Insomnia: better sleep has a treatment.

Much more than “sleeping badly one night”

Insomnia is persistent difficultyfall asleep, maintain it or achieve restorative sleep, despite having the opportunity to sleep. What defines the problem is not only the night, but its impact during the day: fatigue, irritability, lack of concentration, poor performance and discomfort.

We talk aboutacute insomniawhen it lasts a few days or weeks—normally linked to a specific factor (stress, a change, an illness)—andchronic insomniawhen it persists over time and self-perpetuates: the worry about not sleeping and certain habits end up feeding the insomnia itself.

It is the most common sleep disorder — and one of the most undertreated. Long-term sleeping pills are rarely the solution. With the right approach, most people regain quality sleep.

How insomnia becomes chronic

Regardless of the cause, insomnia can bechronic(if it lasts longer than six months, it can last for years) ortransient(if it lasts less than a month). Chronic insomnia does not develop overnight: it is practically always preceded by asituational insomniaas a result of stressful life events, but which fails to improve even when the stressors have been eliminated.

The assessment we make of the initial difficulty sleeping is decisive. The person who sleeps poorly for several nights but follows his routine without worry is unlikely to develop persistent insomnia. On the contrary, those who begin to worry excessively about not being able to sleep and its daytime consequences often enter avicious circle: Anxiety about trying to sleep reduces the possibility of falling asleep, increases apprehension and fuels more sleep disturbances. After a bad night, the person with chronic insomnia not only worries about last night, but is already thinking about the next one; insomnia becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Break the circle and take back control

To break this cycle, it is important to change the factors that perpetuate insomnia: the inappropriate habits that arose as an attempt to alleviate its effects, the erroneous thoughts that increase worry, and the high emotional activation associated with all of this. The patient must take an active role with our guidelines, developed and validated in clinics around the world; Although it is not a miracle cure, they help develop self-control skills to regain sleep and manage occasional difficulties in the future.

Behavioral guidelines

• We regulate the time of going to bed and getting up, consolidating sleep within a shorter period in bed. We limit time in bed to the number of hours we actually sleep, we keep the time we get up regular, and we eliminate naps during the day.
• We reduce activities that interfere with sleep: the bed and the bedroom are associated only with sleeping. Go to bed only when you are sleepy;if you cannot fall asleep after 10-15 minutes, get up, relax out of bed and only come back when you are asleep. Repeat the operation as many times as necessary.
• We influence lifestyle: diet, exercise, regular schedules, limit tobacco and alcohol.

Cognitive and emotional component

We will assess attitudes and beliefs about sleep and insomnia. The way you think about the problem can lighten it or aggravate it; Excessive concern about the consequences of poor sleep fuels the disorder. We will try to help you achieve voluntary control of your physiological activation by learning to relax your body and mind, especially at bedtime.

In general, treatment time is limited to minimize side effects, and at the Sleep Research Institute we try not to prescribe hypnotics except in exceptional cases.

The therapy that does solve insomnia

The first choice treatment for chronic insomnia isterapia cognitivo-conductual del insomnia (TCC-I), endorsed by the main international guides. Unlike sleeping pills, it does not cover the symptom: it corrects the mechanisms that maintain the problem and its effects are sustained over time.

What's included

We work onstimulus control and thebed time restriction to re-associate the bed with sleeping, techniques ofrelaxation and arousal management, restructuring the thoughts that fuel insomnia and asleep hygienerealistic. When there is a medical cause—apnea, pain, thyroid, mood—we address it in parallel.

And sleeping pills?

They can help in a timely and well-indicated way, but they are not the solution to chronic insomnia and their prolonged use generates dependence and loses effectiveness. Our goal is for you to sleep wellwithout depending on the pill.