Help to sleep better without medication

Sleep loss is linked to mental health issues and has a number of negative short and long term effects including lack of concentration, weight gain, low mood as well as increased likelihood of hypertension and obesity.

The service offers a programme of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for insomnia delivered face to face or by Skype and involves learning techniques to help you fall asleep faster, achieve a better quality of sleep or simply manage your racing mind.

With more than 85 percent of people seeing an improvement in their sleep in just four weeks this has become the NHS recommended treatment for poor sleepers.

The service is well established in Nottingham, Bath and Bristol with new clinics opening in Ilkley, Harrogate, York, Wetherby and Leeds and is the only sleep service to offer face to face sessions across the UK.

Kathryn Pinkham, founder of The Insomnia Clinic, NHS consultant and Insomnia Expert for Dreams beds, said: “Our mission at the Insomnia Clinic is simple, we want to give everyone in the UK access to a treatment for poor sleep that really works. Too many are taking sleeping tablets unnecessarily and have suffered with poor sleep for too long when it is a treatable condition with this programme’.

“CBT is now recommended as the first line treatment for insomnia. Our fully trained, accredited specialists teach CBT techniques that help people understand how we sleep and the behaviours and thoughts which perpetuate a sleep problem. Our approach involves practical, step-by-step methods which are proven to improve the sleep of 85 percent of participants within just three sessions.”

The programme of treatment offers practical, step by step methods which are proven to increase the drive to fall asleep and to achieve a better quality of sleep. It also involves teaching cognitive techniques to manage anxiety around sleep. Also creating your own personalised sleep schedule which will promote sounder sleep and teach how to address environmental factors which may be affecting sleep, involving practical, step by step methods.

The techniques train people to create an effective sleep routine which will lead to a stronger connection between bed and sleeping, essentially, ‘re-learning’ how to sleep well.

For more on the programme and how you can get help call 0844 502 0485 or visit the www.theinsomniaclinic.co.uk website to find your nearest therapist and book online.

How to tackle insomnia

1 Keep to a strict wake time – if you are struggling to sleep it can be tempting to lie in bed and try to catch up on lost sleep. 
2 The fifteen minute rule. If you’re lying in bed awake, give yourself fifteen minutes. If, after this time you are still awake, get out of bed and watch TV or read a book until you start to feel sleepy then return to bed.

3 Avoid screen and electronic devices. Keep them switched off as you sleep as it can be distracting.