How Do You Treat Severe Insomnia?

Insomnia can be either a condition or a possible symptom of an underlying condition. You may have insomnia if you’re unable to sleep well or sometimes even at all. There may be other signs like having difficulty falling asleep, waking up often at night, struggling to get back to sleep, waking up too soon in the morning, and/or feeling really tired after waking up. These issues and insomnia often require professional attention.

If you’re having any of the aforementioned issues and you see a professional about them, he or she might perform a physical exam or a blood test to help determine the cause. A sleep study can help greatly, so the professional may recommend this and refer you for one. After a professional understands more about the issues you’re having and your insomnia, he or she can provide treatment.

For a minor case of insomnia, it can help to change sleep habits or address issues that can affect sleep, like stress. For a more serious case of insomnia, treatments like behavioral therapy, medications, and other professional treatments are better.

Actually, there’s a form of behavioral therapy specifically for insomnia. It’s called cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I). With it, a patient can learn to control or even eliminate negative thoughts and actions that can keep the patient awake. Also, the therapy can teach the patient various relaxation techniques to help with sleep. The therapy may be significantly more effective, especially in the long term, than many sleep medications. However, sometimes prescription sleeping pills will work best for a patient.

In some patient cases when insomnia is a symptom of another condition like sleep apnea, a different approach to treatment is necessary. One potentially very effective approach is appliance therapy. This can be done with a CPAP machine, but many patients struggle with it because it’s uncomfortable and inconvenient for them. An alternative method is oral appliance therapy.

When insomnia is a symptom of an underlying condition like sleep apnea, oral appliance therapy can actually address the condition and thus relieve the symptom. This method of treatment uses a simple, custom-made, comfortable oral appliance to treat many of the possible causes of insomnia like sleep apnea or a jaw joint (TMJ) disorder. Oral appliance therapy is approved by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, so we’re proud to be able to provide it to you here at Koala® Center For Sleep & TMJ Disorders!

We’d be very happy to tell you more about oral appliance therapy, and we’d be just as happy to determine what’s behind your insomnia. We can network with other professionals, like neurologists, if we need to in order to make a determination. To get started, contact our clinic today. If you leave your sleep issues or insomnia untreated, it could lead to serious health complications like heart conditions.

Koala® Center For Sleep & TMJ Disorders has locations in Bloomington IL, Peoria/Dunlap IL, Mishawaka IN, Kansas City MO, El Paso TX. To book a consultation with us at one of our locations, please visit our Appointments page or call our head office. We’d be happy to speak with you about anything related to your sleep.