I've never been a good sleeper myself. I have been thinking in my sleep problems and what I could do about it. As I found the CBT program for depression very useful I thought what it could be doing CBT for insomnia. I did some research about CBT programs for insomnia and it seems there is some evidence that these programs have helped some people dealing with their sleep problems.
But I had a problem before considering going the CBT route to help with my insomnia. The problem was that I already had a lot of work with CBT for depression and have still to do some activities for the maintenance and prevention of relapses. So adding more CBT activities could be counterproductive and have the opposite effect.
If I presented this case to my therapist I know he probably would discourage me since he thinks I am perfectionist and have some obsessive behaviours. In part I agree with him. So working in more CBT programs would fuel my obsessions and create more anxieties.
But I have been experiencing persistent insomnia since I had a nervous breakdown 2 years ago and nor medication nor talk therapy have helped me. Actually medication helped but as soon as I finished the treatments the insomnia returned.
Also as my depression was getting better I didn’t notice any improvement in my sleep.
I considered the facts (pros and cons) and I made the resolution of starting a CBT program for insomnia 1 week ago. It’s a program of 6 weeks and I am aware of possible side effects: more obsessions and anxieties but I will follow up with my therapist at the same time.
Now I am glad I chose to start the program and I plan to post here on the forums my experience every week. The first week of the program was educational in nature. It described what was sleep and principal sleep problems. It was said that most people with depression and anxiety also experience sleep problems and the fact they are being treated for depression or anxiety doesn’t mean they will start sleeping better. It was also recommended that people being treated for depression and anxiety should consider an additional treatment for insomnia if they have sleep problems. I understand that the writer of the program is “selling his fish” but this makes some sense. In my case I did not start sleeping better after the depression start lifting.
In the first week I also was told to keep a sleep diary, write my sleep history and establish a goal for the program.
If you have read so far I congratulate you because it has been a long post. Next week I will post my experience with week 2 of the program.
