Do I Have Insomnia?

We’ve all probably experienced at least one night or period in our lives where we did not get adequate sleep. These days, many people struggle with a sustained or chronic state of sleep deprivation, with the CDC describing sleep deprivation as a public health epidemic. The most common sleep disorder is insomnia, which can be defined as a condition accompanied by difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, or early-morning awakening with an inability to return to sleep that causes significant distress or impairment in functioning, occurring at least three nights a week for at least three months.

Insomnia can have a major impact on our lives, including a deterioration of our mental and physical health that can further affect our relationships, work, and overall daily functioning and wellbeing. Research shows that those struggling with mental health are more likely to experience poor sleep, which consequently exacerbates the issues they are already dealing with and can increase risk factors.

While not the sole and/or primary mode of treatment, therapy can serve as a helpful supplementation to other modes of treatment in the following ways:

1. Talking through underlying issues: Insomnia can be correlated to anxiety, stress, and trauma, which could be spoken about in therapy. By giving voice to our thoughts and feelings, we can work on exploring the internal states that contribute to our sleep disturbance and mitigate the influence that they hold over our sleep.

2. Developing Insight: With your therapist, you can develop a greater awareness of your sleep patterns, along with the internal thoughts and feelings that emerge during the process. You can also work with your therapist to build coping mechanisms, relaxation techniques, mindfulness, and sleep hygiene to integrate throughout your bedtime routine.

3. Reframing thoughts: In the throes of insomnia, we can easily panic with intrusive thoughts, negative self-talk, and cognitive distortions that escalate the already baseline frustration of our state. In therapy, you can work on reframing these thoughts with your therapist. For example, instead of thinking, “What’s wrong with me- this is never going to end,” we can reframe our thoughts to, “I know this is frustrating, but many people experience this condition, and I’m taking steps to address it.”