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According to a new study by Ryerson University experts published inthe December issue of Behavior Therapy , taking a sleeping pill or drinking alcohol may not be the mosteffective way to get a better night sleep in the long run forpeople suffering from insomnia . Heather Hood, a PhD student in clinical psychology and leadresearcher of the study comments: "Poor sleepers who engage in what we call 'safety behaviors', suchas taking sleep medication or drinking alcohol, are actuallydisrupting their sleep in the long term. These safety behaviors aredriven by unhelpful beliefs about sleep, but people suffering frominsomnia or poor sleep feel they need to do these things to helpthem fall asleep." Hood, an insomnia therapy specialist, who already researched thelink between anxiety disorders and safety behavior in an earlier study, wanted toestablish whether there was also a link to insomnia, given that 10to 15% of Canadians suffer from clinical levels of insomnia. Hood, Dr. Colleen Carney, her academic supervisor and director ofRyerson's Sleep and Depression Laboratory, and other grad.Psychology student Andrea Harris conducted an online survey inwhich they questioned 397 undergraduate students about their safetybehaviors, i.e. their routines to avoid being awake at night, howoften they completed these tasks and how much they thought theyrequired to do these tasks in order to sleep. They were alsoquestioned as to what their definition of insufficient sleep was,and to what extent they went to in order to avoid feeling tired. The findings revealed that 40% of students were poor sleepers whowere likely to use safety behaviors that were not helping. Hood commented: "These students not only relied on these safety behaviors to helpthem, but truly believed that these routines were helping themsleep better at night. But, their strong beliefs in these behaviorswere actually leading to more sleeping problems for them. A poor sleeper or someone with insomnia may have many reasons forneeding to do these things to help them sleep, but our study isquestioning their beliefs if they are really helpful." The research team also observed that poor sleepers felt dependenton certain tasks to help them sleep. Students that experienced noproblems in falling asleep often didn't think of anything, theysimply fell asleep. Carney, who is also a sleep order therapist and who won an awardfrom the Ontario government's Early Researchers Award program forpromising university researchers in 2009, said: "People who are poor sleepers exert a ton of energy trying to forcesleep. Sleep is something that has to unfold naturally, so the moreyou engage in behaviors to try to sleep, the less likely you'regoing to fall asleep." She suggests cognitive behavior therapy as a more effective,long-term solution for sleep sufferers, saying: "In cognitive behavior therapy, which is what we are studying atRyerson, we are teaching patients to give up that fight, and workwith their physiology to help them learn how to fall asleepnaturally. Cognitive behavior therapy is the front-line recommendedtherapy for chronic insomnia. It teaches you to adopt the habits ofa good sleeper by changing your sleep habits and having a morerelaxed attitude towards getting a good night's rest." Written by Petra Rattue Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today Additional References Citations. I am an expert from continuous-castingmachine.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Steel Billet Casting Manufacturer , China Continuous Casting Machine for Steel, Billet Continuous Casting Machine,and more.
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