Insomnia can present itself in many ways as an interruption to sleep and can manifest itself in one or a combination of the following: It takes you longer than 20 minutes to fall asleep at night, you wake up several times during the night and cannot get back to sleep and/or, you wake up one or two hours before you planned to get up resulting in a loss of sleep. You may spend ten hours in bed to get just five hours of sleep.

Insomnia can also be present when your sleep is light, meaning you hear everything that goes on at night so that you feel as though you haven’t truly slept wake up tired.

The definition of insomnia is the presence of anxiety and negative thoughts that prevent sleep on a nightly basis. Instead of sleep being a welcome relief from the day, your bed becomes the enemy; a nightly battle to fight. Attempts to sleep only meet with more frustration and nightly fears of being unable to sleep. Sleep deprivation leads to insulin resistance, weight gain, gastrointestinal problems, a lowered immune system, attention and short term memory problems as well as significant increased emotionality. Continued emotional reactivity leads to poor decision making and increased feelings of anger and depression. Anger and depression lead to increased symptoms of insomnia as the cycle becomes locked even tighter. The more one focuses on sleeping the less one sleeps and the more frustrated you become. Twenty seven percent of the time insomnia accompanies another sleep disorder. The aged population is particularly at risk for insomnia and it is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s Disease. It is well known that children as well as adolescents and adults often struggle with insomnia.

At United Psychological Services we can:

• Teach you about sleep; the different types, its benefits and ways to achieve it.
• Successfully treat insomnia with a six to eight session individualized behavioral treatment intervention based upon principles of sleep.
• Rule out other sleep disorders that may contribute to insomnia symptoms.
• Provide a complete psychological assessment to assess the ways insomnia may affect your emotional health.
• Help you to see your bed as a welcome relief from the day.

For more about insomnia, watch this video by Dr. Barbara Fisher, our Clinical Director.

See our video page for more informative videos.