Is It "Hard" to Overcome Insomnia?
If you have insomnia, the gold-standard treatment is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I). Sometimes people ask if CBT-I is “hard”?
I talk about the best way to answer this question, the challenges of CBT-I, and why it’s extremely well worth it to do CBT-I if you have insomnia and want to get rid of it FOR GOOD.
I cover:
Why “Hard” is a relative term
Is it easier to have insomnia?
What are the alternatives to CBT-I?
What makes CBT-I challenging
What makes CBT-I well worth it
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I help people overcome insomnia and get good sleep (without medication, drugs or supplements).
To Your Sleeping Better!
-Steve
00:00 Introduction to CBTI
00:13 Is CBTI Hard?
01:27 Understanding Insomnia and Alternatives
02:12 Challenges of CBTI
09:14 Why CBTI is Worth It
16:46 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
RESOURCES
CBT-I: The Gold Standard Treatment for Insomnia
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Is CBTI hard? CBTI is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia. It's a treatment specifically designed for insomnia. And it's the gold standard first line treatment for overcoming insomnia.
Is CBTI Hard?
And recently someone posted a question under one of my videos asking, Is CBTI hard? recently did a video where I describe CBTI in more detail. So if you want to check that out, you can look into that. I'll leave a link to that in the video.
But what I want to answer today is that question. Is it hard to go through CBTI, this treatment, this process that will get rid of the insomnia?
And when someone says, is something hard? Hard is really a relative term because it really depends on the context and the alternatives that are available.
So I'm just going to start with asking a question. If you have insomnia right now, especially if you've had it for a long period of time, several months, years, or even decades. And if you knew there was a treatment that is the gold standard that's been proven to be highly effective for [00:01:00] getting rid of insomnia indefinitely, that it had no side effects and that you did not have to take a medication, and it even taught you how to come off medication if you're taking it.
Would you go through that process? Would you be curious about that process if you could get rid of the insomnia?
And would you care how hard or how easy it was to go through?
So I wanted to start with that question because it's a key question when someone says, Oh, it's hard or it's easier said than done.
Understanding Insomnia and Alternatives
The next question I have when I hear that is, is it easier to have insomnia?
Insomnia is a very painful, uncomfortable thing to experience. I experienced it myself 10 years ago, so I know from personal experience, it's kind of like a living hell when you're going through insomnia and you're not sleeping. And I've seen people that have had insomnia for decades, years, months, all different levels, and they are suffering in their life because it's impacting every aspect of their life.
So one question to think about here before I even answer the question about [00:02:00] CBTI is, is it easier to just continue living with insomnia for indefinitely or for years? Or would it be easier to find a way to get over it even if that was challenging?
Challenges of CBTI
So what I'm going to talk about today is what makes CBTI challenging, because it can be a challenging process. And I want to kind of go over and highlight those things of what could make it challenging.
And then I want to talk about what makes CBTI well worth it, even with those challenges.
The other thing that you need to decide when you are making a decision about whether to do something, let's say, that's hard or seems hard to you versus not doing it is, what are the alternatives to that option?
And with insomnia, there really is no viable option for getting rid of the insomnia your goal is to really address the underlying root cause of it and be able to get past insomnia and not have it come back.
So the typical alternatives are things like medication and that could be prescribed medication. That [00:03:00] could be over the counter remedies like NyQuil or Advil or, you know, Tylenol PM, things like that. Drugs like CBD or THC. Sleep hygiene is another commonly recommended thing. Supplements or herbal remedies like magnesium or melatonin. And then things like meditation and relaxation.
So these are the typical things that people are told to do or recommended when they have insomnia. And the problem is none of these really work.
Medication for the short term can certainly sedate you. It can knock you out and it can put you into a, some kind of sleep state, but it generally interferes with your sleep cycles. The medication gets in the way of the, of the quality sleep. So you don't end up generally feeling good. that well rested and it doesn't address the underlying causes.
Now I've gone into these details in other videos so I'm not going to go into all these different remedies and why ultimately they don't work or they don't work at all.
But those are the things you have to look at when answering this question about whether should I [00:04:00] do CBTI or not is what are the alternatives that I have and how badly do I want to solve this problem.
So what makes CBT I challenging? Let's talk about that. So first of all, CBT I or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia is a behavioral treatment. That means you have to take action. You have to learn skills and then apply those skills. So this is different than if you have a medical issue and you go to your doctor, they might just prescribe a medication takes care of it.
Like if you have a lot of pain, they can just prescribe a painkiller, you take it, the pain goes away. You really don't have to do anything other than go to the doctor, get the prescription and then take the medication. Or the doctor might recommend surgery and surgery is completely passive. You just go in, they knock you out, they do the surgery and you're done.
And then, yeah, you have to go through recovery and things like that, but you don't really have to do much to get the result.
With a behavioral treatment like CBTI, you have to take action. You have to apply the [00:05:00] skills because it's your body, it's your mind, it's your sleep system that needs to be changed and to implement it, you have to make changes to your sleep.
So this would be similar to like, if you want to lose weight, you have to do things. You have to take action. You have to exercise. You have to change your diet and learn how to eat in a different way. And you have to do that. You know for a long period of time and consistently to get the result.
Now, with CBTI, it's a behavioral treatment. So you learn some really key skills that you apply to your sleep. There's a few different core skills that you apply, where you're actually changing your behaviors around your sleep, because those are the things that actually cause the insomnia, what are called poor sleep behaviors.
And we need to undo those and reverse them by implementing behavioral treatments. positive sleep behaviors that will actually fix the underlying problem.
So that takes effort, that takes action for people to do that as opposed to something more passive like taking a medication or a supplement [00:06:00] or THC or something like that, which is a lot easier in the sense that it takes much less effort to do those things.
Another thing that can be challenging with CBTI is your sleep generally will get a little bit worse before it gets better. This usually happens within the first few weeks of the process and the reason for that is you're making some changes to it. Right. You've been going to having the insomnia and being in a certain pattern or even an erratic pattern.
And now we're creating a structure around your sleep and you're changing your behaviors. And whenever you do that in your body, your body has to adjust to that. It takes time for it to adjust to those changes.
And when that happens, the sleep can get worse because your body is trying to find its way. on the new onto the new path.
But that is a temporary part of the process. And then once you get past that, things start to get better. Things start to get easier.
Third, you have to stick with CBT I long enough to get completely past it. [00:07:00] So people usually see improvements with CBT I within the first few weeks. It depends on the person, but usually within the first few weeks, as you're implementing the skills, you're going to start to see some improvements, some changes in the sleep.
It's not a linear process. And for most people, it takes several weeks. How much time it really varies people and the nature of the insomnia and other things that might be going on in your life. So there's a lot of different factors that can affect the amount of time.
But generally what I've seen is somewhere between to get completely past insomnia, somewhere between eight weeks and a few months. Some people it takes longer. Usually people who are a little bit older, like in their 60s, 70s or older, it'll take them longer because they generally have other issues going on, other medical issues or things going on.
So it really depends on the person, but generally it's going to take, around that period of time.
And you have to kind of continue to apply the skills and the principles that you learn with the CBTI consistently over that period [00:08:00] and keep adjusting things each week, which is part of that process to get completely past the insomnia.
But during that whole period of time, you're making progress. It's not like you have insomnia and then one day you wake up and it's gone. It's a continual process of improvement, where the insomnia is going away more and more, your sleep is getting better, your sleep's getting more consistent, and that's very encouraging, and it creates like a positive feedback loop, which helps get you through that time.
And the last thing I'll say here is, yeah, it can take, as I said, 10 weeks, 12 weeks or so to get past insomnia and get onto like a normal pattern of sleep. But if you compare that to how long many people have dealt with insomnia, it's like a very small amount of time. So it's very relative.
If you've been dealing with insomnia for six months or several years, or I've seen people that have dealt with insomnia for 30 years or more, A few months or even six months compared to that is relatively a short period of [00:09:00] time to be able to get completely past it and not have to deal with it anymore.
So those are really the main challenges with CVTI. You really have to have a commitment and a desire to overcome the problem and be able to go through that process and stick with it.
Why CBTI is Well Worth It
Now, what makes CBT well worth it, in my mind and in my experience?
Well, first of all, I come from personal experience. As I've shared on this channel before, I had insomnia 10 years ago. This is how it became a specialty of mine. So I've been through this and I use this exact treatment CBT I, the process that I teach in my program to overcome insomnia.
And for me it was well worth it because I haven't had insomnia come back in 10 years and I it was really hard to go through it.
You know, I was suffering I was averaging maybe four and a half five hours of sleep a night over several months, and that was very difficult to deal with. It was very frustrating. And for me, I got to a point where I'm just, I'm over this. You know, I want to get my sleep back. I'm tired of dealing with this.
And I found this treatment and I [00:10:00] put myself through the treatment and I was able to get past the insomnia. And it hasn't come back since.
So for me, it's been well worth it because I've been able to continually improve my sleep, even, even since then, over time, it gets better and better and better because you really learn how to manage your sleep well. So for me, it was totally worth it. But let me give you some specific things about why CBTI is well worth it.
Number one, you can actually get rid of your insomnia forever. It truly works because it addresses the core underlying root things that cause the insomnia instead of just masking it with medication or sedating you or things like that.
It actually gets to the underlying problem and solves it so you can actually get rid of the insomnia and be able to restore a normal healthy sleep pattern and maintain that indefinitely.
Second thing is you don't have to take medication or drugs to be able to sleep. Most people don't want to take medication for sleep. Really, probably nobody does. The reason they do it is because they don't see any alternatives or [00:11:00] a better alternative. And they go to their doctor and doctors almost invariably will prescribe a medication for sleep because they don't know a lot about sleep. They're not trained in sleep in medical school or they get very little training. So they're just going to prescribe a medication. So a lot of people will go on medication because they feel it's their only option.
With CBT I you don't have to do it and if you are taking medication or if you are using a drug like THC or CBD or something like that, part of CBT I in the second week of the process you learn, if you want to, you can taper off your medications safely and be able to come off it while you're also learning these skills.
CBT I is worth it is it's the really the only effective treatment out there to get rid of insomnia for the long term to address the underlying core issues. So it's really worth it if you want to solve the problem basically because it's the one that's been most proven to be the most effective with insomnia.
CBTI also gets [00:12:00] easier over time, as I was saying before, because at first your body is going through changes, you're learning these skills, and so, you know, it's a little more challenging at the beginning. And as I said, your sleep can get a little bit worse at the beginning as well.
But once you get kind of over that hump, And you get on a good track and you kind of get the skills and you're implementing them and you're doing that consistently, it starts getting easier, especially as you start to see your sleep improve and you see this because you keep a sleep log. So you actually see in the data how your sleep is improving each week and that way it really encourages you. It creates a positive feedback loop in your mind. And an expectation that I'm going to be able to overcome this. I haven't lost my ability to sleep and your thoughts naturally start getting more positive. And that makes it easier to be able to do the process over time.
The next thing is it gives you back what I call sleep confidence. When you have insomnia, you generally lose your confidence in your ability to sleep.
You start doubting [00:13:00] your ability to sleep. You think maybe I've lost my ability. There's something wrong with me. There's something wrong in my sleep system and you lose your confidence in your ability or your body's ability to sleep because you're not sleeping and you're trying all these different things that people are telling you to do and it's not working and you're getting more discouraged. And it really undermines the confidence you have in your sleep.
And so what CBTI does is it builds that back because that is really key to overcoming insomnia is Believing and knowing that you have never lost the ability to sleep That you have the ability to sleep that and that you can actually have some control over that in the long term.
The next reason is CBTI is natural and has no side effects because you're not taking any medication or any kind of substance. You're simply just changing your behaviors and your thoughts about sleep that it's a natural cure, a natural remedy for the sleep because you're just going in and you're reversing the things that created the problem in the first place which are [00:14:00] behavioral and in your thinking.
CBTI is also effective long term, meaning that it's not just a short term solution or quick fix to your problem. It actually will remove the insomnia and then you learn how to maintain your sleep for life by just continuing to apply the basic principles that you learned.
The reason for that is it addresses the underlying actual thing that's causing the problem.
And this has been studied CBTI in outcome studies where they've studied people post treatment up to 10 years after they did CBT I and they still had not relapsed into insomnia. Because the last part of the treatment or the process is you learn relapse prevention. Which is you learn how to prevent insomnia from coming back.
Another benefit is that you feel way better when you're sleeping and you're sleeping naturally. Probably occasionally, if you've had insomnia for a really long time, occasionally you'll have a good night of sleep or a better night of sleep. And you wake up and it's incredible [00:15:00] how different you feel when you get a good night of sleep or even a decent night of sleep, when you're dealing with insomnia, I mean, it's like night and day, how you feel during the day. Your mood is better, you have more energy. You just feel like a different person.
So imagine you have that feeling every day of your life or almost every day. I mean, people kind of forget about how it feels to actually sleep well, to get good quality sleep when they've had insomnia for a while, because it's been so long since you actually felt what that felt like.
So that's another major benefit of going through that is you can get back to just feeling way better in your life emotionally, in your energy, how you feel within yourself, in your relationships, in your work.
It just transforms how you feel as a person completely when you're sleeping well.
lastly is you are going to significantly improve your health, you're functioning and your overall well being. Our sleep is fundamental to our health. I mean, this is why we sleep a third of our life, or 8 hours a day, [00:16:00] is because all kinds of reparative processes are happening as we're sleeping in our brain, in our body, in all our body systems, that if you're getting really good quality sleep, then that is going to be really good for your health for the short and the long term. It's going to, you know, be preventative in terms of getting sick, in terms of diseases and all these kinds of things. And it just improves your overall quality of life because you just feel better.
It also improves your functioning, right? Because when you're not sleeping very well, it's hard to focus. It's hard to think because you're just, you're, you're fatigued and you're tired. So it's harder to do your job. It's harder to be a parent. So it'll improve all that as well for the short term and for the long term and overall just help you feel better and function and be healthier in your life.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Yes, CBTI can be challenging for the reasons that I went over, but you always want to weigh an option. Like if you have insomnia and you're struggling with that and I know it's difficult to deal with insomnia, otherwise you wouldn't be here. And you're thinking [00:17:00] about, well, what should I do? Well, I just recommend doing CBT I because of all the reasons that I've said in this video and you can watch other videos where I talk about CBT I in more depth and why it's the gold standard treatment.
If you want to overcome the insomnia and be able to do it naturally and not have to take medication or drugs or do all kinds of different things to try to get sleep every night and you want to be able to maintain that sleep for the rest of your life, then you really want to think about doing CBTI because it's the only option that will give you those outcomes.
All right, so if you found the video helpful, please just click the thumbs up button. And also you can subscribe to the channel so you can be notified. I do two of these videos every week. And if you have questions that you want me to answer, questions about this video or questions in general that you want me to answer, just post them in the comments below and I will answer those questions in future videos. Hope you have a good rest of your day and I'll see you next time.