Effective Sleep Therapy Solutions To Help You Get Better Sleep
When looking for sleep therapy solutions, it’s often due to exhaustion. Before working with us, our clients have been struggling with insomnia for so long, but nothing has helped them get better sleep.
The feeling of being up every night, tossing and turning, watching the clock, counting down the hours until morning, sucks. It feels like sleeplessness will never end, but the night will. Trying new devices and experiments, only to be up again that night.
Insomnia affects our quality of life, including daytime tiredness, trouble concentrating, and irritability. This blog will give you answers to your sleepless nights, so you can get some good sleep.
Quick Win Sleep Therapy Solutions
Insomnia is something that affects somewhere around 40% of the adult population for brief periods of time, and chronic insomnia affects about 10% of the population. This means you’re definitely not alone in your struggles. There are many options out there that, for a little money, can make the difference you need.
These options are often the suggestions you get from friends, family, or even your healthcare provider; they might also be the ads that come up when you search for things like “how to sleep better”. Some of these options can be helpful and may make a quick difference in your night.
These helpful options are;
Supplements and herbal remedies like sleepy time teasashwaganda, and magnesium
Using white noise to drown out noise or sleep podcasts to help calm the mind
Using an eye mask or earplugs if light or a bed partner disrupts sleep
Utilizing gadgets and other sleep therapy devices to decrease the impact of technology and health conditions like central sleep apnea on our sleep
Increasing relaxation by using meditation mobile apps
While these options can be really beneficial for many who struggle to sleep every once in a while, they often aren’t the best fit for people who struggle with chronic insomnia.
Small Changes Can Make a Difference When You Have A Sleep Disorder
When we start looking at someone who is experiencing more significant sleeplessness, getting to sleep consistently can require a little more support than just taking a supplement or wearing special glasses.
These next changes can be helpful for most people and are often the baseline when we are trying to help someone sleep better and more consistently.
Sleep Hygiene Basics
Sleep hygiene includes the routines and habits you have around sleep; improving them has been proven to help people’s sleep over the long term.
Sleep Environment
The environment that you sleep in is important to your sleep health. You want to make sure that you have a quiet, dark, and cool space to sleep in. It’s also important to make sure that you don’t work, study, or do anything other than sleep in your bed.
Bedtime Routines
Do your best to go to bed and wake up at the same time seven days a week, even on weekends.
You also want to create a routine around going to bed that is as consistent as possible. This helps your body learn that after you do your routine, it’s time for sleep. It doesn’t matter what your sleep includes; it can take hours or it can take 5 minutes, as long as you’re creating a routine that you perform every night.
Screen Limits
Our devices can impact our sleep far more than we realize. It isn’t just about the blue light, but also the level of regulation we experience from what we see on our devices. Best practice is 2 hours device-free before bed. This can be really difficult, so start with a 30-minute break and increase from there.
Relaxation Techniques
These relaxation techniques can be used before bed or when you wake in the middle of the night. They help you relax your body and mind, so your body can focus on getting back to the business of resting.
Deep Breathing
There are many options when it comes to deep breathing for relaxation. Any of these breathing patterns will help you to fall asleep. We love the 4-7-8 method; inhale for a count of 4, hold for a count of 7, and exhale for a count of 8. Check out this 11 minute audio meditation, too.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
This relaxation technique helps you relax your body by purposely tensing and releasing each muscle group. You start at your toes and slowly work your way up to your head, and then move back down your body.
This helps you to learn what your muscles feel like when they are relaxed or stressed.
Lifestyle Changes
Making targeted changes to your lifestyle can make a big impact on your sleep. The results from these changes might be immediate, or they may take a bit, but keep at it, and you will eventually see a difference.
Caffeine
As a stimulant, caffeine wakes most of us up in the morning. We don’t realize how long it can have an impact on our bodies. To decrease the impact it might be having on your sleep, cut out caffeine before 5 pm or at least 7 hours before bed.
Alcohol
Alcohol interferes with your sleep cycles and can make it harder for you to stay asleep throughout the night. Even one drink at night can interfere with your sleep.
Exercise
Exercise doesn't just help you have better health; it also improves your sleep health. When you get physical activity at the right time of day (at least 3 hours before bed), you’ll be able to fall asleep more easily and stay asleep more consistently throughout the night.
These changes might be enough to get your sleep back on track. It can also help you to problem-solve issues if sleeplessness comes up again.
Unfortunately, for some people, these changes just aren’t enough. Despite all of the work you put into changing your lifestyle, stress, and sleep hygiene, you still struggle with sleep on a nightly basis.
So what is the next step?
When Sleep Hygiene and Lifestyle Changes Fall Short
At this point, you might be feeling pretty powerless against your insomnia, but there is still plenty that you can do for better sleep quality. This solution isn’t just surface-level; it is grounded in science and personalized to your needs.
The best part? You don’t have to do this alone; there is support out there. This is where CBT-I or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia comes in.
CBT-I is a personalized and structured approach designed to help people who have tried everything else and are still lying awake at night.
How CBT-I Leads to Lasting Sleep Changes
CBT-I isn’t a quick fix; it can take about 4-8 sessions while we train your brain to sleep again. It takes time and work, but the changes are long-lasting with no side effects. You’ll be getting to the root of the problem, not just treating symptoms.
In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia, you will;
Build a strong relationship with your therapist so that they understand you and your sleep struggles.
Set goals that are specific to your needs and struggles.
Track your sleep in a free app that will allow you to communicate with your therapist in real time, so both of you can see what’s happening.
Receive a unique treatment plan that addresses your needs and includes personalized suggestions of what will help.
Get education surrounding the reasons behind your treatment plan so that you can understand why this will work.
Check in with your therapist regularly to check on sleep progress and problem-solve any glitches that you might be experiencing.
Understand through assessment and other issues that might be impacting your sleep, like stress, anxiety, or trauma, and receive intervention to decrease their impact.
Examine your unhelpful thought patterns around sleep and learn how to change them so that they’re no longer interfering.
Planning to prevent any future problems with sleep.
At this point, we’ll start talking about graduation or change topics to another area of your life where you might need support.
In sleep medicine, healthcare professionals view CBT-I as optimal patient care for insomnia when it reaches the level of a sleep disorder. Even better, it's at home care, so you don't have to spend the night in a hospital or sleep clinic.
You don’t have to do this alone; you’ll have the support of your sleep specialist therapist every step of the way. To help you problem solve, but also support you in honestly looking at the feelings and thoughts that are sabotaging your sleep.
So that you can move forward instead of staying stuck.
Is CBT-I Right for Me?
After hearing about CBT-I, you might wonder if it is right for your specific situation.
CBT-I is right for you if:
You can’t fall asleep or maintain sleep despite being tired.
You dread getting into bed every night.
You experience the wired but tired feeling.
You wake up too early and can’t seem to get back to sleep.
CBT-I might not be the right fit if:
You have untreated sleep apnea or another medical condition that is impacting your sleep (like obstructive sleep apnea or high blood pressure). However, once these conditions are well-controlled, CBT-I becomes a great option.
You’re in active substance withdrawal.
You’re dealing with flashbacks, memories, or nightmares that override sleep cues. In this case, we might opt to use a different kind of treatment.
How Long Does CBT-I Take?
CBT-I is considered a short-term therapy and is one of your best treatment options. You’ll start seeing results in 4-8 weeks, and some of our clients begin to sleep better long before then.
This therapy is active. Your therapist will not just sit and listen. They’ll teach you a set of skills and then help you to apply them to your life.
Sleep therapy is about small, sustainable change that you can make slowly. As we get started, you might continue to experience some difficult nights, but those should decrease as time passes. Retraining your brain can take some time.
This will feel like hard work when you first get started, but this is a short period of time. Sleeping will become easier, and get to a point where it feels automatic.
CBT-I at Rhythm Wellness
At Rhythm Wellness, we’re sleep experts who combine compassion with science-backed sleep methods to help you reclaim your rest and overall health. We understand the full experience around insomnia; it’s not just exhaustion, it’s helplessness, frustration, and isolation.
We recognize that your sleep issues are unique to you, and you deserve sleep therapy solutions that are tailored to your specific needs.
If you want to talk about whether CBT-I is right for you, schedule a free consultation with our clinical care team.
