Sleep Therapy

Do You Feel Stressed, Exhausted, And Desperate For A Good Night’s Sleep?

Are you struggling to get quality sleep? Perhaps your schedule is hectic, and between career and family obligations, you rarely get to lie down for more than five hours a night. Or, you might do your best to go to bed at a reasonable hour, only to find yourself tossing and turning, unable to fall or stay asleep. No matter how hard you try to relax, the thoughts racing through your mind will not let you rest. Do you constantly wake up tired, without the energy or mental clarity you need to get through your day? Are you searching for effective strategies for overcoming insomnia so you can finally enjoy deep, uninterrupted sleep?

Whether you have been battling insomnia for weeks, years, or most of your life, if you are not getting the sleep you need, you likely feel drained, anxious, and depressed. Perhaps you can’t focus or think clearly, leading to inefficient use of your time or mistakes and missteps throughout the day. As time goes on, you might worry that you will drop the ball at work, get into a car accident, or otherwise put your future in harm’s way.

Still, even though you feel foggy and forgetful, you might find it difficult to prioritize rest when you have so many other priorities. Or, perhaps you have tried everything you can think of to get a better night’s sleep—from meditation to sleep hygiene to sleeping pills—but nothing works. By now, you know that something has to change.

Many People Are Not Getting Enough Sleep

Insomnia—or the inability to fall and stay asleep—can affect anyone, regardless of temperament, personality, life stage, career, background, or anything else. No matter who you are, if you need help sleeping, you are not alone.

Sleep is a basic human necessity. Just as we need water and food, all humans need quality sleep for optimal performance. In other words, a lack of sleep is a real problem—one that is all too common in our high-paced modern world.

Quality sleep requires a perfect mixture of dreaming and not-dreaming. When that formula is off, your brain is unable to achieve restoration and rejuvenation. And, many factors can throw the formula off—especially worry, stress, and anxiety.  

Thankfully, there are natural ways to sleep better and longer, without relying on sleep medications. With the help of a psychologist who specializes in insomnia remedies, you can find the deep, renewing slumber you need.

Sleep Therapy Can Help You Release Anxiety And Welcome Rest

When sleep comes easily, it feels simple. In reality, sleep is complex. As experienced psychologists with training in healthy sleep, we are committed to providing the education and tools needed to get good, essential rest.

We use an approach called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-i). This modality helps you shift both the thoughts and behaviors currently preventing you from completing the sleep cycles necessary for daily energy and functioning.

During your first few insomnia treatment sessions, we will focus on the behavioral element. We will conduct a thorough assessment to explore your sleep habits and patterns throughout your lifetime. Together, we can identify if and how your relationship with sleep has changed, and then gain insights into what caused those changes. For example, perhaps you started experiencing insomnia after moving into a new house, near a busy, bright highway. We will also ask you about stimulant intake—from caffeine to chocolate to medication—that may be making it difficult for your brain to wind down.

Once we clarify what’s not working, we can guide you toward healthy sleep hygiene—or, an individualized set of habits and practices that help you fall and stay asleep. For example, if sound and light are keeping you awake, we can explore ways to transform your bedroom into a quiet, dark, peaceful space that welcomes sleep.  

To ensure we find changes that really work, we will teach you how to record, observe, and monitor your own sleep in the here and now. With this data, you can begin to understand how certain behaviors and/or environmental factors influence your ability to fall and stay asleep.

CBT-i can also help you address the emotional component of insomnia. Even if you do not feel stressed and anxious during the day, insomnia is often a signal that you are currently enduring something in your life, mind, and heart.

For example, relationship and financial troubles that you know are there but are not quite ready to deal with may pop into your head once the hum drum of the day is over. Nestled in bed, you no longer can “run away” from the uncomfortable emotional stuff you might push aside all day. Even if you are able to initially fall asleep because you are too exhausted from the day or you had an alcoholic beverage to relax, you might jolt awake in the middle of the night, heart racing, deeply concerned about the future of your career or the tension in a relationship.

Whatever the specific case may be, therapy can help you gain fluent control over your mind, equipping you with techniques to soothe distress when it arises. And, as you gain a new sense of self-awareness and empowerment, you can begin making positive changes to resolve stress and anxiety at their source.

Throughout the entire sleep therapy process, we will be by your side, helping you combat insomnia with real, actionable changes. If you are willing to do this essential self-exploration work, you can absolutely find your route to healthier sleep. You can experience profound relief in both your mind and body, translating to renewed energy and productivity. You can discover a way back into your life.

You may have questions or concerns about insomnia treatment…

Can’t I just take sleep medication?

It is true that medication can work—and work quickly. Unfortunately, it only addresses insomnia on the surface, without resolving the root of the problem. As a result, many people who take sleep medication find that the positive effects are short-lived. They have to continue increasing their dose or experimenting with new substance cocktails to approximate the immediate relief they found the first time.

Therapy does require a greater investment of time and effort, but it also resolves sleep issues at the core. With our help, you can stop chasing sleep and start cultivating peace and calm in your body and mind.

My problem is sleep, not anxiety. I doubt CBT for insomnia can really help.

We are extensively trained in the scientific aspects of sleep, and we know that thoughts, emotions, and behavioral habits have an enormous impact on the brain’s ability to rest. CBT is an effective method of treatment for insomnia because it addresses all of these factors.

That said, we will not try to convince you of feelings you don’t believe you have. Therapy is a safe space for you to investigate what comes up for you when you close your eyes at night. At a pace that feels comfortable for you, we can talk about anything that may be on your mind including your family, home life, career, etc.

You may find yourself making connections between the restlessness you feel at night and some restlessness underlying your day-to-day. Making these important connections is a powerful step toward resolving the underlying problems and finding lasting relief.

I’ve already tried so many different things. How do I know sleep therapy will work?

We understand how frustrating it is to feel that none of your past efforts at solving this problem have been effective. In fact, this very feeling of helplessness is likely what maintains your sleep problems. We urge you to approach your sleep treatment with a new conviction and a deep sense of self-compassion.

We have specialized training and extensive experience in sleep treatment, and we are committed to helping you find real solutions. Insomnia does not just go away on its own, so we strongly advise you to not give up. You deserve full access to all of your mental and physical faculties. You deserve to feel present, engaged, and awake during the day so you can tackle those things that only you can do.

Get The Shut-Eye You Deserve

Sleep is essential, and it is possible to wake up feeling energized. Please click Contactso we can find out if we can be of assistance to you. You can ask any questions you may have about sleep therapy and our practice in Beverly Hills, CA.