Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has consistently been proven to be the most effective first-line treatment for chronic insomnia. It improves sleep in 75-80% of insomnia patients and eliminates sleeping pill use in almost half of patients. And, in three major studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Archives of Internal Medicine that directly compared CBT to sleeping pills, CBT was more effective than sleeping pills. CBT also has no side effects and maintains improvements in sleep long-term.

In contrast to CBT, sleeping pills do not greatly improve sleep. According to the New York Times, they only increase total sleep time, and reduce the time it takes to fall asleep, by about 10 minutes (New York Times, 10/23/07). Furthermore, these small to moderate short-term improvements in sleep are often outweighed by significant side effects, particularly in adults age 60+. These side effects include amnesia (including no memory of eating, driving, or being awake while under the influence of the sleeping pill), daytime sedation, dependency, and increased mortality rates in regular long-term users as documented in at least a dozen epidemiologic studies. As a result, CBT is now recommended as the preferred treatment for insomnia:

CBT puts people to sleep faster than sleeping pills. American Journal of Psychiatry, (January, 2002)

CBT works as well or better than sleeping pills. Journal of Family Practice, (November, 2007)

CBT is the preferred treatment for chronic insomnia. National Institutes of Health, New England Journal of Medicine review, Lancet review, American Psychological Association, Consumer Reports

The Conquering Insomnia program replicates the CBT insomnia treatment program developed and tested at Harvard Medical School and the University of Massachusetts Medical Center by Dr. Gregg D. Jacobs in his work with over ten thousand insomnia patients over the past 20 years. In a study conducted at Harvard Medical School by Dr. Jacobs that was funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, his CBT program for insomnia was more effective than Ambien.

The Conquering Insomnia program is an interactive, PDF (Adobe Reader) based CBT program for insomnia that is designed as if you are a patient going through the five-session, five-week CBT treatment program developed by Dr. Jacobs.

The five sessions in the Conquering Insomnia program are organized over a five-week period as follows:

• Session 1: Basic facts about sleep; Conducting your own insomnia assessment
  
  
• Session 2: Sleep scheduling and stimulus control techniques
  
  
• Session 3: Cognitive restructuring techniques; Sleep medication tapering techniques
  
  
• Session 4: Daytime relaxation techniques; Developing stress-reducing, sleep-enhancing attitudes and beliefs
  
  
• Session 5: Bedtime relaxation techniques; Lifestyle habits that improve sleep

This program is designed to be a sequential five-week program (e.g., you begin with session 1, and then proceed to session 2, and so on through session 5 over a 5 week period). Although you should spend a week on each session before you move on to the next session, the program can be completed at your own pace since you can print or save the PDF-based treatment sessions.

The Conquering Insomnia program is also interactive because you can complete a sleep diary each week of the program, e-mail it, and receive interactive, individualized CBT guidelines based on your sleep diary.

The Conquering Insomnia program also includes:

• Weekly summaries of goals and tips for meeting these goals
  
  
• A library of insomnia focus articles and study reviews on topics such as sleeping pills, the mind and body during sleep, and cognitive stress reduction techniques

The Conquering Insomnia program is also now available in compact disk format. Click here to learn more about this compact disk version.