Your insomnia may have been triggered by stress or sometimes by a specific trauma. This can lead to difficulties getting off to sleep as your mind keeps racing. It may be worrying about 101 things or it could be that the traumatic memory keeps coming up. This can take hours to calm down if at all. Sometimes this can lead to a more specific worry of not being able to get to sleep. The harder you try to sleep the less you do! Other problems that occur are waking through the night, usually in an anxious state. All these symptoms are fixable through the use of CBT techniques.

Insomnia can have a major effect on how we feel and on our ability to function. The amount of sleep we need varies from person to person. In general, adults sleep for anything between five and 10 hours a night. We tend to sleep less as we get older, so how much sleep we need will also depend on our age. The best way to answer this question is to say we need enough sleep to wake up feeling refreshed and able to function efficiently the next day.

It’s quite normal to experience the occasional poor night’s sleep, perhaps through worry or illness. However, if you have insomnia, these symptoms are persistent, and it's unlikely they will go away on their own. The best way to deal with chronic insomnia is through effective treatments combined with changes in your lifestyle.

Karen - Shop Owner

"I couldn't get to sleep. I would lay awake for hours. My mind wouldn't stop thinking about things. I was either worrying about things I had to do or just that I wont sleep and then I wont be able to function the next day. "

"Now my sleep is back to normal. I feel so much better."

Thanks

Karen

Karen's insomnia was originally triggered by stress at work but then the insomnia became the problem. Her CBT program helped her to understand what was keeping her awake and how to overcome it. She learnt how to calm her worries and get off to sleep. She also learnt about the rules of sleep, the good habits that lead to a good nights sleep.