used to the routine.

. Exercise is a universal treatment for all ailments, including insomnia! Exercising will also help increase your sleep drive; the consumption of energy leads to more of a need for sleep, as your body wants to recover.

Have a wind-down routine. It’s challenging to go from full-on work mode into sleep mode. It’s important to have a buffer between the time you spend doing stimulating goal-oriented activities and sleep. Fill this time with things you enjoy but don’t require any mental effort. Good examples are reading, watching a sitcom, yoga, or mindfulness.

The solutions mentioned above are, most of the time, only suited to treat acute insomnia. In chronic cases, addressing the underlying cause of the problem is a much more effective solution.

Insomnia may affect you both psychologically and physically, regardless of the cause of your sleep deprivation. People who experience insomnia have a worse quality of life than those who sleep well, often experiencing mood swings and potentially being predisposed to developing other health conditions.

While it may be tempting to resort to medication, keep in mind this only provides short-term relief, and getting to the root cause of the issue is the best way to cure insomnia for good. Numerous studies have showed that CBT-I can be 

more effective than prescription medication

, with 75-80% of patients reporting significant improvements after CBT-I.

If insomnia decreases your ability to function properly throughout the day, you should consult a sleep professional to determine the potential causes of your sleeping issue—and how to treat them.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a form of talking therapy that focuses on how specific thinking patterns affect a person’s behavior and helps patients correct those “cognitive distortions” (inaccurate, negatively biased thoughts). This approach to therapy is used to treat numerous mental health disorders, including depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance abuse, and insomnia.

CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia) addresses the feelings, thoughts, or actions that contribute to insomnia, such as stressing over the fact that you don’t get enough sleep or that your lack of sleep may lead to health issues or other problems in your daily life. The objective of CBT-I is to help the patient eliminate the frustration and anxiety they experience related to the process of sleep, allowing them to enjoy night after night of effortless sleep.

Due to its non-invasive nature, CBT-I has proven very successful in treating insomnia, leading to sustaining 

improvement in both sleep latency and total sleep time

 is a safe, evidence-based program that employs CBT-I to restore your natural sleep ability. Dawn provides you with a tailored sleep plan, records your sleeping patterns, connects you with a sleep coach, and much more – all in accordance with requirements by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

If you are ready to explore long-term solutions to your sleeping issues, 

get started on the path to curing your insomnia for good

Wondering if your insomnia can be cured, or how to treat your insomnia? Learn all about insomnia and how to cure it with CBT-I today.

Can Insomnia Be Cured? Insomnia Symptoms & Treatment | Dawn Health

Can Insomnia Be Cured?

If you lay awake for hours before drifting off or frequently get jolted awake while you are still in the early 

, you may have sleep-onset insomnia. Experts define sleep-onset insomnia as having trouble falling asleep after initially going to bed. This sleep disorder often affects your physical and mental functioning. [1]

While sleep-onset insomnia primarily causes symptoms in the beginning of the night, other types of insomnia strike at other times. Sleep maintenance insomnia occurs if you wake up frequently or for long periods during the night, after having first fallen asleep, and early morning awakening insomnia is a condition in which you wake up too early in the morning and can’t get back to sleep again. You may experience one, some or all of these insomnia types. [2]

Sleep-onset insomnia is closely linked to sleep latency — a term that describes how much time it takes to transition into sleep. Prolonged sleep latency (taking a long time to get to sleep) is the main symptom of sleep-onset insomnia.

This issue affects everyone from time to time. Acute insomnia or sudden insomnia is temporary — it may last for a couple of days or weeks, and naturally disappear on its own.3 However, chronic sleep-onset insomnia is defined as having a sleep onset latency of 30 minutes or more per night for at least three nights per week, lasting three months or more. [2]

Insomnia can lead to multiple symptoms, including: [3], [4]

Feeling groggy or unrested when you wake up the next morning

Noticing that you feel particularly sleepy or fatigued during the day

Having trouble remembering or concentrating

Experiencing symptoms of anxiety or depression

Having an elevated risk of making mistakes

In the long run, sleep-onset insomnia could lead to 

. Having untreated insomnia makes you more likely to have chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. It also leads to a higher risk of developing mental health conditions. Additionally, insomnia can increase your chances of becoming injured or getting into a car accident. [5]

Many different factors can contribute to sleep-onset insomnia. Acute insomnia is often triggered by identifiable stressors, such as  extra stress at work, school, or home or a traumatic event. Chronic insomnia is often reinforced by another medical condition or by lifestyle factors. [3]

It is important to get a complete physical as some research has found that many people with sleep-onset insomnia have 

Periodic limb movements in sleep (PLMS) — Repetitive jerking or kicking movements of the toes, feet, legs, or arms while sleeping

Restless legs syndrome (RLS) — Uncomfortable sensations in the legs that lead to an intense, uncontrollable urge to move the legs

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) — Breathing problems during sleep in which your airways get temporarily closed off

Congestive heart failure — A condition in which the heart isn’t pumping blood as well as it needs to

Delayed sleep phase syndrome — A disorder that leads to falling asleep and waking up much later than usual, due to problems with the circadian rhythm (internal body clock)

 may also be the cause of your sleeping problems. Insomnia can be a symptom of diabetes, heart disease, thyroid problems, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), chronic pain, or another disorder. [4]

In general, insomnia is more likely to affect females than males and occurs more often in older adults. However, research has found that the sleep-onset insomnia subtype is 

 in men and in teens and younger adults. This condition also has a higher chance of affecting people who describe themselves as night owls rather than early birds. [2]

Lifestyle factors can also exacerbate sleep-onset insomnia. You are less likely to get good rest if you: [3], [4]

Work the night shift, or your work hours frequently change by several hours

Use certain medications, such as pain relievers, antidepressants, blood pressure medications, or allergy or cold medications

Different mental health conditions, including anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and depression, can increase insomnia risk. In particular, people with anxiety are 

 compared to other types of insomnia, including sleep maintenance insomnia and early morning awakening insomnia. [2]

To learn more about how anxiety makes it harder to sleep, and to discover tips for overcoming anxiety-related insomnia, read our blog post “

How To Go to Sleep When You’re Feeling Anxious

Your health care provider can help you determine the cause of your insomnia. They can diagnose other potential sleep disorders or health conditions. Based on the cause of your insomnia, your health care provider can guide you to find the right course of treatment and start getting a healthy, restful, consistent night’s sleep.

Medication that has a sedating effect may be used to treat sleep-onset insomnia by promoting drowsiness. The goal when using sleep medication should always be to return to a natural cycle of sleep and not to create dependency on medication to achieve good rest. For this reason, sleep experts recommend 

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I)

 is a program that helps you understand how the things you do and the way you think affect how you sleep. CBT-I providers can help you discover thought patterns and habits that are leading to a poor night’s sleep and learn how to correct these patterns. [7]

Learn strategies to challenge unhelpful thinking patterns.

Get help identifying and changing habits that stand in the way of a great night of sleep.

Understand how the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors is central to your sleep patterns.

CBT-I techniques have been proven in numerous clinical trials to help treat insomnia, including sleep-onset insomnia. This program helps people fall asleep 

 on average. In the short term, CBT-I works just as well as medication, and in the long term, it is actually more effective. Sleep experts recommend CBT-I as the first treatment option for people with insomnia. [8]

Start Your Journey to a Restful Night’s Sleep!

 to learn more about how CBT-I can effectively treat your sleep onset insomnia and why working with the sleep coaches at 

Park, H.S., Joo, E.Y., & Hong, S.B. (2009). Sleep Onset Insomnia. 

Journal of Korean Sleep Research Society, 6

(2), 74-85. https://doi.org/10.13078/jksrs09015

Bjorøy, I., Jørgensen, V. A., Pallesen, S., & Bjorvatn, B. (2020). The Prevalence of Insomnia Subtypes in Relation to Demographic Characteristics, Anxiety, Depression, Alcohol Consumption and Use of Hypnotics. 

, 527. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00527

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/symptoms-causes/syc-20355167

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/12119-insomnia

https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000805.htm

Insomnia Treatment: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Instead of Sleeping Pills. 

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/insomnia/in-depth/insomnia-treatment/art-20046677

Muench, A., Vargas, I., Grandner, M. A., Ellis, J. G., Posner, D., Bastien, C. H., Drummond, S. P., & Perlis, M. L. (2022). We know CBT-I works, now what?. 

Learn the definition of sleep latency, how unhealthy sleep latency may cause sleep-onset insomnia, and how to treat sleep-onset insomnia with Dawn!

Sleep Onset Insomnia: Definition, Symptoms, Treatment | Dawn Health

What Is Sleep-Onset Insomnia?

Your tired, sleepy body hits the bed and fifteen minutes later you’re wide awake. Alert. Anxious. Your anxiety about not being able to sleep deepens. You hear the neighbor's dog bark and feel your heart beating in your chest. You hear the faint whine of an electric motor and nervously fixate on it. The day’s worries replay in your mind.

Three hours later you look at the clock. It’s 2 AM.  You’re still not asleep and now the anxiety keeping you awake feeds a raging inferno of 

hyperarousal within your neurobiological and psychological systems

What is the link between anxiety and insomnia?

 It’s normal to feel anxious in response to certain stressors in your life, as long as that anxiety does not interfere with daily functioning for 

. The reason anxiety keeps you awake is because your brain’s security alert system is trying to protect you. When your brain feels your safety is compromised, it will opt for alertness over sleep, because in evolutionary terms there’s no point in sleeping well if you’re about to be devoured by a predator with big teeth.

The effect of this hyperarousal manifests differently in different people. Some struggle to sleep, no matter how tired they are. Others doze off, but wake up soon after and repeat this stop-start cycle throughout the night. Many lie awake for hours every night. Very often insomniacs get so desperate that 

So how do you convince your brain that you’re safe? How do you signal to your brain that it is prudent to switch off the hyperarousal and let the biologically unbreakable, adenosine-fueled sleep drive do its work?

overactive neurobiological and psychological systems

Avoid napping during the day. The sleep drive is fueled by the amount of sleep you get. The moment you take a nap, you start satiating this drive. The sleep drive is also regulated by adenosine, which builds while you’re awake.  The moment you take a nap, you start draining some of that adenosine from your sleep tank. Try to keep your tank as full as possible during the day by not napping.

Set and stick to a fixed sleep wake-up time.  Make sure you wake up at the same time every morning. You have an internal master clock called the circadian rhythm. The clock creates a cycling rhythm that makes you feel tired or alert at regular times of the day and night.  The good news is you can train your clock to follow a particular sleep-wakefulness rhythm by getting up at the same time every morning. Your internal clock responds well to this discipline and, with time, it adjusts to the behavioral changes you initiate. When your sleep drive can rely on this consistent pattern, you will get deeper and more restorative sleep.

Create a sleep runway before you go to bed. Staying in full work mode and coming in to land with screeching tires is not an effective strategy. Your mind requires a wind-down period before you go to sleep. People are unique so you may need to try a few activities to determine which is most effective. For example: listen to soothing music, read a fiction novel, work on a puzzle, or draw. Choose activities you enjoy and are relaxing and soothing because it is vital you do these things without any goal orientation. The moment you do something because you think it’s going to help you sleep, you’re defeating the purpose. Deliberately trying to relax and avoiding adrenaline has the paradoxical effect and puts your brain on high alert.

Act as if you don't care. People with sleep anxiety disorders primarily fear the consequences of NOT sleeping. So how do you counter that? By acting as though you don’t care. When bedtime arrives, do not put in any effort to fall asleep. Let go of safety behaviors—all the obsessive things you do to calm yourself before getting under the covers, like getting the Sleepzilla eye mask and ear plugs ready and putting on your special sleep socks. These safety behaviors send a message to your brain that sleep is a big deal. The only way to stop your brain from getting the message, is to change your behavior.

Go for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. 

 teaches people different ways of thinking, behaving, and reacting to anxiety-producing and fearful objects and situations. The American College of Physicians has identified cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) as the 

. It improves sleep outcomes and reduces the risks associated with reliance on hypnotics.

 can help you overcome your anxiety and get a good night’s sleep. The Dawn app specifically connects you with CBT-I specialists and uses daily lessons to alleviate the anxiety that causes insomnia.

Learn how to cure your anxiety-related insomnia by 

Can't sleep due to anxiety? Learn how to sleep better despite anxiety keeping you awake with Dawn Health's guide on sleeping when you're feeling anxious.

Can't Sleep Due to Anxiety? | Anxiety and Sleep | Dawn Health

How to go to sleep when you're feeling anxious

If you can’t remember the last time you had a good night’s sleep and you find yourself tossing and turning until the early hours of the morning, you are not alone. Insomnia is the most common sleep disorder, and some studies suggest that it may affect 

. When neglected, insomnia can have long-lasting effects on physical and mental health. It can be caused by several factors, including stress, medication, and an irregular sleep schedule. Researchers have identified three 

Chronic (difficulty sleeping for at least 3 nights a week, lasting for at least three months)

 proposes that predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors contribute to chronic insomnia. 

 may include things that are out of our control, like genetics; it is important to note that, although there is not much that can be done about predisposing factors, they usually cannot cause insomnia on their own. 

can be classified as the short-term or serious stressors that lead to the first few restless nights, such as fighting an illness like a bad cold or a traumatic experience. 

 are those habits that are developed as a result of precipitating factors to cope with the first days or weeks of sleepless nights.

Depending on the severity, insomnia can be treated in a variety of ways. For example, a person with 

 can usually find relief if they adjust their sleeping schedule or eliminate distractions before bedtime. For more severe cases of 

, doctors may prescribe antidepressants, hypnotics, or benzodiazepines. The most common medications used are SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) such as Citalopram, Fluoxetine, Paroxetine, and Sertraline. 

Prescribing these medications for insomnia is often ineffective

Why do doctors prescribe antidepressants for insomnia?

Doctors may prescribe antidepressants for insomnia because they tranquilize the brain for a short period of time and balance the chemicals that are responsible for regulating mood. However, as many patients discover, the effects of antidepressants are short-lived, as they don’t treat the root cause of insomnia and instead focus only on the symptoms.

What’s more, the antidepressants prescribed for depression (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and tricyclic antidepressants) have a 

In the first weeks, antidepressants may also cause significant changes in behavior, including depressive and suicidal thoughts, especially in patients under the age of 25.

Alternatives to prescription medication for insomnia

If you have had an unpleasant experience with antidepressants, or you want to avoid the side effects linked to antidepressants, there are cures for insomnia without drugs. These non-pharmacological methods can help you restore regular sleeping patterns without the side effects while targeting the cause of the problem, not just the symptoms:

 has shown that up to 83% of people who engage in regular exercise report 

. Over-the-counter antihistamines used to treat allergies have sedative properties that induce drowsiness, and that can help patients with acute and transient insomnia fall asleep faster.

. A scheduled meditation routine helps to change how you relate to stress and worry, which will implicitly help with sleep. Structured relaxation techniques, such as progressive muscle relaxation, diaphragmatic breathing, and yoga, will allow for you to improve on how you deal with stress and worry.

Why CBT-I may be the best treatment for insomnia

CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is a form of talking therapy that focuses on the idea that how we think, our habits, and our emotions are connected and influence one another. By challenging our thoughts, changing habits, and being more accepting of feelings, we can alleviate mental suffering. This modern approach to psychotherapy has been clinically proven to treat 

, such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, eating disorders, and substance abuse; according to the American Academy for Sleep Medicine, the American College of Physicians, and the European Sleep Research Society, it can also be effective in treating insomnia.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia

) focuses on the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that maintain insomnia, such as worrying that you’re not getting enough sleep before going to bed, or being frustrated that lack of sleep may be causing you health issues. The goal of CBT-I is to help you go to bed without these feelings of anxiety and frustration and fall asleep effortlessly, just like a person who doesn’t have insomnia. In clinical trials, 80% of people with insomnia who have undergone CBT-I reported better sleep in the end.

Dawn is a safe, step-by-step, evidence-based program that uses CBT-I to transform your sleep and regain your ability to sleep naturally. Backed by scientific research and many 

, Dawn offers a personalized sleep plan, tracks your sleep each night, and puts you in touch with a sleep coach who answers your sleep-related questions and keeps you accountable.

To learn more about how to effectively treat your insomnia without medication and why Dawn is the right choice for you, please fill out this 

 to start your journey to a restful night’s sleep!

Curing chronic insomnia without drugs is entirely possible. Read about various ways to overcome your insomnia without prescription medication.

Cures for Insomnia Without Drugs | Dawn Health

Ways to overcome insomnia without antidepressants

Short-term sleep problems are common. Most of us can relate to having nights where sleep just won't come. Here's some basic advice on how to significantly cut down on those sleepless nights.

1. Get out of bed at the same time each morning.

Your body needs sleep like it needs food and water. The longer you go without food and water, the more your body will crave it. Sleep works precisely the same way—the longer you are awake, the stronger your drive for sleep will get.

Your body also requires consistency. Getting up at the same time each day trains your body to know when it is time to sleep and when it is time to be awake. This reliability increases the efficiency and depth of your sleep, creating a more restful and restorative pattern.

2. Don't go to bed until you are sleepy, and get out if you can't sleep. Use the bed and bedroom for sleeping only.

When you toss and turn in bed and can't fall asleep, you get stressed and frustrated. Experience this enough, and your mind will learn to associate the bed and bedroom with these emotions.

You can avoid this by making sure you are sleepy when you get to bed, thus associating the bed with sleep. If you have been trying to sleep for a while and find yourself getting frustrated, get out of bed and do something else before trying again. Use this time to promote a sense of rest, whether you are in bed or not.

Every minute you are awake, you build your sleep drive. If you nap, your drive becomes weaker, and it will be harder for you to fall asleep in the evening. Short naps under 20 minutes can be OK for some, depending on whether it disrupts your night of sleep. Experiment with this and see what works for you.

Caffeine is excellent for waking you up in the morning, but if you drink coffee in the afternoon, your ability to fall asleep will be significantly reduced. This is caused by the way caffeine blocks a sleep-promoting hormone in your brain called adenosine. People's sensitivity to caffeine varies, and some get rid of the caffeine faster than others. Additionally, adenosine builds up in our bodies over time so even small amounts of caffeine on a daily basis can interfere with sleep.

Alcohol might help you fall asleep faster, but research has shown that alcohol affects your sleep quality by suppressing REM sleep. Alcohol also has the negative effect that will make you sleep lighter as the body is working to process alcohol when it should be resting.

When people really struggle with sleep and have done so for a while, 

. If you have already employed many of the steps described here with little success, the American Academy for Sleep Medicine, The American College of Physicians, and the European Sleep Research Society recommend cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). 

Check out our top 5 tips for getting the most out of your sleep and reducing short-term sleep problems.

5 Must-Know Sleep Wellness and Sleep Hygiene Tips | Dawn Health

5 Must-Know Tips for Better Sleep Hygiene and Wellness

Researchers use a method called polysomnography to measure the quality, duration, and patterns of people's sleep. The word polysomnography derives from three roots: the Greek word "poly," which means many, the Latin word "Somnus," which means sleep, and the Greek word "graph," which means to write.

When sleep researchers conduct sleep studies using polysomnography, they measure the brain activity, eye movement, heart rate, oxygen levels, and muscle activity of sleepers. This complex data collection enables sleep researchers to determine precisely 

 as well as track their cyclical journey through the different sleep stages.

From time to time, sleep researchers encounter a conflict between polysomnography data and a patient's self-reported sleep. The patient swears he's been awake most of the night, but data from the polysomnogram shows that he's been asleep the whole time. Or the patient complains about not falling asleep, but again, the data shows that he’s been asleep. While this may sound contradictory, the patient is not lying, and the polysomnography machine is not malfunctioning. The disparity is indicative of a certain type of insomnia. This discrepancy between subjective perception and objective measurement of sleep is a known phenomenon called paradoxical insomnia (or sleep state misperception).

Paradoxical insomnia occurs when patients underestimate their actual sleep time and genuinely believe they have slept very little or not at all. However, these patients remain fully functional and do not experience a reduction in functional performance the day after having reported poor or limited sleep. So, the paradox is evident in their day-to-day functioning. They do not display the cognitive impairment that would go hand-in-hand with the levels of sleep deprivation they report.

 that paradoxical insomnia has a strong correlation with a type of anxiety that is rooted in a fear of not sleeping enough. When you 

 and the consequences of sleep deprivation, the brain interprets this worry as something dangerous and, in response, activates your arousal system. When you finally nod off, your sleep is light because your mind is still active, and your alertness levels are high. You remain in a state of hypervigilance, despite being asleep. The light sleep, induced by hypervigilance, is then misinterpreted as wakefulness.

Paradoxical insomnia can be treated effectively with 

cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I

). CBT-I is recommended as the first-line treatment for 

 by the American Academy for Sleep Medicine and the European Sleep Research Society. CBT-I works because it gradually changes the way you think and feel about sleep. It helps you understand the paradox between perception and observation and improves your ability to discriminate between appearance and reality. This self-awareness gradually reduces anxiety about sleeplessness and resolves the paradox at a cognitive and emotional level.

Get started treating your paradoxical insomnia with 

Do you struggle with paradoxical insomnia or want to know more about it? Discover the causes and treatment for paradoxical insomnia and its link to anxiety.

Paradoxical Insomnia (Sleep State Misperception) | What is Paradoxical Insomnia? | Dawn Health

Paradoxical insomnia: Sleep state misperception at a glance

I'd done everything I could to promote sleep, yet it was 2 am and I was still awake. I meditated for 30 minutes before I went to bed. I even took a couple of melatonin pills right after to be sure. Yet, here I was wide awake and dreading how exhausted I would be the next day at work.

My problem isn’t unique. In America, one in every 10 adults will experience consistently poor sleep at some point in their lives. It can feel like a slippery slope as one poor night of sleep devolves into 

. This is, in part, because the majority of sleeping problems stem from anxiety and worry. The more you worry about not getting enough sleep, the worse your sleep gets.

For me, my sleeping issues began right out of college. I had started a job as a software engineer and I was starting to feel the pressure. I had a couple of big deadlines coming up and I found myself tossing and turning unable to sleep one night. My mind kept racing, thinking about all the work I had until I finally fell asleep.

I thought that was it — an abnormal night, but 

. This time, my outlook changed. I started 

worrying about how not getting enough sleep

 would affect my day. I looked up basic sleep hygiene tips online and decided to go to bed extra early to make sure I made up for lost sleep. This ended up backfiring and it took even more time before I could finally sleep.

 started becoming more regular. I downloaded a couple of meditation apps in the hopes that meditating and listening to soothing sounds would help me sleep better. I even resorted to over the counter sleeping aids on nights when it took me too long to fall asleep. The results were mixed — 

I'd fall asleep faster but over time I'd revert back to having poor sleep

 (including tossing and turning, falling asleep, and staying asleep).

I finally caved and decided to try prescription medication. I had read a lot about them and was very reluctant because of their long term side effects. On a visit to my doctor, I asked her if she could prescribe me something to help me sleep. She said she said she could, but it wasn't going to be medication. Instead, she put in a referral to a CBT-I (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia) therapist.

CBT-I is an evidence-based (proven in clinical trials), non-pharmacological technique used to treat sleep problems. Two innate driving forces induce and maintain restorative sleep — sleep drive & circadian rhythm. Your sleep drive is how sleepy/tired you feel when going to bed. Your circadian rhythm is the cycle of alertness that you experience throughout the day and night and mental arousal is a highly alert state that is often experienced as racing thoughts and vigilance.. When your sleep drive is high and your arousal levels are low; it is easier to fall asleep. CBT-I prescribes a sleep schedule that ensures you have a high sleep drive. It also teaches you techniques to worry less and reduce your arousal.

CBT-I is extremely effective in treating sleep problems. Clinical trials have shown that 80% of people that follow a comprehensive CBT-I program will have improved sleep by the end. The results are also long lasting, unlike sleeping aids which are effective only as long as you are taking them.

There were three main rules that I had to follow in order to fix my sleep schedule (

Note: This is my plan. Each plan will be unique, based on your personal challenges.

1. I could only sleep within the sleep window my therapist prescribed. This ensured that I only went to bed when my sleep drive was high.

2. Every time I couldn't sleep, I had to make sure I didn't stay in bed for over 20 minutes. This way, I would intentionally re-train my mind to not associate my bed with wakefulness.

3. No day time naps and no caffeine after 2pm.

I was sleeping around 5 hours at the time, so we set a 6 hour window within which I could sleep (1am - 7am in my case). I kept a log of how long it took me to sleep, how long I was awake in the middle of the night and how long I slept. This data was recorded to the closest 15th minute and was self-reported. At the end of each week, my therapist would modify my sleep schedule based on the previous week's data.

Note: Time awake is the time it took me to fall asleep + my night time awakenings.

: At the end of week 1, I was sleeping about the same overall as I was before. However, my time awake at night had fallen by an hour. I was falling asleep faster and I was having less interrupted sleep. We decided to stick to the same sleep schedule for week 2.

: At the end of this week, my sleep had increased and I was wake time was now  less than an hour. We decided to expand my window of opportunity for sleep by 15 minutes for week 3.

: We followed the same rules and either expanded or maintained the same sleeping window.

: At the end of the 10 week program, I was consistently sleeping over 7 hours a night. More importantly, I was no longer spending my days thinking and worrying about my sleep.

CBT-I isn't an easy solution. The sleep schedules are hard to follow and the results aren't instantaneous. It takes time and effort but the reward of permanently improved sleep is well worth it. Here's to hoping you get better sleep soon.

If you'd like to know more about CBT-I and other behavioral therapy techniques to improve sleep, check out our 

Having trouble falling asleep and developing anxiety about falling asleep? Follow Rahul’s journey to better sleep and how he ended up sleeping 7 hours a night.