What is CBT-I?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia or CBTi in short, is an intervention for insomnia and is recommended over medication. As the name suggests, it is part cognitive, referring to what we think and part behavioural, referring to what we do. About 75% of people with chronic insomnia benefit from this intervention. The people who benefit most are, as you might expect, the ones who follow the programme closely.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy or CBT is based on the idea that thoughts, behaviours, and feelings both emotional and physical are all interconnected, and we often experience these in a ‘vicious cycle’.
The SLEEP programme for the next 6 weeks will consist of cognitive, behavioural, and educational components. Educational modules will give you information about the connection between thoughts, behaviour and sleep. Behavioural modules will include training in relaxation techniques, stimulus control, and time-in-bed restriction to help you establish healthy sleeping habits and patterns. Cognitive modules will help you reflect on your thinking patterns and attempt to change some unhelpful thoughts that you may have and also affecting your sleep at night and performance during the day. Two sessions (3 and 6) will be therapist-guided, which means that a trained specialist will meet you during an online session and will help you restructure your sleep schedule.
Since you were enrolled in the SLEEP programme, that means that you probably have been having problems sleeping that could have been developed only recently or some time ago. For the programme to work, it will require some time and effort to re-train your body and mind so that you’ll be a good sleeper again. The procedures are highly structured and will require patience and effort. Six weeks is usually the fastest you can really learn and apply CBTi but it may take slightly longer, so stay with it! CBTi is powerful and helpful. During the first weeks of practice, some people may find it a little bit challenging, however, you should start experiencing significant improvement a few weeks into the programme.