Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Sleep Anxiety and Insomnia
Because your perspective influences the way you experience situations, by shifting your perspective, you can alter the way you experience life. Making use of this equation, cognitive behavioral therapy can evolve the thoughts and behaviors that contribute to anxiety and insomnia. In a supportive environment, you can practice CBT and begin to integrate this new positivity for real transformation and lasting recovery.
So many people with anxiety live their days feeling defeated.
It’s hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel when the intense uncertainty, fear, and discomfort are too overwhelming to manage. Many anxiety sufferers also experience insomnia, which can lead to an even heavier feeling of defeat because it feels so far out of your control.
The best treatment for sleep anxiety and insomnia isn’t just about making you feel better; it’s about guiding you to feel stronger and to feel in touch with the real strategies you can use to manage your disorders.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety and insomnia is one such treatment approach that takes the force out of your limiting thoughts and empowers you to be your own ally.
How Can Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Address Symptoms of Sleep Anxiety and Insomnia?
With cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT for sleep anxiety, your therapist is a lot like a coach. Their ultimate goal is to prepare you for a strong and graceful life ahead. A comprehensive treatment plan for anxiety disorder and insomnia will address symptoms with a range of options, including medication, individual psychotherapy, peer therapy, family therapy, and holistic therapies. But for the greatest overall success and long-term recovery, it’s important to also focus on the psychological landscape of your anxiety beyond the symptoms. Cognitive behavioral therapy is an invitation to meet even your most challenging worries and fears with compassion.
CBT recognizes that thoughts have incredible power. During sleepless nights, your thoughts may overpower your ability to sleep, no matter how exhausted you are. The real trouble is that with sleep anxiety, negative thoughts tend to have a snowball effect, picking up more weight and negativity as the moments go on. Each time you look at the clock and stress about the sleep that is out of reach, those thoughts gain more and more pessimistic power and further block your potential restfulness.
Together, you and your therapist explore the nature of your thoughts and beliefs that incite sleep anxiety. For example, you might be thinking as you lie awake at night, I’m never going to fall asleep. I’m going to be so tired tomorrow and I’m not going to be able to pull off the new proposal with my boss. Ultimately, your perspective affects your experience. The thoughts about how little sleep you’ll get and the consequences of that can heighten your anxiety and deter sleep further.
In a therapy setting that is removed from the typical daily triggers, you can take a step back to witness some of these thoughts and reactions with compassion. Proactively, you can alter some of these cognitive and behavioral patterns to lead in more positive directions. In the moments of sleeplessness, you might do some of the relaxation techniques and breathing exercises you’ve practiced with your therapist—alternative behaviors to repeatedly looking at the clock or rehearsing your pitch for the next day’s meeting.
In a therapy session, a clinician might guide you through visualization exercises, role-playing, and journaling in order to adapt your perception in a more constructive direction. The view of a negative thought can shift so the perspective becomes a more neutral one, or even a more positive one—sort of like adjusting to seeing the glass as half full rather than as half empty.
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877-727-4343How Can You Begin to Integrate CBT in Your Life?
Beyond just treating the thought patterns, cognitive behavioral therapy can also offer constructive practices to actively relax you. These techniques can come in handy at any point during the day when you’re facing a distressing situation or an anxious mind. And they can also be particularly helpful when falling and staying asleep is a challenge. Hence, CBT for sleep anxiety is preparing you to proactively manage your mindstate and your behaviors that both have a large impact on the way you experience life.
But how does this process start, and how can you take the healing from hypothetical to actual? One of the best settings to begin and to solidify this new comprehensive approach is a residential treatment center for anxiety. A major advantage here is that you’re immersed in the healing environment and removed from many of the anxiety triggers that you would encounter in your everyday life. Also incredibly beneficial is the diverse range of expert support from clinicians and therapists, as well as guided peer and family support.
In a structured recovery program, you’ll be encouraged to set your own goals and discover your own motivation for reshaping your experience of life in a more progressive direction. You’ll have professional guidance to help you develop healthy sleep habits. Holistic therapies, such as yoga, massage, meditation, art therapy, and music therapy, will help you to actively and proactively calm your anxiety and further relax your body, mind, and spirit. The well-rounded support for your anxiety and insomnia symptoms, as well as the tools you’ll gather and practice for approaching life experiences with more positivity and momentum, will transform your life of fear into one of possibility.
Bridges to Recovery offers comprehensive treatment for people struggling with mental health disorders as well as process addictions. Contact us to learn more about our renowned Los Angeles programs and how we can help you or your loved one start on the path to healing.
